February 6, 2012 (MINNEAPOLIS) Leaders of organized labor, City of Minneapolis leaders, business leaders and non-profit community partners, flanked by scores of Minneapolis residents who are members of or training for employment in the building trades, united today to say clearly that the top action the Minneapolis City Council and Minnesota Legislature can take to create jobs is to support a new Vikings stadium in Minneapolis.

Estimates provided by the Minnesota Vikings show that the stadium would directly and indirectly generate 13,000 construction-related jobs and $300 million in payroll. It would also bring the total number of ongoing jobs at the stadium to 3,400.

Bill McCarthy, president of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, said, There is a jobs crisis in our city and our state, especially in the construction trades where unemployment is over 20 percent. Were united today in proposing a solution to the crisis: building a Vikings stadium in Minneapolis.

I thank Mayor Rybak, Council President Barbara Johnson and Governor Mark Dayton for their hard work to get the stadium built, and I thank the members of the Minneapolis City Council who already support it. I call on all members of the City Council and the Legislature to support the Mayors and Council Presidents plan to build this stadium in Minneapolis, McCarthy continued.

Mayor Rybak put it simply, The number-one action that the City Council and Legislature can take to lessen the unemployment crisis in the construction trades and create jobs in our city and state is to build a Vikings stadium in Minneapolis. Labor, business and community partners in Minneapolis are united and ready to build a stadium using only Minneapolis existing tax dollars and no new taxes.

Mayor Rybak turned to the scores of construction workers and trainees present. Are you ready to get to work? Yes! they roared back.

Referring to the workers, Council Member Diane Hofstede added, This is the face of our community. These are the people we need to put back to work.

City Council President Barbara Johnson pointed out that the Minneapolis stadium plan includes the opportunity to renovate the Target Center, another job-creating and revenue-generating facility of statewide significance. The renovation of Target Center will create 1,100 more good construction jobs and 1,100 more full- and part-time jobs. The opportunity to create this many good jobs at once is one we cannot afford to miss.

Mayor Rybak also pointed to the need to retain and add good jobs in Minneapolis hospitality industry, which generates $1 billion in payroll annually.

Business leaders present, including Sam Grabarski, president and CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council, and Todd Klingel, president of the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce, joined labor in voicing their support for a Minneapolis stadium and the jobs it will create.

McCarthy announced two jobs agreements between the Minnesota Vikings and labor unions:

A project-labor agreement between the Vikings and the Minneapolis Building and Construction Trades Council, which means that unions commit to building the stadium on time, on budget and with no disruptions in exchange for the Vikings commitment to use only union labor. McCarthy said, This is good news for all Minnesotans.

A letter of intent and a labor-peace agreement between the Vikings and UNITE-HERE, the union that represents concession workers at the Metrodome. These agreements mean that the Vikings will retain all the UNITE-HERE jobs currently at the Metrodome and will allow UNITE-HERE the opportunity to organize the additional concession jobs that will be created at the new stadium.

In addition, Mayor Rybak announced that the City of Minneapolis and the Vikings are in conversation about workforce agreements to set goals for hiring workers from communities and neighborhoods that have been particularly hard hit during the recession and have been historically underrepresented in the construction trades.

Weve had success with meeting and exceeding similar goals that weve set for other Minneapolis projects, such as Midtown Exchange, Coloplast and Amplatz Childrens Hospital, and well do it again for a Vikings stadium, Mayor Rybak said.

Louis King, president and CEO of Summit Academy OIC in North Minneapolis, which partners with unions in the construction trades to train workers from historically underrepresented communities, said, We believe that the best social-service program is a job, but the young people that are our future need to have jobs to fill when they graduate. We are committed to being part of this project and to sharing in the benefits and the responsibility. If you build it in our community, our community will build it.

Scott Gray, CEO of the Minneapolis Urban League, which also partners with unions to train workers, added, This plan is right for our historically underserved community. This will be a true Peoples Stadium, one that involves every community in building it.

Lynn Littlejohn, director of community affairs at Mortenson Construction, told how Mortenson, which built Target Field, set and exceeded aggressive goals for local hiring and subcontracting, including women and minorities. She said that 95% of the labor and more than 90% of the contractors that they used were local. Over one-third of workers at Target Field were people of color and women, and 110 subcontractors on the project were minority- or women-owned businesses.

Contact: John Stiles, Communications Director, (612) 673-3665 office,

(612) 581-1788 mobile

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