Thursday, January 5, 2012

Teamsters tell ME lawmakers: Stop the War on Workers



The fight for working families starts in Maine. Gov. Paul LePage is already collecting $500-a-head from anti-worker donors three years before he's up for re-election, the Bangor Daily News reports.

The Kennebec Journal tells us
A year after major labor battles in other states -- most notably Wisconsin -- the Maine AFL-CIO and other labor organizations are gearing up to oppose legislation that they describe as anti-labor...

The most controversial of the labor bills is L.D. 309, which would end the practice of requiring state employees who aren't in unions to pay a portion of union dues. The bill was held over from last year's session, following a contentious public hearing.
LePage has been a vocal supporter of L.D. 309, saying it's not right to force some state workers to contribute to unions they didn't choose to join.
Unions say that because the contracts they negotiate cover all workers, regardless of whether they are members, it's not fair if some workers don't contribute.
While some union members at the State House on Wednesday held posters that said "Stop the War on Workers" and "Jobs, Not Attacks," LePage issued a statement saying he's trying to lower the cost of government to help the working class.
Mark us down as not believing LePage.