Labor and Business Form Alliance to Spark Job Growth Throughout Minnesota

ST. PAUL (Nov. 13, 2012) — Jobs for Minnesotans, a coalition co-founded by the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, was launched today as a coordinated effort to promote job creation in the state of Minnesota.

The coalition represents businesses, middle class workers, labor, local governments and those who support job creation in the state of Minnesota. Working together, labor and business created the group to educate and provide information to Minnesotans about significant job and economic opportunities facing our state.

“Jobs for Minnesotans brings a unique collection of businesses and organizations together to support job creation in the state,” said Harry Melander, president of the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council. “The construction industry in Minnesota continues to face high unemployment rates. Jobs for Minnesotans will work to support and assist major projects that will create jobs. The strategic metals mining industry has immense promise for our state and the coalition is targeting that opportunity to put thousands of Minnesotans back to work.”

With a mineral deposit of more than 4 billion tons, Minnesota holds one of the largest untapped source of strategic metals in the world, including copper, nickel, platinum, palladium, cobalt and gold. The strategic metals mining industry, once operational, has the potential to produce thousands of jobs across industry sectors. The coalition will be a platform for supporters to stay educated and learn how to get involved to support job creation in Minnesota.

“The Chamber supports clear opportunities to promote economic growth and job creation while protecting the great environment and natural resources that we all enjoy here in Minnesota, and that are themselves a significant part of our economic engine,” said David Olson, president of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce.  “We know all Minnesotans will benefit from this industry – from border to border and with that will come new revenue for the state, our schools and all of our priorities together as Minnesotans.” 

To get involved or find out more information about the Jobs for Minnesotans coalition please visit www.jobsforminnesotans.org.

About Jobs For Minnesotans
Jobs for Minnesotans was co- founded in October 2012 by the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. This coalition represents businesses, middle class workers, labor, local governments and other supporters of job creation in the state of Minnesota.

Jobs for Minnesotans initial focus will be to champion the development of critical and strategic metals (copper, nickel, platinum, palladium and gold) mining in Minnesota and provide information about the direct and ancillary job creation that strategic metals mining can produce for the state. Minnesota has the opportunity to gain thousands of jobs for generations of Minnesotans by safely extracting strategic minerals from one of the world’s largest known, untapped source of copper, nickel, cobalt, platinum, palladium and gold located in northeastern Minnesota’s Duluth Complex.

In addition to providing information and resources, the coalition serves as a platform for jobs supporters to get involved and work together to promote job creation the state of Minnesota. 

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Media Contact:
Tony Kwilas
651-292-4668
tkwilas@mnchamber.com

KSTP TV
Jason Davis

“On the Road with Jason Davis” visits northern Minnesota to learn more about the positive economic impacts of strategic metals mining.

To view the segment, click on the link above.

Mesabi Daily News
Opinion: Dave Lislegard

Let me start by going back to the shutdown of LTV.

Like many workers, I was thankful to have received unemployment and retraining dollars to survive that most difficult time. Regrettably, I must admit, I also at that time let myself be talked into and pushed for a BlueGreen alliance without truly thinking about what the future implications would have on our region. We were told ,and I sadly believed, that the USWA and the Sierra Club had common goals. Ten years later there are fewer jobs, plant shutdowns (Georgia-Pacific/Verso), unemployment and retraining dollars are more common, and the LTV plant, where 1,400 East Range people worked, sits because PolyMet still can’t get permits from the DNR and EPA.

Hibbing Daily Tribune
Charles Ramsay

Unemployment figures on the Iron Range continued to be mixed in August, with Virginia slightly up and Hibbing and Grand Rapids slightly down.

However, statewide figures supplied by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development showed logging and mining jobs had declined by 300 for the month.

Duluth News Tribune
Candace Renalls

“The big story is there’s a lot of jobs at the top end and bottom end, but not a lot of jobs in the middle,” said Drew Digby, the region’s labor analyst for DEED. “There is a continuing squeeze for manufacturing and government jobs while classic middle class jobs, like teachers, will be harder and harder to get.”