"We Are Facing a Tsunami of Hate": Amid ICE Crackdown, Unions and Community Groups Call for Minnesota Shutdown in 10 Day

[douglas9]

MINNEAPOLIS — Unions and community groups gathered in front of the Hennepin County Government Center in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota this morning to announce a day of ​“no work, no school, no shopping” on January 23 to oppose the ferocious assault on the state by federal immigration authorities.

“We are facing a tsunami of hate from our own federal government,” Abdikarim Khasim, a Minnesota rideshare driver, told the crowd. ​“We’re going to shut it down on the 23rd. We’re going to overcome this.”

JaNaé Bates Imari, representative of the church Camphor Memorial UMC, told the crowd that the joint action will be ​“a day when every single Minnesotan who loves this state — who loves the idea of truth and freedom — will refuse to work, shop and go to school. We are asking every single person, every family member, every teacher, every bus driver, every childcare worker, to come together, to be in community, to stand with one another.”

“What we have witnessed, what we have all gone through, is not normal,” she added. ​“We have seen through several videos the murder of one of our own, Renee Good. We have witnessed violence, over and over again. Families being ripped apart, loved ones being torn from their hospital beds, from their workplaces, homes. Violence is no longer a threat but a reality that surrounds us.”

https://inthesetimes.com/article/minneapolis-renee-good-ice-shooting-labor-unions

[OrlandoDem2]

1. This needs to go nationwide!

[MichMan]

2. Imagine the visual impact it would have if every single residence and business was pitch black

with no power ,water or heat.

[littlemissmartypants]

3. Are you suggesting that there will be no power, water or heat if people stay home? Or

is there a threat that the "government" will impose no power, water or heat on the citizens? I don't understand your point, MichMan. Please explain. Thanks. ❤️

[MichMan]

5. Why shouldn't utility workers refuse to go to work same as everyone else? They don't love the state any less.

JaNaé Bates Imari, representative of the church Camphor Memorial UMC, told the crowd that the joint action will be ​“a day when every single Minnesotan who loves this state — who loves the idea of truth and freedom — will refuse to work, shop and go to school.

[littlemissmartypants]

10. I still don't understand your point. Everyone means everyone.

Not just no power, water or heat but also no gas, food, banking, driving, childcare, emergency rooms, radio/TV, internet and so on.

I mean the list goes on.

To me no power, water or heat are the least of the worst things we could do without for 24 hours. If we're that weak then it's time to toughen up.

During hurricane season water, power and air conditioning are often unavailable for weeks for some people. I'm pretty sure that I can survive 24 hrs without several notable conveniences having lived through several hurricanes.

Also, many things are automated these days. It's not like we rely on a bunch of monkeys popping rubber bands to keep motors running anywhere.

[MichMan]

12. "Everyone means everyone"

Your reply was "Are you suggesting that there will be no power, water or heat if people stay home?"

Yes, that was exactly my point. If all utility employees are staying home, I can't see how they would still be able to provide electricity, water and heat. I imagine the temperature in Minnesota is pretty similar to Michigan.

Didn't even mention fire, police, paramedics, nursing homes, hospitals would all be staying home also.

[justaprogressive]

19. It's not like we rely on a bunch of monkeys popping rubber bands to keep motors running anywhere.

HAHAHAHA Be still my heart!

[littlemissmartypants]

24. I am known for my appreciation of colorful language. It's one of the

Benefits of growing up surrounded by creative types, including the tellers of Tall Tales. 😉❤️

[iemanja]

35. It is pretty funny

So desperate to kowtow to big business, he makes stuff up.

[malaise]

17. Winter is that problem. n/t

[Randomthought]

4. WTF. Man

I live in Minneapolis we have suffered enough. No power in January is deadly.

[MichMan]

6. The organizers are urging every single Minnesotan to stay home from work that day

Obviously, every single person would include utility workers.

JaNaé Bates Imari, representative of the church Camphor Memorial UMC, told the crowd that the joint action will be ​“a day when every single Minnesotan who loves this state — who loves the idea of truth and freedom — will refuse to work, shop and go to school.

[Randomthought]

7. Stupid

No medical care. No emergency workers. Nursing home workers are supposed to leave the elderly and disabled to fend for themselves in the cold and dark?
That is idiocy

[MichMan]

8. Tell that to the people who are organizing and supporting it

I don't think they thought about this very carefully. Poster #1 wants it to go nationwide

[iemanja]

36. What bothers you so much?

Is it that workers may inconvenience capital or that ICE might have a sad?

[littlemissmartypants]

22. What do you think happens when the power goes out during a hurricane or ...

Health care workers have to shelter in place while others are evacuating? Nurses don't abandon their patients as a general rule. That's why emergency contingency plans exist. If there's a plan here, I'd love to read it.

[GopherGal]

21. I think we all remember 2020

We've had an unfortunate drill to teach us who is an "essential worker"

So, no, medical and public safety professionals, for example, should not participate "if they love their state".

And, as Texas test-ran for us, lack of power in January in Minneapolis would be worse than uncomfortable, it would be deadly.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

32. Your concern is noted and hopefully this will help ease it. The state federation of the AFL-CIO as well as all of the

area labor councils in the state and many individual unions have signed on to this action. If anyone knows how to participate while still taking care of our own, it's unions, because they have their own rules when it comes to actual strikes. From the MNA:

The Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) announces its support for the ICE Out of Minnesota: A Day of Truth and Freedom on January 23 and encourages members as well as the public to participate in the statewide economic blackout and the 2:00 p.m. rally as a visible show of solidarity with immigrant communities, workers, and families impacted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions in Minnesota.

