Workday Magazine (https://workdaymagazine.org/category/policy/page/36/)
Congressional supporters of the Employee Free Choice Act, trying to get the 60 senators they need to break a planned Republican-led filibuster, are discussing a compromise to replace a key provision – majority sign-up – with mail-in ballots in union recognition elections.
Citing what they call a lack of leadership in addressing the state’s struggling economy and budget crisis, Minnesota unions praised Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s announcement Tuesday that he won’t run for a third term.
Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, in his campaign for a third term, will be running for the first time with DFL endorsement. Rybak easily won endorsement May 16 at the Minneapolis DFL convention.
Unions and their members will be a “gigantic part of the solution” to rebuilding the middle class, Vice President Joe Biden told the 3,000 delegates to the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department’s legislative conference.
The community will rally Wednesday to support 13 janitors laid off at a Bloomington office park whose tenants include major Wall Street companies that received government bailouts.
Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, one of the last Republican moderates, announced Tuesday he is switching parties and will run for re-election next year as a Democrat. But one news report said the veteran lawmaker is not switching his position against halting the planned GOP filibuster against the Employee Free Choice Act.
Senate and House tax bills (S.F. 2074 and H.F. 2323) represent a fair and reasonable response to Minnesota’s historic state revenue shortfall.
Prompted by the convergence of Income Tax Day and a report showing up to $1 trillion over 10 years in U.S. tax losses due to offshore corporate tax havens, several lawmakers are trying to ban the corporate tax dodge.
Last September, Rosemary Williams, a long-time resident and activist of South Minneapolis, received a Notice of Foreclosure on her home. Monday was her last day to legally reside in her home of 55 years.
More than 2 million working families in Minnesota will collectively get $1.1 billion to help them weather the current economic storm through the new federal tax credit that takes effect this week, the Obama administration said.