Issue Position: Labor Issues

Issue Position

John Marty's Senate lifetime AFL-CIO voting record through 2008: 91%

Senator Marty has chief authored key Worker Safety Legislation, year after year, to protect workers from death and serious injury and to fight the unfair workers' compensation system.

Marty is chief-author of legislation to increase the minimum wage to $9.50 per hour, to make affordable childcare available to every worker with young children, and to increase the earned income credit for low income workers.

To stimulate the economy and create jobs, John introduced legislation that would invest $490 million in building and rehabbing public housing and affordable rental housing projects, as well as another $60 million in energy retrofits for public buildings. These investments will serve important public needs (affordable housing and energy efficiency) while creating thousands of construction jobs. This legislation also reinstates the MEED jobs program that labor worked for back in the early 1980s.

He has consistently supported collective bargaining rights, the employee free choice act, higher minimum wages, prevailing wage laws, binding arbitration for first contracts. John co-authored legislation that prohibits the permanent replacement of legally striking workers.

John is the most out-spoken advocate for progressive income taxes in the legislature, to reduce the tax burden on working people. He was the only member of the entire Senate to vote against the large tax cuts for the wealthy in 1999 and again in 2000.

John is chief author of the MN Health Plan, to guarantee all Minnesotans comprehensive health care -- not only improving the lives of all workers, but removing it as the number one sticking point in labor negotiations. Under our current system, even when unions win increases in pay, they are more than offset by increasing employee health care premiums and co-pays. The MN Health Plan would allow unions to avoid the need to fight to maintain health care benefits.

Source