Jason Alvey says he’s tired of mincing his words when it comes to the powerful lobbying forces that have protected a decades-old ban on Sunday alcohol sales in Minnesota.

Midway through a March 13 hearing in the Senate Jobs, Agriculture and Rural Development Committee, Sen. Carrie Ruud, R-Breezy Point, asked about the thought process behind a proposal to raise the state’s minimum wage. Chief author Sen. Chris Eaton, DFL-Brooklyn Park, explained to Ruud that she had set a minimum level of $7.75 because it was thought to be “harmless” to the state’s businesses.

During the last two years, organized labor has largely sought to preserve the status quo at the Capitol. Republican legislative leaders repeatedly pushed proposals that were vehemently opposed by unions, most notably “right to work” legislation that would have prohibited requiring individuals to pay union dues as a condition of employment.

The last time DFLers controlled all the levers of power at the Capitol, during the 1989-90 legislative session, Duane Benson was the Republican Senate minority leader. Benson recalls making a floor speech at the time comparing the dynamic to a basketball contest between the Harlem Globetrotters and the Washington Generals.

On Tuesday afternoon, officials from the United Food and Commercial Workers union met at the DFL headquarters in St. Paul with Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk and House Minority Leader Paul Thissen.