Bethany Winkels

Bethany Winkels was elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Minnesota AFL-CIO in November of 2025. Winkels, a member of LIUNA Local 563, first joined the Minnesota AFL-CIO in 2016 before becoming Executive Director in 2020. She took a leave of absence in 2018 to work on the campaign of now-Governor Tim Walz. Prior to her time at the AFL-CIO, she organized on behalf of many other campaigns and causes, both in Minnesota and across the country – including working to elect Senator Elizabeth Warren, raising the minimum wage in Minnesota, and passing the Paid Family and Medical Leave program which is set to launch on January 1st of this year. She is a proud trade unionist, the daughter and granddaughter of proud trade unionists, and the mother of future trade unionists and union supporters.