b'MinnesotaNorth Dakota 563 Organizing ReportLiUNA Organizing Newsletter Report Energy Dominance By Kevin PranisMarketing ManagerLiUNA continued our leadership within Minnesotas energy industry. This year we played a key role in securing approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission for both the acquisition of Minnesota Power parent company ALLETEby private investors, which unlocks over The LiUNA Minnesota/North Dakota organizing program is supported by the member-funded Great Lakes Region Organizing Committee$5 billion in financing for new energy infrastructure; and for Xcel Energys plan to invest billions of dollars in new wind, solar, battery storage, (GROC). Our mission is to grow union membership, market share, and work opportunities while defending labor, safety, and quality standardsand gas generation projects.in the construction industry. We recruit new members and contractors, advocate for job-creating public and private investment, and hold bad actors accountable for cutting corners and cheating workers. We are also securing union commitments for new solar projects in partnership with the IBEW and Operating Engineers, including Minnesota Power Projects in Cohasset and Benton County, Otter Tail Power Projects in Bemidji and Eastern North Dakota. Organizing Staff: Octavio Chung, Steve Cortina (ND), Lucas Franco (Research Manager), Adam Hutchens, Ana Vergara, Patrick OConnell (Northern MN), Kevin Pranis (Marketing Manager), Evan Whiteford (ND), and Tony Wicken. North Dakota: No More Vegas RulesLiUNA organizers spent the spring of 2025 delivering PROUD MEMBER trainings and defending the gains our union made at the MinnesotaRenewable energy companies have effectively shut hundreds of North Dakotans out of job opportunities over the past decade by choosing legislature in 2023 and 2024, including first-in-the-nation broadband safety and housing wage theft prevention laws. During the summer andto rely on out-of-state construction workforce, but this year industry leaders learned the hard way that (unlike Las Vegas) what happens in fall, our staff was out in the field talking to nonunion contractors and workers, and gathering evidence of safety lapses, worker abuses andNorth Dakota doesnt necessarily stay there.other problems in nonunion building, broadband, energy, landscaping, and other key sectors. Here are a few key accomplishments from 2025: NextEra Energy Resources was forced to explain the companys poor local hiring record in North Dakota, where we estimate that North Dakotans made up less than 10% of construction workers on the companys wind farm projects, after LiUNA challenged NextEras claimsBroadband Safety and Justice at the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.In 2024, Minnesota became the first state in the nation to establish a training and certification requirement for broadband installers as partMeanwhile, Apex Clean Energys failure to provide meaningful employment opportunities for North Dakota workers on the Bowman of a LiUNA-led effort to prevent repeated damage to underground gas and electric infrastructure.Wind Project led the City Council of Cambridge, Massachusetts, which is a customer of the wind farm, to unanimously adopt a resolution expressing profound disappointment after hearing testimony from LiUNA members.This spring, we successfully defended the new certification from efforts by industry to water it down. Fortunately, we gained new allies including cities and counties that are tired of dealing with damage caused by inexperienced contractors.The good news is that both NextEra and Apex have promised to use local union labor on upcoming Minnesota Solar Projects in Benton and Lyon Counties. We also see the tide finally turning in North Dakota where Xcel Energys Border Wind Repower is currently using union labor, Over the summer, organizing staff monitored dozens of broadband projects and documented widespread abuses, including unsafe workingwhile ALLETE plans to do the same with the 200-megawatt Longspur Wind Project.conditions, nonexistent training, rampant wage theft and tax fraud, use of child labor, and even sexual assault. Other Recent WinsSince thecampaign began, we have recovered over $45,000 in back pay, caught two contractors apparently using child labor, and secured two Unfair Labor Practice settlements. We are actively pursuing additional cases involving what could be hundreds of thousands of dollars inRosales Masonry, which organizing staff found using H2B workers on a Roers Companies Housing Project, was ultimately forced to pay unpaid wages, taxes and compensation owed to workers for mistreatment. nearly $1.4 million in back wages and penalties and received a five-year debarment from the Federal H-2B program.We are now talking to some of the largest broadband providers in Minnesota about these abuses that are occurring on their projects andLandbridge Ecological became the first specialty ecological restoration contractor to sign our collective bargaining agreement following pushing them to adopt Responsible Contractor Policies to protect workers and the public. Several LiUNA contractors are doing unionmany months of market research and conversations with workers and management. We are working to ensure new prevailing requirements broadband work. covering state-funded restoration work are fully enforced so companies like Landbridge can compete on a level playing field.Day on the Hill - 2025Laborers from North Dakota to Mass. ask Cambridge City Council Where are the jobs? on the Bowman Wind Project. West St. Paul City Council meeting on wage theft and prevailing wage policy.20 local 563 laborers union /563 news /2025-2026 newsletterlocal 563 laborers union /563 news /2025-2026 newsletter 21'