Q&A With Bernie Burnham: Solidarity Goals of Minnesota’s AFL-CIO

Bernie Burnham spoke at the “End Slavery” rally (photo by Sarah Whiting)

A post-legislative session news release from the AFL-CIO pointed out key wins for Minnesota’s working people.

• An AFL-CIO–led Workers Compensation bill passed with a 20 percent increase in benefits to make life more affordable for workers with a permanent partial disability while expanding the pool of professionals who can diagnose work-related post-traumatic stress disorder.
• A $1.2 billion infrastructure bonding bill for roads, bridges, and critical infrastructure that will create thousands of local union construction jobs in communities across Minnesota.
• Shoring up Hennepin County Medical Center’s budget and funding to preserve the state’s pre-eminent emergency community resource, as well jobs for the thousands of Minnesotans who work there.
• Lawmakers also preserved 2023’s historic progress without watering down Paid Leave, earned sick and safe time, expanded union freedoms, and more.

Said AFL-CIO leader Bernie Burnham: “We know that corporate special interests put extreme pressure on lawmakers to turn back the clock on all the progress working people have made at the Capitol. We are proud of our labor champions who had workers’ back the entire biennium.”

We talked recently with Burnham, who has been president of the labor organization since February 2022, about the priorities of the Minnesota chapter, which represents 300,000 working people from more than 1,000 affiliated local unions.

Q: What are the AFL-CIO’s upcoming priorities?

We just passed a new strategic plan in December. We have four goals.

• First is solidarity, which hasn’t changed. It’s always important to keep folks together, going along the same lines. That’s not easy. Everybody has their own definition of solidarity. But stronger solidarity equals greater union power.
• Second is policy and political power. Our general board worked for almost a year getting everybody’s ideas and then honing in on priorities.
• Three is affiliate collaboration. I’ve tried hard to get people to understand what each other’s affiliates need and want, and why they stand up for the things they do. These all tie together.
• Promotion of union identity is the last one. We’re trying to educate folks about what it looks like when [workers] are not as well-respected as they should be, the lack of health insurance — people are making choices not to call the doctor — and all the other [cost of living] increases.

Those are our big four goals. They pop up in everything we do. We list our goals on every agenda of every meeting so the work we’re doing is aligned. You can build a strategic plan and put it on a shelf and never look at it again. But I don’t believe in that. I brought that with me from Education Minnesota, when I was the vice president there. We made sure that we were working the goals all the time.

Q: How do you maintain solidarity?

When I first came in, I really didn’t know much about anybody except for the people in education, because that’s my field, so I made appointments and listened to people about what they and their members do. I wanted to get an understanding of what we’re all looking for and come to a baseline agreement on what we could stand up for.

We have a couple of big things politically. It is about folks running for office — who we get elected — and building a legislative agenda every year. We are working hard to make sure that people who want to run for office or are interested in helping people who are running for office get great training. We recently had a training for about 25 folks — lots of young faces, which is super exciting to me. We have a Union Member Candidate Program; we’re very proud of that.

We can fight like hell behind doors. I’m fine with that. But when we open the doors, we should be locked arms. It mostly works. They don’t always mesh. I encourage people to call each other if they’re going to do something that impacts somebody else. We keep trying to work towards that.

Sometimes the trades have success working with some of the Republicans and getting them to line up on bonding, for example.

Legislatively, we work to have all of the lobbyists in the room and talk about the issues that are important to each of the unions every year. We try to come up with a short list of what’s best for most, and then we will support everybody’s issues. Melissa, our legislative director, will help Bethany and I testify for anything that people want help with. There’s a total of eight of us on the team, but we do a lot of great work. This team is amazing.

Q: When was the first time you considered yourself a union worker?

Growing up, my dad was a chef in a private club, and not union. But he cared deeply about the people who worked with him and for him. My mom worked in the school cafeteria and was a union member. There wasn’t a lot of conversation about that. I was in my teens, so I could hear the passion in her voice and knew she loved being able to go to union trainings.

When I was 16, I was a union member at Bridgeman’s [ice cream shop], but all I knew was that I paid dues. It meant nothing other than that.

