Archive for October, 2022
Nurses Go on Three-day Strike at Abbott Northwestern and Childrens Hospital
The picket line turned the corner at 26th Street and 10th Avenue and proceeded all the way to Chicago Avenue. Photo: Peter Molenaar By LINDSEY FENNER Over 15,000 nurses represented by the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) went on a three-day unfair labor practices strike from September 12 to 14 at sixteen hospitals around the Twin Cities and Northern Minnesota, including two in the Phillips neighborhood. The union believes this was the largest strike of private-sector nurses in U.S. history. Nurses cited safety and short staffing as their main concerns. Picket lines at Abbott Northwestern and Children’s Hospital were a sea of support for striking nurses, with a solidarity rally organized by SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa at Abbott Northwestern on Wednesday, September 14. Abbott Mental Health and Central Lab workers represented by SEIU have also been in contract negotiations with many of the same workplace concerns as nurses. The nurses’ union and hospitals have [...]
October Random alley News ’22
By Lindsey Fenner Tawfiq Islamic Center Vandalized: The mosque at 2400 Minnehaha Avenue in the Seward neighborhood was vandalized and burglarized on Sunday, September 4, with an estimated more than $50,000 in damages and stolen donations. Later that week, a mosque in St. Cloud was also vandalized, the fifth incident at a mosque in Minnesota this year. A solidarity event for the Tawfiq Islamic Center was held on September 10 and a GoFundMe has been created to support the mosque: https://gofund.me/6147cc9f. The Minnesota Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) is calling on the FBI to investigate, with concerns that the incidents are potentially hate crimes. The Tawfiq Islamic Center opened in 2014 and primarily serves the Oromo Muslim community. Housing Project Get More City Funding, Visit from HUD Leader: Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia Fudge stopped by 628 E Franklin on a visit to the Twin Cities at the end of August. The long [...]
Peace House Community Journal: A Special Thank You
By MARTI MALTBY From last November until mid-August, a homeless encampment occupied the vacant lots behind Peace House Community. Over the months various people came and went from the camp, bringing with them tents, bicycles, generators, and a host of other items. Many others stopped by during the day and the night, sometimes to say hi to friends or to drop off supplies, and sometimes for less socially acceptable behaviors. The camp presented various challenges for PHC. We do our best to serve homeless individuals, among others, and we want to reduce the stigma that goes with being homeless. However, we recognize that homelessness and criminal activity sometimes go together. The homeless are often the victims of the crimes, while at other times they are the ones breaking the laws. In the case of this encampment, every property on our block suffered vandalism, theft, threats, and in one case arson. Often our missing items turned up in the encampment. But many of the problems [...]
