Business owners, labor advocates clash over proposed Minneapolis labor standards board

Lev Roth works the front desk at a downtown Minneapolis condo building, helping residents use the building’s facilities and keeping an eye on who’s coming in and out. Roth says they have run into frustrations in recent years, like workplace safety concerns and scheduling headaches.

“We are given some amount of vacation time, but it’s so hard to find people to fill the shifts that we miss,” Roth said. “Having some way to make sure that people can use their vacation and sick and safe time would be fantastic.”

Those are the kinds of issues that Roth thinks a city labor standards board could address. Roth has been organizing with their union, SEIU Local 26, to advocate for the creation of a board — and the idea has long had support from the Minneapolis City Council.

After a lengthy process, council members say they plan to share language establishing the board and vote on it soon — but even before that happens, business owners and labor advocates are at odds over the idea.

What would the board do?

While specific details are still in the works, in general the board — if formed — would be able to study specific industries in Minneapolis, like property services or restaurants.

The board would form subcommittees specific to an industry, made up of workers, business owners and community stakeholders, like consumers and academics. Subcommittees could come up with recommendations for new regulations, to be forwarded to the City Council for consideration.

The standards board on its own could not enact regulations. Its recommendations would still need to go through the council’s full legislative process. 

City Council members voted last winter to draft the design for the board. They are currently still working with city staff to craft the language; neither business owners nor labor advocates have seen a draft of the resolution.

Councilmember Aurin Chowdhury is one of the resolution’s authors. She says workers need the forum with employers that the board would provide.

“Working people are dealing with rising cost of living, and wages oftentimes not meeting that,” Chowdhury said. “We had a number of different workers come forward and share that they are struggling in different ways.”

Pushback from business owners

But the idea has set off alarm bells for some employers. Several Minneapolis restaurant owners have rallied with Hospitality Minnesota, calling for the standards board to be blocked. 

Chef Gustavo Romero owns Oro by Nixta, a Mexican tortilla and taco restaurant in northeast Minneapolis. 

Romero said he’s worried about the possibility that more regulations could arise from a labor standards board, creating more challenges for an industry that struggled through the pandemic.

“It looks like we’re finally getting momentum into the restaurant where people are coming out again, and it feels like they’re waiting for us to get on our feet so they can swipe us back,” Romero said. 

Romero was one of 120 restaurant owners who signed a letter to the council in June opposing the board. The letter-writers noted that a third of its signatories identify as people of color and said they would be hit hard by new rules.

Romero said he runs on thin margins, like many minority restaurant owners who struggled to get their businesses running in the first place. He worries that more regulations could mean more expenses, and it’s not easy to bring in more revenue. 

“I cannot charge you $6 for a taco today and $10 tomorrow,” Romero said. “We know realistically that doesn’t work.”

He’s worried members of a city labor standards board won’t understand that. 

Waiting for the draft language

City Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai said the board is designed to avoid those misunderstandings. That’s why any board research into specific industries would include employers and employees, she said.

Chughtai said she believes misinformation is behind much of the backlash. She said the council is working to include as many voices as possible in the creation of the labor standards board.

“Community members and workers and local entrepreneurs are left behind in policymaking around labor standards, or feel left behind in that type of policy creation,” Chughtai said. “I think that’s where the support of this type of policy comes in in the first place, is just people feeling like their voices weren’t considered.”

Meanwhile, proponents of the policy say they want to see the process speed up. The idea for a labor standards board was first floated two years ago, when a majority of the City Council and Mayor Jacob Frey came together with labor unions in support.

Brian Elliott is the executive director of SEIU’s Minnesota State Council. He said he thinks it will be easier to negotiate with business owners once stakeholders can see the draft language — which he says is taking longer than with other city policies he’s been involved in.

“When people don’t know, they really go for the worst-case scenario, so one of the challenges we have is actually getting out a draft ordinance,” Elliott said. “For this policy, we are all waiting for a draft.”

City Council members said they hope to have a resolution ready to review in the coming weeks.

The labor standards board is part of a bigger push, in Minneapolis and nationwide, to give workers a seat at the table. Unionization efforts have gained momentum in recent years, including at several Minneapolis restaurants. Kim’s in Uptown recently unionized, after owner Ann Kim told workers to vote against the effort. Workers at Colita and the four locations of Café Cerés announced their intent to unionize last month. 

Lev Roth says they want that seat at the table.

“The backlash I’ve heard is from employers who say that they know best what their employees need. I can’t imagine that employers know better than employees what employees need,” Roth said. 

City Council members say they’ll schedule more meetings with employees and employers to hear opinions about the board as they continue drafting the resolution.