When I became a teacher at 40, I was tapped to become a union steward, because I wasn’t afraid of standing up and speaking out. That’s when I realized what it meant to be part of a union. In Duluth, I was asked to be a part of the labor management program, ended up on our executive board, and then became the president.

Many people, even though they’re part of a union, have no idea what that means. People might complain about their dues, not realizing that helps them get the contracts they have. We continue to educate about labor history. We have the “It’s Better in a Union” curriculum. A goal of ours is to continue to get folks to understand what it means to be a union member.

Q: How do you define the philosophy of what a union brings to community?

When there’s union strength in a community, it means that everybody does a little better by proxy. If there are union members in a community, and they’re getting paid better, people are going to rise to the occasion — other businesses have to compete. They want to get employees.

I didn’t know Paul Wellstone, but “we all do better when we all do better” is ingrained in my heart. Being a teacher and a mom, that just makes so much sense to me.

There can be a mindset of “I’ve got mine, and I earned it, and I did it, and everybody else has that opportunity.” But we know that’s not true. So how do we continue to have those conversations?

Such as with data centers. They’re coming. So how do we do it in the best way possible, if they’re going to be here in our state? How do we figure out what what works best for Minnesota? How do we do it so that we take care of communities? They’re hard conversations, but it is about the education piece. It’s continuing to try to bring understanding. We have to lean on each other to learn about the different things that are important to us.

Every time we show up together, it gives you a good feeling. We know bad things are happening, but when there are a bunch of people together — the rallies — it is powerful. When you look out in a crowd and see all the faces and know people are there because they believe in doing what’s best and right for our country — taking it back from the powers that be. That feeds me and makes me know that we’re going to get there. It’s not a quick process, but we will get there.

Q: Are there overlooked parts of the labor movement in Minnesota that you wish would receive more attention?

I wish Starbucks workers would get a contract and pay up. Delta, come on — take care of these folks who are working for you. The pilots have a contract, but they don’t want to do that with the flight attendants and those who work the line. Just do the right thing. REI says it is progressive and does some good things, but they’re not doing right by their people. McDonald’s Corporation — if they just paid people better, they would have a consistent group of employees who would be proud of working there. Those are the things that boggle my mind.

I feel like part of it is because of this administration. They don’t want unions to be in existence. So there’s a loose line about whether you actually stand up and do the right thing, or you just ignore it because you can right now. There’s not an administration that’s pushing anybody to do the right thing. So that’s very frustrating — the number of big corporations that could just do better.

My youngest daughter and her husband live in Denmark, which is a very strong union country. Other countries have better benefits for their families.

Q: Can you talk more about how smaller struggles connect to broader struggles?

I was raised to always stand up for other people. It’s important that everybody has a voice, and we don’t always have that. I see the steps that we’re taking backwards in this country now — it’s very painful to watch.

No matter how small it is, everything is integral to the whole. Treating people with dignity and respect. Helping them have a life that is affordable and sustainable. The right to a free public education. Good health care; I’m so pissed we don’t have that in this country.

My mom was an Irish immigrant. This country was founded on immigrants, and we took this land from the people who were here. Nobody really belongs here, unless you are an Indigenous person. In my heart, it’s important to show up and be there for everybody — working class people, children, immigrants, women, LGBTQ+, anyone who has been othered or put down because of who they are, their religion. Whatever it is, I’m going to stand up. That’s the right thing to do.

Q: How do you keep yourself from being exhausted?

It’s not always easy, because of what’s happening. During the heart of Operation Metro Surge, I would go home exhausted. My wife would say to me, you have to take a break. If you don’t, you’re not going to be any good tomorrow.

The work is super important, but all of the other stuff — taking care of family and friendships, spending time with them — is what feeds me, to keep me moving forward. I try to encourage the folks here to do that. Most of them are quite a bit younger than me, and so don’t always heed that advice. But your body catches up with you. Even in the heat of all the crap that’s going on, if you don’t find time for joy, you’re going to be burn out.

Q: What leads the pushback to having protection for workers?

There are always those comments about, “they’re just trying to get away with something.” Really? Do you think the majority of people are doing that? There will always be bad actors — just like in leadership, heads of corporations. Look at all the money they’re getting, and yet they can’t pay people — it’s nuts to me.

Most people want to do the right thing, and most people want to go to work.

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