Part of the Union

 GOTV is, among other things, a product of two generations of working-class progressives. all of them union members.

That's why a recent news story from the US Department of Labor was like music to our ears.

The Department has recovered $353,945 in back wages and liquidated damages for 79 sales associates at 12 New Jersey T-Mobile locations, whose owners willfully denied employees overtime wages for hours over 40.

Investigators with the department’s Wage and Hour Division found that individuals who operate Metro by T-Mobile locations in Bayonne, Colonia, Elizabeth, Somerset, and Union City failed to pay overtime at time-and-one-half the required rates, and paid in cash, off the books, at a straight time rate. Their actions violated the Fair Labor Standards Act.

In addition to the recovery of back wages and damages, the division assessed a civil money penalty of $38,670 due to the employers’ willful violation of the law.

This decision is an analog to the right to vote - an affirmation of the dignity of the individual.  Besides, as one of the state’s largest unions recently told its members, in a direct reference to voting rights, Doug Mastriano would like to restrict access to the ballot, and to unions.

Mastriano wants access to voting machines, in order to conduct what he called a forensic audit.  Trouble is, once someone tinkers with them, those machines are useless.  Ergo possibly unavailable for future electtions.  Ergo also, almost certainly unavailable for future elections in poor or urban percincts ...