Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Court forces Teamsters Local 320 to return ill gotten dues and Pension news.

Teamsters officials forced to return every dollar, plus interest, of fees seized by the union from the court workers

Minneapolis, MN (September 10, 2018) – A federal First Amendment lawsuit brought by National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys for two Minnesota court employees against a Teamsters local union has ended with the workers winning a settlement that will return to the workers all forced union dues seized by union officials. The refund is a result of the Foundation-won U.S. Supreme Court Janus v. AFSCME decision, which held that the First Amendment prohibits mandatory union fees for public sector workers.

Carrie Keller and Elizabeth Zeien, employees of the State of Minnesota Court System, filed the lawsuit after Teamsters Local 320 union officials and Minnesota state officials forced them into union ranks without a vote and against their desire.
Plus Pension News
Craig Johnson, Teamsters Local 320 BA tries to take credit for protecting our Pension last year! Everyone who's been following this blog knows Brian Aldes, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 320 "signed off" on CUTS to the PERA Correctional Plan. Only after this author and MNPEA went to bat was our 2.5% COLA maintained. Had Johnson and Aldes had their way it would have been only 1.4% this year.
The following letter from Craig Johnson of Teamsters Local 320 was shared with me by our Ramsey County CO readers of this blog. Note the last sentence; "...we worked on the Omnibus Pension Bill to secure PERA remains strong...."

They had agreed to cap our pension at 1.5%! They and AFSCME called it shared sacrifice. Sorry Craig, we don't don't need that kind of "work" on our pension.

Tuesday, January 08, 2019

and just like that there was a new Sheriff

On January 7, 2019 Dave Hutch was sworn as Sheriff of Hennepin County!

Congratulations Hennepin County Dave Sheriff Hutch!




Sheriff Hutch giving acceptance speech


Some in overflow attendance


Tuesday, January 01, 2019

NEW PTSD law covers Corrections Officers

One of the new Minnesota laws taking affect January 1, 2019 is one that recognizes PTSD as covered by Workers Comp for Public Safety and First Responders including Corrections Officers.


Occupational Disease/PTSD/ Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

This paragraph creates a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) presumption for an employee who was employed on active duty as:
  • a licensed police officer;
  • a firefighter;
  • a paramedic;
  • an emergency medical technician;
  • a licensed nurse employed to provide emergency medical services outside of a medical facility;
  • a public safety dispatcher;
  • an officer employed by the state or a political subdivision at corrections, detention or secure treatment facility;
  • a sheriff or full-time deputy sheriff of any county; or
  • a member of the Minnesota State Patrol.