The rest of the story...

In his memorandum, the Governor reports that the state has made “considerable structural changes and reduced personnel expenses and state spending across the board.”  He further notes that “significant” (emphasis added) pension reform was passed by the General Assembly last session.  Unfortunately he has not wrecked enough damage on RI State Employees, and declares....

PROVIDENCE –– Rhode Island’s public employee labor unions are mobilizing to file a class-action lawsuit against the state to block pension changes the legislature adopted in June to save taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.

LOCAL 580 MOA

 Privatization will not be tolerated...

Members of Congress, union members and working family activists rallied in Washington, D.C., today in support of health care reform—and against funding it with a new tax on health benefits.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—who has introduced an amendment to remove a benefits tax from the Senate   bill—and Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) were joined by workers from across the country who would be hurt if a new benefits tax became law, as well as leaders from across the union movement.

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker attended the rally and said placing a tax on working people’s health benefits would be a step in the wrong direction for health care:

Dec. 10 is International Human Rights Day, the anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Although much progress has been made to ensure human rights in the past 61 years, Sheldon Friedman, research coordinator for the AFL-CIO’s Voice@Work campaign, reminds us that much more remains to be done, especially to protect workers’ freedom to form unions.

On International Human Rights Day, there is much unfinished business before we fulfill the promise of universal rights for all people. In the United States, especially, the freedom of workers to join unions and bargain collectively for a better life is not being protected. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognized these basic workplace freedoms as basic human rights and necessary for human dignity, economic stability and social justice.

Most CEOs don't want to give workers the freedom to decide for themselves whether to join together for a voice at work. It's not surprising, especially when you consider that CEOs are now paying themselves an average of 344 times more than workers.