Campaigns

State Eudcation Funding

The Regular Person's Guide to the Governor's FY10 Budget
Over the next several weeks, the Maryland General Assembly will deliberate over the budget for the state.  The results will affect all of us as we benefit from public services like education, transportation, environmental programs and public safety.  The lives of many low- and moderate-income citizens are especially affected by state investments in health and human services.  The budget, over $30 billion, is contained in a 192-page bill and five volumes totaling around 3,000 pages.  To understand any of this, Regular People need some kind of Guide.  This year, things are further complicated by a $2.4-billion state revenue shortfall and an $800-billion federal economic stimulus bill.

The Maryland Budget & Tax Policy Institute and the Open Society Institute-Baltimore present the Regular Person's Guide to the Governor's Budget - an accessible, understandable explanation of the big budget picture for the state of Maryland and the highlights and lowlights of the budgets for education, health, human services, public safety, environment and natural resources. We hope you find this document useful.

Federal Employee Free Choice Act

Help ensure that all workers have the choice to join a union; your action is required!

The Employee Free Choice Act, supported in 2007 by a bipartisan coalition in Congress, would enable working people to bargain for better benefits, wages and working conditions by restoring workers’ freedom to choose for themselves whether to join a union.   MCEA, MCAASP, and SEIU Local 500 sponsored a petition drive urging passage of this bill last spring.  The fight continues; read more and take action by signing the petition below.

The Employee Free Choice Act would:

  • Establish stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations.
  • Provide mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes.
  • Allow employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation.

To learn more about the Employee Free Choice Act, go to the American Rights at Work website:
http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/employee-free-choice-act/home

More information and an opportunity to take action may be found on the links below.

http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/whatis.cfm

http://www.changetowin.org/connect/2009/01/employee_free_choice_a_human_r.html