Fight back against corporate shenanigans at #mnleg  

Dear John, 

Two things are true at the MN Capitol right now: 

1. Legislative champions have passed crucial bills this session, and we’re making progress. 

2. Corporate lackeys are eroding, obstructing, and slowing down critical legislation to protect profits – when our lives and health are on the line. 

Here’s what we’re seeing: 

🤒 #PaidSickDays: It’s been over TWO MONTHS since the MN House of Representatives voted on and passed Earned Sick & Safe Time (HF19), and it is not yet scheduled for a Senate vote. All the while, corporate actors are inflating costs and ignoring workers’ need for sick days.  

🏭 Protection against pollution: Greater MN rural communities have been carved out of the Cumulative Impacts Bill (included in the House Environmental omnibus bill) so that corporate polluters can dodge regulation. The bill would provide protection for our communities against pollution and environmental racism.

💊 Affordable medicine: Big Pharma can’t block the Prescription Drug Affordability Board because it has already passed the Senate, so they're working to exclude life-saving drugs from price-gouging protections. 

👶 Paid leave: The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce continues to fearmonger and lie about Paid Family & Medical Leave, exploiting small businesses that stand to benefit from the program.  

Progressive values and slogans are profitable for corporations. But the legislation that realizes those values... not so much. That’s why corporations use front groups like the MN Chamber of Commerce and MN Business Partnership to do the dirty work of obstructing these bills so they can protect their brands. We’ve seen Target sell “Black Lives Matter” shirts while campaigning for more police funding, and Wells Fargo post about Earth Day while financing the Line 3 pipeline.  

We see what they’re doing, and we’re fighting back, but it takes all of us. Our champion legislators need to know they have our support — no matter how many corporate lobbyists lurk in the Capitol halls. 

Take action with us today! 

📞 Call Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic (651-296-7809). Sen. Dziedzic has been a champion for the people for years. Call her to say: “Keep pushing back against corporations and work to get Earned Sick & Safe Time, Paid Family & Medical Leave, and the Cumulative Impacts Bill done for Minnesotans.”  

📢 Join us on Tuesday at 6:30pm for an emergency town hall: “Corporate Shenanigans at #mnleg.” 

We are worth fighting for. Let’s put our families and communities first during these last weeks of legislative session! 

Onward,  

Sabrina Mauritz (she/her) 
Campaigns Director