Workday Magazine (https://workdaymagazine.org/category/government/page/23/)
Protest, Washington D.C. Vlad Tchompalov @tchompalov
After months of Republican obstruction in the Senate, vital aid to states facing massive budget shortfalls and layoffs of hundreds of thousands of teachers, public employees, police officers and firefighters is on its way to the White House for President Obama’s signature.
Union allies, led by the Americans for Financial Reform, urged lawmakers to quickly approve the comprehensive Wall Street reform bill that congressional negotiators produced in late June.
Contract negotiations that move at a glacial pace. Bus schedules that force drivers to exceed the speed limit. Managers watching employees through binoculars from afar.
The session is over and so is the special session. Only the stroke of Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s pen is now required to balance the state’s projected $3 billion budget shortfall.
The Minnesota Legislature early Sunday passed a bill that would solve the state’s $3 billion budget deficit, but did so without a firm budget agreement between legislative leaders and Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
The National Association of Letter Carriers – shut out along with other postal worker unions from a Congressional hearing on the Postal Service’s plan to eliminate Saturday delivery and cut jobs – warned lawmakers against stampeding to endorse the agency’s ideas.
According to state records, the man who allegedly called AFSCME Council 5 and left a series of obscenity-laced voicemail messages with an invitation to Thursday’s Tea Party event, has a long history as a vendor with the state’s court system.
The guy on the billboard looks like he’s had too many jelly beans. Apparently, he’s not the only one who’s bloated. So is the billboard’s misleading claim about “metro area government employees” who make over $100,000 a year.
Rally for good jobs and fair taxes at the Minnesota state Capitol Wednesday, April 7, at noon.
As the Minnesota Legislature prepares to pass a much needed jobs and infrastructure bill, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson called on Governor Tim Pawlenty to sign the bill in its entirety.