Unions representing civil servants in the city of Scranton, Pa., are girding for battle after the mayor announced recently that he would be cutting pay for police, firefighters, garbage collectors and other public workers to minimum wage.Read the rest here.
The unions' attorney, Thomas Jennings, told the Scranton Times-Tribune Tuesday that they would be filing a lawsuit against Mayor Chris Doherty in federal court under the Fair Labor Standards Act accusing the city of failing to pay wages on time and failing to pay overtime.
The lawsuit will be among several legal actions the unions may take after Doherty made the announcement last Friday that the city's 398 workers would be paid $7.25 an hour because the city was running out of money.
The Times-Tribune, quoting City Business Manager Ryan McGowan, reported that as of Monday the city had $133,000 in cash, but owed $3.4 million in vendor bills. One of those bills was health insurance, McGowan said.
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10 comments:
Comments promoting violence or criminal activity including insurrection are a no-no here.
This must have happened because some Scranton government, at some time, put its head in the sand with regards to taxes and/or spending. Either they caved on not raising taxes or they caved on putting a halt to runaway spending.
"Comments promoting violence or criminal activity including insurrection are a no-no here."
John,
Not trying to troll here, but given this statement, what are your thoughts on the American insurrection that founded the U.S.? It's an honest question. If you've already answered this in the past and wish to link a previous post or article, that would be fine too.
Thank you,
Julio
The American Revolution was an immoral war waged against legitimate government by a bunch of spoiled rich people who thought their taxes were too high. Americans paid less in taxes than almost everyone in Great Britain to boot. There was absolutely no justification for the war. All of which said, it's a done deal.
God Save The Queen!
Thank you for your concise and honest answer.
George II's own line was voted in by Parliament. There was no God-ordained monarch to secede from at that point, much less the modern question of whether the US government has any moral claim to power.
So, democratic government being a given, Scranton's citizens have voted with their wallets and their feet against their government, as they are entitled to do. The city's net tax consumers, including its employees, are entitled to no more than the taxpayers are willing to give them. If there's not enough money, too bad. And, to be fair, the taxpayers are only entitled to those services which can be financed from current tax receipts. The principle applies equally to monarchs.
That's a fair point. Hanoverian legitimacy, at least with a legitimate Jacobite heir then still living, was highly debatable. But whether the final authority rested with parliament or the King, Great Britain was still the mother country. One is free to disagree with the law, but armed revolt except in cases of extreme tyranny is not moral. The argument that people can simply obey what laws they will and ignore those they don't like at will has a name. It is called anarchism.
Scranton is the victim of our de-industrialization policies - so-called free market capitalism, an ideology that enables the systematic looting of society on behalf of short term gains for the wealthiest. In fact, drive across Pennsylvania: you'll see what free trade and Wall Street driven corporations have done to virtually every town in the state.
Pennsylvania makes it expensive to hire and fire people, so employers leave or use 1099's wherever they can.
What is your alternative to this decisionmaking by business owners? And don't give me some ambiguous "--ism" and leave it at that. I want to know specifically what you would make a proprietor or corporation do in order to keep jobs in Pennsylvania.
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