Laid off state employees rally again at Capitol

MPLS star & sickle ^ | 7-6-11 | Mike Kaszuba

[WOBBLY BOB]

For the second time in the past week, hundreds of laid off state workers rallied in the hot sun on the steps of Minnesota’s closed State Capitol to protest the state government shutdown. Wednesday’s rally again took aim at familiar theme: Taxing the state's wealthiest residents to help solve the state’s $5 billion budget deficit. One man held a sign that took his frustration a step further – he had changed it from “Tax the Rich” to “Eat the Rich.”

[NRG1973]

My understanding is that most of their union contracts(ACSME,MAPE, etc) guarantee back pay PLUS they get unemployment when the time comes to apply. IOW, sounds like a paid vacation.

Not true!!! An article that I read indicates the unions agreed to be "laid off" during this shutdown. So they gave up their "right" to back pay. The governor and legislature may choose to give them back pay...but aren't required to do so.

Also, unemployment income is maxed out at about $25,000 per year. Most of the state employeees are earning significantly more than that. So the state employees will be hurting more as the shutdown lingers.

[cephalopod]

I was just laid off by the State of MN. Just coincidentally I was on a temporary project (i.e. I was not a permanent employee) which ended with the fiscal year, June 30th.
In the area I was working, IT within the Department of Health, I will say that the people I worked with were as hard-working and competent as any I have worked with in the public sector (20 years experience). The chief difference I saw was that they worked regular hours; I didn’t see the 60+ hours a week I commonly experienced in the private sector.
Prior to this job I was highly suspect of the devotion and motivation of state employees. Now, at least in this area, I saw people giving a full effort to important tasks for reasonable wages and benefits. I was working (had to ostensibly join the union) for wages which I got 20 years ago and the benefits we not golden by any means.
Under Plawenty the unions got slapped back pretty hard. There has been a substantial regression in benefits; wages have been cost of living or less. The unions have been yapping dogs, but toothless.
I suspect the protestors are mostly from the human services divisions of the state. There, there is a greater sense of entitlement and class envy than I saw in the DOH.
The employees, in this case, have little to do with the shutdown per se. They are just out of their jobs for lack of a budget; most want a work and a paycheck,not unemployment. Unfortunately the protesters have a case of class envy and entitlement which I really don’t think is true of all or even a majority.

[Monorprise]

The Article’s comment section is dominated by leftist who are of course playing guilt trip class warfare.

One of em even had the gull to complain about conservatives pitting people’s prosperity up against each other. lol

Theses people are compete bafoons, they seem to think its everyone else’s job to work hard to provide for them rather then themselves. That people are hurt by not being given the larger share of other peoples money. All the while they ignore the real injury which is the state forcefully taking that money from the people who actually made it in the first place!

Yes among other backwards nonsense these people spout. They can’t tell the difference between failure to treat a self-inflicted injury and inflicting the injury.

I for one am glad I don’t live in Minnesota with theses self-centered abusive idiots.

PS: The Federal Government should not be in anyway rewarding States that spend more money, with some of the tax dollars of other states.

[NRG1973]

To be truthful, the state government shurdown may be the best way to resolve the budget shortfall. There is a court appointed “master” who decides which services are mandatory. She can allow spending up to the limit that Minnesota takes in revenue. So as long as the shutdown goes on the state will operate with a “balanced budget”. So the longer there is a government shutdown the longer the state will have a balanced budget.

[WOBBLY BOB]

please post your source.

I’d like to read more.

IMHO, UI should NOT pay you as much as you make while working.

Unemployment benefits are essentially a mandatory insurance policy your employer and the employee are forced to pay on your behalf. You can’t opt out. So while you are employed this is in effect coming out of YOUR paycheck.

The correct way to handle unemployment is either:

- make the coverage optional so that the employer can pay more money up front to the employee

- Pay out all benefits in one lump sum just like any other insurance settlement with a valid claim on a loss.

If paid in a lump sum most people would have INCENTIVE to find work immediately.

Of course, those who would prefer to coddle their sheeple constituents would see this as ‘mean and unfair’.

