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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina s congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Myorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Workers Bid to Close Pay Gap At University of Minnesota

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Thursday, June 25, 2015   

ST. PAUL, Minn. – As contract negotiations get underway, front-line workers at the University of Minnesota say it's time to close the gap between top and bottom pay.

Cherrene Horazuk, a university clerical worker and president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3800, says 15 years ago the university president made about nine times what a typical clerical worker made. Now she says that ratio is 19 times.

"This isn't a big corporation. It's a public institution where people are committed to public service and the greater good of the state," says Horazuk. "How we want to educate the state of Minnesota, but also how a workforce should be treated."

AFSCME and the Teamsters represent nearly a fifth of the 19,000 employees across the University of Minnesota system.

Contract negotiations covering pay and benefits for the next two years are expected to continue for the next several months. Horazuk says hundreds of employees at the state's land-grant university make less than $15 an hour, and many of them struggle or live in poverty. She cites the example of one long-time employee.

"She's given 28 years of her life to this university," says Horazuk. "And she plans to retire in June and will need to get a part-time job in order to make ends meet."

The university says it can't afford substantial raises for front-line and hourly employees. Horazuk says the University of Minnesota system has "huge" reserves, which administrators are perfectly willing to spend when they see fit.

"The men's basketball coach just got a $400,000 raise. That's the equivalent to a half percent for all the 1,600 clerical workers at the university," she says. "They find the money when they want to, and they need to find it for front-line staff."

The university says it wants to limit raises to keep tuition down, but Horazuk describes that as a distraction that aims to pit employees against students.


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