1 min read

Season 5, Episode 158

From an AFT member and football coach to Vice President nominee

Education Minnesota

 

Guest Name:


Denise Specht

Guest Website:


Education Minnesota 

Guest Social Media:


Facebook

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Supportive Documents:


Denise Specht, President of Education Minnesota, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss her experience working with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who was recently announced as Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s running mate. Specht also discussed Education Minnesota and how she ended up joining the organization after getting her start in Texas.

Education Minnesota is home to 84,450 unionized members. They are affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association. More than 63,000 licensed educators and more than 11,000 support professionals and student educators are currently active in the union.

Specht explained her journey from joining the teaching profession in Texas to being elected President of Education Minnesota in 2013. Since then, she has been reelected three times. In addition to providing a voice to Minnesota's educators, she serves as Vice President of the AFT and is a member of the NEA’s Political Action Committee. Specht also serves on the Minnesota AFL-CIO general board and executive community. 

With the recent news that Democratic nominee Kamala Harris selected Walz as her running mate, Specht shared her experience working with Walz when he was an AFT member. She also discussed Walz's pro-union work as governor in Minnesota, ensuring that the state’s working class was not taken advantage of by corporations. Specht talked about the work that Walz did to ensure there would not be a voucher program in Minnesota, similar to the programs Florida and Ohio are currently using. She said all her union Brothers and Sisters from Minnesota are excited to do what they can to educate voters on Walz’s history with labor and gave a glimpse into Minnesota’s labor plans for educational outreach throughout the state.

For more on Education Minnesota and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, listen to the show above.


America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.

America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.

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