Growing hunger in Augusta

In both Washington DC and in Augusta Maine there exists a rising hunger made worse by the knowledge that many of the old crew are going to be gone in 2009.
They want their last meal to be made up of the rights of citizens and the rights of the Unions.
I thank Change to Win for the hard information in this post. At least my health care plan still pays for the blood pressure medication these facts make necessary.

The National Labor Relations Board was established to encourage "the practice and procedure of collective bargaining" and to protect the "exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid and protection."

Recent NLRB decisions prove the corporations that paid for Bush are not satisfied. They want the law destroyed before Bush leaves office.

This President has tried to rewrite the Constitution, and is attempting to destroy the administrative rules which by which our laws have been enforced. Obviously, he plans to finish the job before he leaves office.

Stop em from joining, make it easy to kick em out!

• Dana Corp., 351 NLRB No. 28 (Sept. 29, 2007) –The Board reversed 40 years of precedent and invented a new rule: even when more than 50% of the workers sign cards indicating they want a union and the employer respects that choice, a 30% minority of employees may, within 45 days of voluntary recognition, petition to decertify the union, prevent the parties from bargaining, and force employees to suffer through the NLRB’s lengthy and divisive election process.

• Wurtland Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, 351 NLRB No. 50 (Sept. 29, 2007) – The Board took the opposite view about the reliability of signing a card when it comes to getting rid of a union! In this case, the NLRB ruled that signatures on a petition were good enough to get rid of an existing union and the Board rejected its own election process, arguing that employees who want to get rid of their union should not have to endure the delay involved in a decertification election. In Dana, the NLRB said that signature cards were not true indicators of employee support.

Easier for Employers to Fire and Intimidate Union Supporters

• BP Amoco Chemical-Chocolate Bayou, 351 NLRB No. 39 (Sept. 29, 2007) - The Board ruled that it was perfectly permissible for an employer to target union supporters for layoffs, and then to force them to sign release forms, as a condition to receiving severance pay, that prevented them or anyone else from challenging the legality of their termination.

The next election cycle, local, State, and Federal may be the most important chance for workers in this country to share in the wealth they are producing.

We need to vote. The last two elections proved that only a few votes can make the difference. In Maine the legislative talk is already on how to take the easy way out. Cut State Employees benefits, retirement, and deny pay raises no matter what inflation is doing. One party is already blaming the deficit on State Employees. If we don’t want to wear that target on our backs we have to let the legislature know we are here. Email, write, call, or see them in person.

They come out when the sun goes down, and the sun is going down on failed policies and policies of hate. Before the next elections they will be trying to get a last bite out of you.

They got one million dollars from the health plan last time and now they are hungrier.

E.T.I. 2009

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