Right-to-work foes detail lawsuit-fraud

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_9420468

They claim some signature-gatherers were ineligible and that more than 53,500 signatures are invalid.
By Andy Vuong
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 05/30/2008 12:21:58 AM MDT

Labor interests Thursday detailed a lawsuit they filed to keep the right-to-work measure off the state's November ballot, claiming proponents of the initiative committed fraud.

The suit alleges that some signature collectors, or circulators, were out-of-state residents who falsely stated their addresses on the petitions and wrongly swore that they understood circulation laws.

Circulators are required to be Colorado residents, but some provided home addresses that were traced to a payday lending store, a shuttered tanning salon and a vacant field, according to Jess Knox, executive director of the group behind the lawsuit.

Filed in Denver District Court late Wednesday, the suit also challenges the validity of the petitions' notaries and claims more than 53,500 signatures are from individuals who aren't registered to vote.

Kelley Harp, spokesman for the group pushing the right-to-work measure, called the suit a smokescreen and said union forces "would rather fight this in court than at the ballot box."

"If any of the claims are true, what the lawsuit purports to show is clearly not up to par with the high standards of this campaign," Harp said.

FULL story at link.

[rurallib]

1. "right-to-work" Jesus I hate that euphemism.

[RubyDuby in GA]

2. I will gladly rec this!

I hate that GA is a "right to work" state. All the stupid republicans (meaning dumb less than average joes on the street) bitch and moan about "them damn mexicans" taking all the good jobs all the time. They shut up immediately when I remind them that the good jobs were long gone before anyone else got to them because they have all but chased the unions out of the state. They hate to be reminded that unions protect what used to be theirs. I especially try to get them going on a weekend or a holiday so I can tell them to thank the unions that they have weekends off and only have to work 40 hours a week instead of 80!

They also hate it that right to work usually means right to fire for no good reason.

But then again, as a proud wife of a Teamster and a life long Democrat, it's not hard for me to pick a fight with them.

:)

[Earth Bound Misfit]

3. Right-to-work For LESS ....

or "Right to Hire, Fire, Abuse, and Discriminate AT WILL" would be a more accurate description of this EMPLOYERS RIGHTS measure MASQUERADING as a law "protecting" workers.

This from American Rights at Work http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/the-anti-union-network/national-right-to-work/

National Right to Work is the country’s oldest organization dedicated solely to destroying unions. Its network consists of four organizations that share leadership, offices, resources and staff, all with the common goal of undermining workers’ freedom of association....the National Right to Work Committee employs over 200 staff to lobby, fundraise, distribute propaganda, and interfere with workers’ union organizing efforts, and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation employs nearly 50 staff for its litigation efforts.

--snip--

When anti-union ideologues lost an effort to enact a national law weakening unions, they created the National Right to Work Committee in 1955 to pass such laws at the state level. The group’s
single-minded focus of doing away with unions was as unambiguous then, as it is today, however the name it shares with the very legislation it was created to pass, is purposely confusing.

--snip--

The Foundation bragged that “over 350 Presidents and Chairmen of the Board listed in Dun & Bradstreet’s Directory of Million Dollar Corporations,” were associated with it.
Anti-union companies indirectly fund National Right to Work through foundations. The network has received major grants from the Walton Family Foundation, Castle Rock Foundation (Coors beer), and
Publix Super Markets Charities.

The group’s original leadership also suggests an anti-union agenda shaped by the interest of employers. For instance, the Committee’s first chairman of the board was Edwin Dillard, president of Old Dominion Box Company, who vehemently fought his workers’ efforts to organize his company’s plants in the South. Fred Hartley, the Committee’s first president, was the former Congressman who sponsored the Taft-Hartley Act amending the National Labor Relations Act to expand employers’ rights, not workers.

K & R



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