The Minneapolis park workers’ strike will continue indefinitely, past the one-week timeline the union initially set shortly before the July 4th holiday weekend.
“We are united. We have each others’ backs. Organized labor has our back. The community has our back, and we will fight until we get a fair contract and the respect we deserve,” said AJ Lang, the business manager for the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) Local 363.
The announcement from union officials came Wednesday afternoon with up to 100 workers and supporters in bright orange shirts and picket signs outside the Mary Merrill Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board Headquarters, 2117 West River Road.
After seven months of negotiations, things have been at a standstill since a 16-hour meeting July 1, Lang said. He has publicly called on the park board to return to the bargaining table, but park board officials have said they extended their last, best and final offer during the last meeting.
The workers — who clean pools, maintain playground equipment, clean storm debris and search beaches for hypodermic needles — have for years called for improved wages, health insurance and safety precautions.
The union represents more than 200 full-time employees and more than 100 seasonal employees. The park board is a semi-autonomous governing body in Minneapolis.
The park system is consistently ranked among the nation’s best and its workers have never before turned to a strike in the system’s 141-year history.
Wednesday, workers repeatedly slammed the park board for letting wages fall behind inflation and the pay of park workers in neighboring cities. Meanwhile, challenges associated with encampments of unhoused people, substance abuse and civil unrest in recent years have strained workers.
