Former State Employee's Lawsuit Further Proof Of Republican Vote-Tampering
06/16/10 1:42PM
Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Chip Forrester said the recent lawsuit filed by a former state employee against Secretary of State Tre Hargett is another piece of evidence pointing to a scheme by Republicans to maintain power in the state by stealing elections.
William Jay Reynolds accused Hargett of firing him for political reasons, according to the lawsuit filed in Davidson County Chancery Court. Reynolds formerly served in the secretary of state's office as an administrative law judge but was terminated soon after the General Assembly appointed Hargett in January 2009. .
Appears to me that Mr. Hargett is getting rid of anyone in the secretary of state's office who isn't an avowed fan, Forrester said. That is a petty and arguably illegal action by Mr. Hargett. .
Reynolds, who is disabled, alleges in his suit that he was asked to communicate with newly elected Republican state Rep. Vance Dennis about whom he would support in the election for constitutional officers, specifically the secretary of state. .
After Reynolds met with Dennis in January 2009, the state representative then alerted House Republican Leader Jason Mumpower about the meeting, the complaint notes. The House Republican leader then discussed the nature and substance of the Reynolds and Dennis meeting with Hargett and Republican Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, the complaint continues, adding that Hargett discriminated and retaliated against Reynolds the following month by firing him. .
We have a group of Republicans who will say and do anything to stay in power, Forrester said. They just overturned a law meant to provide more fair and accurate elections here in the state. And they have unjustly fired a bunch of county election administrators just because they were perceived to be Democrats. .
Doesn't take a genius to understand what is happening here. I just hope voters get angry about the shenanigans going on over in the state Legislature and fire some of the Republicans responsible for this when they go to the polls in November. .
Senate Republicans last week delayed implementation of the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act, which requires all county election commissions to make the switch to optical scan machines and paper ballots before the November 2010 elections. About $35 million in federal funds had been set aside to purchase the machines and train workers on them. .
Tennessee voters got the shaft by a shameless group of Republican politicians bent on winning at all costs when the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act was delayed, Forrester said. Now it appears that anyone working for state government who doesn't blindly agree and go along with them may get fired. .
Actions like that are wrong and ultimately hurt the services the state is trying to provide its citizens. It only goes to show you how some of those in the Republican leadership think. If you don't like the rules, change them. If you don't like an employee, fire him, he added..
Obama's Labor Dept. to force firms to disclose union-busting tactics
Among at least 20 new rules President Obama's Labor Department plans to introduce in the new year is one that would require companies to file financial disclosures on their union-busting activity.
In a series of web chats over the last few weeks, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has been pledging that 2010 will be a year in which her agency steps up what is already regarded as a strong effort by the department to go to bat for workers.
Solis is saying, in those web chats, that the efforts will involve not just new rules but stronger enforcement. To that end, the Labor Department is hiring 100 additional inspectors.
The department's emphasis will be on green jobs, on more enforcement, protection of workers, and helping returning veterans receive employment assistance and job training, the Secretary of Labor says in one message, but, in addition, we have 22 new regulatory items on the agenda.
Forcing companies to make more disclosures regarding their union busting is perhaps, one of the most important changes that the department plans.
Solis notes that companies have actually used loopholes in existing law to avoid such disclosure. Under the Labor-Management Disclosure Act, the 1959 GOP-passed Landrum-Griffin law, an employer must report an agreement with a consultant hired to persuade employees as to their collective bargaining rights, Solis said.
The law allows employers, however, an exemption if the consultants are merely advising the employers on these matters. Solis says, The exemption is overly broad because indirect efforts to persuade are considered ‘advice' and are not reportable under the current interpretation of the exemption.
In one of the on-line chats Deputy Assistant Secretary for Labor-Management Standards John Lund talked about how the department has already actually pulled back additional disclosure requirements that the Bush administration had put on unions, particularly teachers unions and other public sector unions.
This matter has not been finally decided. The issue is under consideration and will be the subject of an open and transparent rulemaking process, he said.
Earlier this year the Labor Department nixed plans hatched by the Bush administration to impose additional disclosure rules on individual union officers and shop stewards. Bush wanted to force these individuals to provide line-item spending reports and to include in those reports everything from paychecks to paper clips used for union-related activity.
Another rule change the Labor Department wants to make would create a separate ergonomic job injury log in Occupational Safety and Health Administration reports. Companies would be required to faithfully maintain these logs and send copies of them to OSHA.
There was such a rule in the past but the very first piece of legislation signed into law by President Bush, passed by a GOP Congress, eliminated that rule.
Ergonomic injuries, repetitive-motion injuries and musculoskeletal disorders, amount to a third of all on-the-job injuries.
Another planned change is the hiring by the Wage and Hour Division of 250 new investigators. The division will focus on industries with high violation rates and large numbers of vulnerable workers, according to Deputy Administrator Nancy Leppink in her on-line chat.
The industries Leppink referred to include agriculture, restaurants, janitorial, construction and car washes.
She said her division is trying to make it easier for workers to report wage and hour violations, including failure to provide overtime pay and underpayment of minimum wages or Davis-Bacon wages.
To make it easier, because workers are fearful of losing their jobs in this economy and therefore less likely to file complaints when they are cheated, Leppink said complaints can be filed by third parties, as long as the third party has sufficient information to indicate a probable violation.The third party complainant can call the Wage and Hour office or the toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE.
Still another new regulation the department plans is one that orders coal mines to reduce miners' exposure to coal dust, a documented cause of black lung and other diseases.
The present rule, setting a limit of 2 mg. of coal dust per cubic meter of air, was set in 1972. A 1995 federal study, which the Bush administration never acted on, called for a lower limit and listed proposed tougher enforcement actions.
Union Busting Tactics
Tennessee Republicans Continue Their Push To Control Elections
William Jay Reynolds accused Secretary of State Tre Hargett of firing him for political reasons, according to a lawsuit filed in Davidson County Chancery Court. Reynolds formerly served in the secretary of state's office as an administrative law judge but was terminated soon after the General Assembly appointed Hargett in January 2009.
* Reynolds, who is disabled, alleges in his suit that he was asked to communicate with newly elected Republican state Rep. Vance Dennis about whom he would support in the election for constitutional officers, specifically the secretary of state.
* After Reynolds met with Dennis in January 2009, the state representative then alerted House Republican Leader Jason Mumpower about the meeting, the complaint notes. The House Republican leader then discussed the nature and substance of the Reynolds and Dennis meeting with Hargett and Republican Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, the complaint continues, adding that Hargett discriminated and retaliated against Reynolds the following month by firing him.
* Democratic state House members thwarted Mumpower's chances of becoming Speaker of the House in January 2009 after Republicans gained control of the legislative body in the November 2008 elections. All 49 House Democrats voted for Republican Kent Williams to be speaker. Williams was subsequently thrown out of the Tennessee Republican Party after GOP leaders labeled him a traitor.
* Doesn't take a genius to understand what is happening here. Tennessee voters should be outraged about the shenanigans going on over in the state Legislature. We need to fire some of the Republicans responsible for this when we go to the polls in November.
* Senate Republicans last week delayed implementation of the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act, which requires all county election commissions to make the switch to optical scan machines and paper ballots before the November 2010 elections. About $35 million in federal funds had been set aside to purchase the machines and train workers on them.
* Republicans now control all 95 county election commissions where many local election administrators have been replaced. A federal lawsuit has been filed on behalf of the ousted election administrators, contending Republicans violated their constitutional rights by conspiring to treat their jobs as political patronage. The federal suit coincides with several other pending lawsuits filed in state chancery courts by individual county election administrators who were fired.