Minneapolis, MN – With the Minnesota governor’s stay-at-home order set to expire on May 4, and as COVID-19 cases are beginning to spike across the state, hundreds of Minnesotans are calling on Governor Tim Walz to resist the pressure from right-wing business groups and keep Minnesota closed until a time at which it is safe to reopen.

Minnesota Workers United is currently asking Minnesotans to call Governor Walz and let him know that Minnesota cannot safely reopen until there is universal testing available, plans for any businesses to reopen are reported, vetted and approved by the Department of Labor and by any unions representing involved workers, and until unemployment is made available to any workers who refuse to go back to work until they deem it safe to do so. The phone number to call Governor Walz is 651-201-3400.

Up to now, numbers of COVID-19 cases in Minnesota have remained lower than in many other states largely because of social distancing and the closure of non-essential businesses. While this is better than higher numbers it is certainly not enough. Only 22% of workers were sent home even under the strictest times of the stay-at-home order. Even before that order expired another 100,000 workers were already ordered back to work, many of these workers work in completely non-essential workplaces like golf courses.

Minnesota is just beginning to hit its spike in COVID-19 cases, with the curve rising faster every day and no end in sight. Now is not the time to reopen any further services in Minnesota. Instead, resources must be spent putting the above-mentioned plans into place to make workplaces safe once things do reopen.

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