Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily midday digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.
New Amazon Union Dropping?
Warehouse workers regularly rally outside Amazon’s Shakopee fulfillment center. Can ya blame ‘em? “The safety here is horrible. You have to faint or die to get a day off,” 40-year-old worker Khali Jama told Minnesota Reformer’s Max Nesterak at a protest Thursday. The union-busting company’s sadistic disdain for its workforce, which it subjects to creepy surveillance and crushing quotas, isn’t really news. But ol’ Max unearthed a very newsy nugget in the ‘burbs yesterday: Our local Amazon workers, many of whom are East African, recently launched a unionization push. A group called Amazon Labor Union Minnesota is actively collecting union cards, Nesterak reports, and if 30% of the shop signs ’em they’ll qualify for a union election. (Labor fights inside the mega-corp have been long, hard-fought, and mostly—but not always—unsuccessful.)
Interesting! If I’m writing headlines at the Reformer, I’m leading with that. But I’m not. I’m writing a little Flyover news blurb, one that’ll conclude with a quote acquired by an on-the-ground reporter whose hard work I’m merely aggregating: “[My doctor] said 100% that’s a work-related injury. We’ve seen numerous people from Amazon come in here with that same injury,” says Jeremy Lane, a warehouse worker whose still-injured arm forced him to miss a month of work without pay. “[Amazon] said you should have seen one of our doctors. That was just your doctor’s opinion.” Jesus. Those cards can’t get signed fast enough.
Moving to Minnesota
Did you know it’s common wisdom among recruiters looking to lure out of state talent that Minnesota is the hardest state to recruit employees to and the hardest state to recruit employees away from? I learned as much in the latest installment of the Star Tribune’s Curious Minnesota series, which takes a timely dive into the paradox as Minnesota is currently looking at one of the tightest labor markets in the nation. (MPR just reported on this earlier in the week.) “When we talk to candidates, probably less than 1 in 10 would be willing to relocate to Minneapolis,” Adam Hoffarber, a managing partner at Minnetonka executive recruiting firm SkyWater Search Partners, tells the Strib’s Katy Read. But once they move here, folks simply don’t want to leave—just ask Racket’s three transplant staffers! (No seriously, ask us; we love it here, but we have a lot of advice for people considering making the move.)
Zillow Gone Wild Features MN Home That Isn’t Wild, but Is Awesome
Social media account Zillow Gone Wild shares some of the best/weirdest/most amazing homes for sale. We’re talking darksided illuminati homes, homes where the owners really committed to an aesthetic, and, oddly enough, lots of homes for people who are really into dinosaurs. Their recent post featuring a Page-neighborhood Minneapolis home is super cool. Built in 1955, this mid-century modern beaut features floor-to-ceiling windows, views of Diamond Lake, and lots of wood paneling. Our favorite details? The gorgeous fireplace, the laundry chute cage, and the shuffleboard games built right into the tile. The four-bedroom, three-bath home, built in 1955 by Wright-influenced Carl Graffunder, will set you back $825K. But oh, the wild shuffleboard nights you will have here!
Mack On Fallon
Over the past decade, if you’ve paid even a little bit of attention to the Twin Cities comedy scene, you’re already aware that Mary Mack is hilarious. That awareness broadened in 2020, when the folksy stand-up landed a role on Hulu’s hit animated sci-fi sitcom, Solar Opposites. And, tonight, the whole dang country will see Mack when she performs on national TV. “I got my saliva test result back and it said I was funny, so I get to go on The Tonight Show,” she wrote today via Facebook. Mack has appeared on Last Comic Standing, Conan, and Last Call with Carson Daly, but this’ll be her Tonight Show debut. The other guests who’ll be subjected to host Jimmy Fallon’s focus-grouped sensibilities this evening at 10 p.m. on NBC: pop superstar Miley Cyrus and Broadway star Jesse Williams. Break a leg, Mary!
