For a more equal Minneapolis, move the Labor Standards Board forward

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As a former leader in the Minneapolis City Council, a statewide housing advocate and a citizen of a city I deeply love, I’m acutely aware that racial and economic inequities mean that life in our city is not equally great for everyone.

The near-record racial wealth gaps in Minneapolis and the Twin Cities have causes that stem from beyond our borders: Over the last 40-plus years, wages have not kept up with inflation. The full-time, union jobs that propelled many families to the middle class have been replaced with a temp and gig work economy, and employers get away with union-busting far too often.

It’s possible — and important — for cities to take the initiative where they can to create a framework that helps workers and businesses succeed together.

That’s why I was pleased to see widespread support for a Labor Standards Board at the start of this year — and hope our city’s leaders can get the job done before the year is out.

The Labor Standards Board policy would create collaborative tables where industry-specific issues could be discussed by businesses, workers and community stakeholders to find solutions that work for everybody. The board’s recommendations then would be forwarded to the City Council for final action. By having the interested parties at a table, our city could address specific issues.

Minneapolis has had a long history of stepping up and stepping in to level the playing field for workers when the Legislature and Congress have been mired in inaction. Minneapolis was one of the first cities to protect workers from discriminatory treatment and was the third city in the country to prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation in the 1970s. In 2005, Minneapolis joined a wave of cities in passing indoor smoking bans, protecting workers against secondhand smoke in the absence of state or federal action; the state of Minnesota later passed an indoor smoking ban.

In the mid-2010s, as City Council vice president, I was proud to work with my colleagues to again take city action to advance smart, thoughtful workplace policies. While some questioned our ability to act to increase the minimum wage and ensure workers had access to sick leave benefits, including filing unsuccessful legal challenges, our $15 minimum wage and Earned Sick and Safe Time ordinances are now viewed as extremely successful measures that protect workers and support a fair economy.

But even as we celebrate these big steps forward, we know there is more work to be done. The proposed Labor Standards Board, a policy that has been discussed extensively over the last two years, is the next big step for Minneapolis’ fair workplace protections.

Since workers have made a compelling case for this policy and a supermajority of the City Council and the mayor have all publicly expressed their support, it is disappointing to see this policy stuck in City Hall for months, with workers literally knocking on the door to find a path forward.

It is not unprecedented for the city of Minneapolis to forge a new path for worker protection — a path that reflects the need for bold action and adjusts policy protections to the realities of our current economic environment. At a time when government is often seen as a static stumbling block, local government must remain a place for action and trying new approaches to wicked public problems.