While supporting participation in the day of action, MNA is not calling for a work stoppage or walkout. Nurses hold a unique and essential role as caregivers and patient advocates, and MNA encourages members to honor the no-strike provisions of their contracts and report to work as scheduled. Continuing to provide care is not an absence from this moment — it is an act of solidarity. By showing up for patients while standing together, nurses are protecting Minnesota’s most vulnerable community members in the ways only nurses can.

“As nurses, we cannot be absent when fear is driving people away from care and tearing families apart,” said MNA President Chris Rubesch, RN. “Participation in this day is about standing with our patients, our coworkers, and our communities.”

MNA represents nurses and healthcare workers, including many who are immigrants or have immigrant loved ones directly impacted by ICE enforcement. That reality exists alongside nurses’ shared commitment to patient care and community safety.

In healthcare settings statewide, nurses and healthcare workers care for patients during moments of illness, injury, fear, and vulnerability, including immigrants and patients from mixed-status families. When fear delays care, caregivers see the consequences immediately. Patients arrive sicker, crises escalate, and outcomes worsen. Those impacts are immediate and show up not just at the bedside, but in families and communities across the state.

MNA is joining a broad and growing coalition of labor organizations, faith leaders, business owners, and community members across Minnesota. Labor partners endorsing the January 23 action include SEIU and every AFL-CIO regional labor federation and labor council in Minnesota.

The demands of the ICE Out of Minnesota: A Day of Truth and Freedom include:

ICE must leave Minnesota now.

The officer who killed Good must be held legally accountable.

No additional federal funding for ICE in the upcoming Congressional budget and ICE should be investigated for human and Constitutional violations of Americans and our neighbors.

We call upon MN and National Companies to become 4th Amendment businesses, cease economic relations with ICE and refuse ICE entry or using their property for staging grounds.

“Our charge as nurses is to care for our communities,” said MNA First Vice President Melisa Koll, RN. “That means showing up — visibly and collectively — while continuing to do the work our patients rely on us to do every day.”

[question everything]

9. What about people who are hospitalized or in a nursing home? Will the organizers care for them?

[littlemissmartypants]

11. And what if the "government" decided to extend and expand the action? ...

It's one thing to stage a 24 hour protest it's entirely different when it's pain imposed on citizens by their government.

I'd rather not give them any ideas. But at the same time, people need to be prepared for anything. I think we should be facing that realization with urgency based on everything we have seen up to now.

[Wednesdays]

23. Well, let's not get into black-or-white thinking.

I'm sure people have more common sense than to simply let people die so they can score political points.

[littlemissmartypants]

25. Thank you. ❤️

[question everything]

26. Rehab centers are already "short staffed" this will just add

Why not visit care centers to see for yourself?

[MichMan]

30. It doesn't get more black and white than saying "every single Minnesotan"

Most people would believe that meant everyone, not just some.

If they really didn't mean it, they didn't do a very good job of communicating to those they were asking to not go to work that day.

[iemanja]

38. This is the MN group

No one is asking you to do anything.

[iemanja]

37. Your "concern" has been addressed in this thread

In the statement by the Nurse’s Union. It’s like any other strike that involves medical personnel.

[question everything]

39. I don't know why you choose to belittle my concern, Yes, real, not in quotation. Lucky you

don’t have a spouse in hospital after an emergency surgery. The nurses there, at Methodist could not have been more concerned, real, not as presented in your mocking quotation.

[leftstreet]

14. DURec

[malaise]

15. Not normal is correct

Kick

[yellow dahlia]

16. Bookmarking

[littlemissmartypants]

18. More from the article:

The organizers of the January 23 day of action hope to build on this momentum, and take mass resistance to the next phase.

“When your coworkers aren’t safe, nobody is safe,” Feben Ghilagaber, a server for Minnesota Wild Bar and Restaurant in the Minneapolis – Saint Paul International Airport and a steward for UNITE HERE Local 17, said a day ahead of the press conference. ​“It’s a nightmare. When you’re driving, you have to look over your shoulder, to see if somebody’s following you, or somebody’s been stopped. Every move you make, you have to be on guard.

But, she adds, workers are in a strong position to take action. ​“This country is run by workers.”

https://inthesetimes.com/article/minneapolis-renee-good-ice-shooting-labor-unions

[malaise]

27. THIS

When your coworkers aren’t safe, nobody is safe,”

[spanone]

20. K&R

[Safe as Milk]

28. How does a statewide shutdown discourage Diddling Donny from

projecting his generalized hatred toward Minnesota? If it doesn't hurt Trump, any unified action won't affect him.

[Initech]

29. This is all because the right wing has a psychotic level of hate for Ilhan Omar.

They can't stand it that she's in Congress and hates them. So they are doing everything they can to shit on Minneapolis for it.

[suegeo]

31. Kick

[WhiskeyGrinder]

33. The handwringing in this thread is honestly some of the funniest fucking shit I've ever seen.

[iemanja]

34. I got a message at work saying we could take the day off

but have to take PTO. I’ll do that.