Since statehood, Minnesota workers have joined together to improve and protect their livelihoods, rights, and voices in the workplace.

Early Minnesota labor organizations

Throughout history, people in Minnesota have made a living in a variety of ways, including subsistence farming, hunting and gathering, trade, and managing businesses. This article focuses on the circumstances and activism of commercial farmers and people working for wages.

The model for American unions came together in the late 1850s. The organization had a centralized national body with regional or particular workplace “locals” maintained by members’ dues. Members elected leaders to negotiate with employers and see that agreements were honored. Unions also reserved funds to support members in case of a strike.

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St. Paul tailors went on the state’s first recorded strike in 1854, though its outcome and the group’s longevity are unknown. The city’s printers formed the state’s first ongoing union in 1856. They joined the National Typographers Union in 1858 and gained newspaper owners’ recognition, inspiring locals to start in other Minnesota cities.

In the 1860s, members of Minnesota’s ethnic groups, such as Germans, Finns, and those of the Jewish community, joined working men’s societies and mutual benefit associations to provide insurance for accidents, sickness, and death, and to find jobs for members. These organizations’ halls, like the Jewish Labor Lyceum and...

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