Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey vetoes city council’s plan for labor standards board
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Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey vetoed the city council’s plan to create a labor standards board. Frey announced the veto Thursday, saying the proposal is not fair and would be ineffective.
“It should come as a surprise to no one that an effective board requires meaningful collaboration between both businesses and workers,” Frey said in a statement. “The council’s proposal is so lopsided that hundreds of businesses, many of them BIPOC-owned, and nearly all major business organizations, have voiced their opposition and said they won’t participate in the board at all. Without their participation, there is no way for the Labor Standards Board to be effective.”
The new board would advise the city council on labor policies. It would be made up of representatives for employers, employees and other community members.
Many business owners voiced their opposition to the board, saying it would lead to more regulations and cost.
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Council support for the board was not unanimous, with some council members pushing to pause the measure. Council member LaTrisha Vetaw voted against creating the board.
“I’m deeply disappointed that this council couldn’t wait,” Vetaw said at a council meeting on Nov. 14. “We’ve had engagement from folks who said they hadn’t been heard.”
Advocates celebrated city council’s passage of the proposal. Estela Tirado, a downtown worker and longtime advocate for the policy, said she hopes the board gives workers a chance to advocate for better sick time and maternity leave policies.
“For the first time, I feel a new kind of hope for what is to come,” Tirado said after it passed earlier this month. “I am incredibly excited about the possibilities that this board brings forward to us.”
Frey is asking the council to sustain his veto and create a new plan. He wants the board to have a 50/50 split between employees and employers, as well as an equal number of appointments made by city council and the mayor. The council’s proposal suggests that three of the board’s 15 seats will be appointed by the mayor — not half.
Frey also wants any recommendations from the board to pass through a supermajority consensus.