DULUTH, Minn. – Duluth Mayor Don Ness will once again be allowed to enter the Duluth Labor Temple's Paul Wellstone Hall after the local AFL-CIO Central Labor Body lifted a lifetime ban against the mayor.

The ban was lifted after Ness met with the Central Labor Body's executive board on Monday. The Central Labor Body had voted Sept. 10 to ban Ness for crossing an informational picket line

at the Radisson Hotel.

Ness said Friday that he's glad the decision was reversed and that it's a first step in restoring the relationship with labor - but it's going to take time, he said.

"These are folks that I worked well with in the past and thought we had a good and respectful working relationship and that this action, without the benefit of even a conversation ahead of time, was really discouraging to me and I expressed that," Ness said. "While I think this was an important first step, this has definitely changed things for me and we're going to have to work on rebuilding it."

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