Wrap up of the BDR Week of Action

“Nothing Gets Built Without These Hands”: A Week of Action led by construction workers calling on Solhem, Yellow Tree, and United Properties to join the Building Dignity and Respect Program.

The coverage on WCCO News highlights some of the power of the past week: “3 Minnesota housing developers accused of using contractors with bad labor practices,” WCCO CBS News, Pauleen Le, September 11, 2023.

Over the past week, construction workers who are members of CTUL and allies have led a series of powerful actions to bring the labor that has been hidden in the shadows of the economy to public light, and to call on large developers like Solhem, Yellow Tree and United Properties to take steps to ensure basic dignity and respect for workers on their projects by joining the Building Dignity and Respect (BDR) Program. The BDR Program is built on the Worker-driven Social Responsibility (WSR) model, which has successfully transformed working conditions in some of the most backwards industries in the world, from agriculture in Florida to textile manufacturing in Bangladesh.

Allies led actions in four different states, including Minnesota, Florida, Colorado, and Texas. Pictured above: Workers and allies delivered around 500 petitions signatures to the offices of Solhem, Yellow Tree and United Properties, calling on the company to join BDR. Pictured below: On Sept. 13th, allies from Workers Defense in Austin, Texas delivered a letter to an office of United Properties. While allowed to drop off the letter, the front desk staff were very upset. It’s clear that United Properties is beginning to understand that people around the country are demanding justice for construction workers!

Check out reports from each day of action: Day 1 Launch, Day 2 Art-building and Denver, Day 3 WoA reaches international audience, Day 4 Workers prep for Press Conference and March

Day 5: Over 30 Elected Officials, including MN Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, announce that they have signed a letter calling on developers to join the BDR Program.

Day 6: “Nothing Gets Built Without These Hands: March for Dignity and Respect”. On Tuesday, over 300 workers and allies marched down Central Ave. in NE Minneapolis by three proposed and/or finalized projects of Solhem. The march started across the street from a massive 3.4-acre project proposed by Solhem (Youngblood Lumberyard) that would include up to 600 units in the area of the North East Park Neighborhood Association (NEPNA) in Minneapolis. Members of Northeast community joined the march and sent a message of solidarity to the workers after NEPNA passed a resolution that the neighborhood organization would not support the Youngblood project, or any other project in their neighborhood unless there are worker protections through the BDR Program.

We marched to HenCen Apartment, one of the more recently developed projects of Solhem. There we observed a moment of silence while workers delivered plaster molds of their hands to the doorstep of the HenCen Apartment, bringing to public light the labor that goes into building projects in the Twin Cities.

We wrapped up the march across the street from the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation. Check out a report on the march here.

Stand with construction workers in the fight for dignity and respect by signing this petition, calling on Solhem, Yellow Tree and United Properties to join the Building Dignity and Respect Program.

And check out full coverage of the Week of Action here: