No Bailout Without Adequate Protections For Working Families

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The following is a statement of principle from the Change to Win Leadership Council on the Treasury Department’s bailout plan.

“For most working families, the economy has been in a meltdown for quite some time: they have seen their jobs outsourced, their wages decline, their benefits disappear, their homes foreclosed and the American Dream becoming more remote.

“Now, the Bush Administration wants us to pick up the tab to bail out Wall Street, with no strings attached. Congress should not give the Administration a blank check. It needs to structure a bailout plan that will actually work to stabilize the financial sector without leaving taxpayers holding the bag. And it needs to provide relief to the real victims of this crisis – the working families whose homes are now at risk of foreclosure.

Full Press Release

Is the 2008 Republican Platform Anti-Union?

The 2008 Republican Platform has some very disturbing language under Protecting Union Workers. It reads:

...the nation’s labor laws, to a large extent formed out of conflicts several generations ago, should be modernized to make it easier for employers and employees to plan, execute, and profit together. To protect workers from misuse of their funds, we will conscientiously enforce federal law requiring financial reporting and transparency by labor unions.

The Bush administration has put so much government regulation on Unions that much of our dues money and our Union's time is wasted giving more financial information to the government then the failed financial institutions they should have been regulating. It is a government effort to bury Unions in paperwork and regulation.

The Republican platform goes on to attack the Employee Free Choice Act spreading the lie that it is designed to deny workers a secret ballot in union referenda is an assault, not only against a fundamental principle of labor law, but even more against the dignity and honor of the American work force. We oppose “card check” legislation, which deprives workers of their privacy and their right to vote, because it exposes workers to intimidation by union organizers.

This is a bald face attack on workers right to organize in the face of employer intimidation and does NOT deny the workers right to a secret ballot. Daily Kos has a good article on this.

I'm not telling you how to vote, I'm just trying to educate on the fact that who's in office directly affects our livelihood.

This same 2008 Republican Platform also addressed the Home Mortgage crisis saying:

...At the same time, government action must not implicitly encourage anyone to borrow more than they can afford to repay. We support energetic federal investigation and, where appropriate, prosecution of criminal wrongdoing in the mortgage industry and investment sector. We do not support government bailouts of private institutions. Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself. We believe in the free market as the best tool to sustained prosperity and opportunity for all. We encourage potential buyers to work in concert with the lending community to educate themselves about the responsibilities of purchasing a home, condo, or land.

We see how well they kept that promise.

What do they get paid?

What does the Sheriff get paid? The Chief? The Inspectors? Do they get overtime?

The Star Tribune has listed all government salaries at this site: http://ww3.startribune.com/dynamic/salaries/

Simply scroll down to Hennepin and click on Sheriff and satisfy your curiosity.

Job Well Done

Thank you to everyone who did such a great job during the RNC! The hours and days were long and you rose to the occasion. The professionalism shown by all was overwhelming. Showing up early to relieve co-workers, only 1 sick call for a very legitimate reason, and keeping a good attitude. Thank you! I believe you are a great reflection of Teamsters, Correctional Officers and the Sheriff's Office.

Also a special thanks to our B.A. Tom Perkins for supplying the pizzas on day four of the RNC. They were a great morale booster.