Workday Magazine (https://workdaymagazine.org/category/government/page/17/)
Protest, Washington D.C. Vlad Tchompalov @tchompalov
The 2012 Minnesota legislative session gets underway January 24 for what promises to be another bruising clash between the widely divergent views of the Republican majority in the legislature and DFL Governor Mark Dayton, allied with the legislature’s DFL minority.
The forecast surplus in Minnesota’s state budget is good news, but many people are still struggling due to Republican policies that shifted the tax burden onto the middle class, union leaders said.
The Occupy movement is coming to Capitol Hill, as the Communications Workers, the Service Employees and other groups will launch “Occupy Congress” in early December.
While state officials reported the overall economic impact of last summer’s government shutdown was “minimal,” the forced layoff of thousands of state workers took a serious toll, union said.
Federal workers staged lunch-break demonstrations at three locations in the Twin Cities metro area Thursday, warning the public about potential cuts to the Social Security Administration and their impact on middle class Americans.
People are spreading lies and half-truths in an effort to make the U.S. Postal Service appear insolvent, but Tuesday thousands of postal workers, letter carriers and other employees rallied in all 435 Congressional Districts nationwide, hoping to set the record straight.
To listen to the right-wing rant, the current financial crisis at the U.S. Postal Service can only be solved by major reductions in service and personnel and curbing the postal unions. But the Postal Service’s deficits, in fact, stem from a 2006 mandate passed by Congress. And Congress can make a fix — without spending a dime of taxpayer money.
Citizens across the United States will rally in every Congressional district to support the U.S. Postal Service and its tradition of providing universal, low-cost postal service to every American.
The Minnesota Association of Professional Employees will urge Minnesotans to vote against an amendment to the state Constitution that would ban gay marriage.
While thousands of public and private sector workers are relieved to be returning to work after the nearly three-week state government shutdown, they are outraged by a budget that protects millionaires and increases the burden on Minnesota’s most vulnerable residents.