Class envy plays well in MN...unfortunately, the ‘tax the rich’ crowd who were temporarily laid off are now going to be getting paid time off to write letters to the editor the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press will dutifully publish.

So Is Governor Dayton a man of his word?

http://www.minnesotamajority.org/Hidden/ManofHisWord/tabid/207/Default.aspx

[Dead Corpse]

Hot sun? It's only 78^oF outside...

Bunch of lazy hippies.

[WOBBLY BOB]

It’s hot when you’re a liar with pants on fire :)

[NRG1973]

please post your source.

I’d like to read more.

Here is the link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/in-minnesota-shutdown-workers-who-calculate-the-cost-are-laid-off/2011/07/06/gIQA7nnJ1H_story.html

Here is the paragraph that I alluded to:

The state is also facing higher unemployment benefits. Under a deal between the administration and public employee unions, state workers were laid off rather than furloughed so that they could collect unemployment during the shutdown. They did not receive severance packages.

[NRG1973]

Class envy plays well in MN...unfortunately, the ‘tax the rich’ crowd who were temporarily laid off are now going to be getting paid time off to write letters to the editor the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press will dutifully publish.

If they are writing letters to the editor they will be writing while they are collecting unemployment insurance...not on back pay. And unemployment insurance is significantly less then they get on straight pay.

[WOBBLY BOB]

thanks

[WOBBLY BOB]

And unemployment insurance is significantly less then they get on straight pay.

Welcome to the real world of the private sector.

[vette6387]

Maybe “the rich” can take over a state and make it their own. I’d join them in a heartbeat because it would be a great place to live. Most of them didn’t get rich looking into the urinal while taking a pee, so they know how to run things. Just wish that they had done it in California before the Gays and Illegals beat them to it.

[vette6387]

Maybe “the rich” can take over a state and make it their own. I’d join them in a heartbeat because it would be a great place to live. Most of them didn’t get rich looking into the urinal while taking a pee, so they know how to run things. Just wish that they had done it in California before the Gays and Illegals beat them to it.

[glennaro]

Thank you for your first-hand detailed account. I offer my sincere best wishes for your continued success.

[WOBBLY BOB]

Emmer: Who Is “US Uncut” & Why Isn’t The Main Stream Media Interested?
http://www.ktlkfm.com/pages/davisandemmer.html

Take a look at these documents that I received them from a friend. More proof of how our local news media fail to serve us . . . It starts with a couple “harmless photos” from the Star Tribune photo essay on the day of the shutdown.
One of the photos introduces us to Carl Gibson. Carl likes to travel with a bull horn from Mississippi - in fact the photo says Carl is “just visiting from Mississippi”.
Where are the probing questions for Carl from the Reporters? For instance, at a minimum why didn’t they ask: “Who are you? Why the bull horn? What group? Who funds your group...? Nope, none of these questions mattered because . . . he’s just visiting...
Turns out -if our inquiring media had bothered to check they would have learned that - Carl has started an Anarchist group modeled after a similar group in England Called UK Uncut. His group is US Uncut. He is the co-founder, organizer, and spokesman for the organization. There are now 20 state chapters across the country since they founded it in 2011 to push that Corporate tax cheats should pay up.
Our media, had they bothered to look, easily could have found several rallies in California against Bank of America by US Uncut that were sponsored by Democracy in Action which has ties to George Soros; but I guess that’s not news. There is also another story which says that Carl has with the US Uncut organization reached out to the SEIU Service Employee International Union to partner with them.
http://usuncutmn.blogspot.com/2011/06/minnesota-shutdown-rally-and-protest.html
(blog on Minnesota US Uncut shutdown rally)
US Uncut website:
http://www.usuncut.org/

Read more: http://www.ktlkfm.com/pages/davisandemmer.html#ixzz1RS1JMoLh
Check out this June rally US Uncut participated in Chicago blog entry from June:
http://www.usuncut.org/actions/528#report-210
Chicago had to have 200 police officers at this rally for protection of property/safety.

[mnrep]

I just love their chants to “tax the rich” the dim witts, they are the “rich”. An executive assitant for the St Paul Schools gets apx 60K per year. The union crybabies make probably double that. They’re so dumb it makes my ears hurt.