Advocates of increased funding for roads, bridges and transit projects across Minnesota hope to recreate a formula that worked once before. In the wake of the 2007 I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis, a broad coalition of groups, which included the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce as well as labor unions, joined hands to push for a 5.5 cent gas tax increase in the 2008 session.

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals granted an injunction on Thursday halting implementation of a state law authorizing roughly 12,000 childcare providers that receive state subsidies to seek union representation.

Aside from collective bargaining rights on rate payments, Munt argued unionization would allow providers to have a more input into the rules which govern their profession.

Legislation allowing day care providers and personal care assistants to join labor unions was arguably the most contentious issue of the legislative session. The proposal was debated for 27 hours on the House and Senate floors, longer than any other bill considered in 2013. Ultimately, the proposal cleared the House by the narrowest of margins, 68-66, on the final day of session.

Before closing his victory speech after winning back the DFL majority in the Minnesota Senate, a teary-eyed DFL Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk grabbed the arm of one of his first-time candidates and lifted it high. “I want to introduce you to Senator-elect Melisa Franzen,” Bakk shouted to an exuberant crowd of DFLers gathered in downtown St. Paul at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. “They didn’t lose because they are Republicans; they lost because they are wrong.”

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.

For nearly six years, union officials have been working to build support for representing the state’s in-home day care providers. Now that campaign will come down to a one-month effort to convince roughly 4,300 small business owners that union representation is in their best interest.

In my view, AFSCME Council 5's endorsement of DFLer Mark Dayton for governor is the most significant event in the DFL gubernatorial stakes to date.