PA City Defies Court Order; Reduces Police Officers, Firefighters’ Pay To Minimum Wage

[yurbud]

Two thoughts on this:

If this is how austerity plays out, who do the assholes carrying water for the wealthy think is going to protect them? For minimum wage, I think I'd let the protesters slip by, or accidentally use the pepper spray and truncheon on the politicians I'm supposed to protect.

Second thought: how much more evidence do people need that the GOP mantra of tax cuts and no new taxes hurt the middle and working class as much if not more than the mythical welfare queens, and infinitely more than the corporate welfare queens?

Ignoring a federal judge’s injunction, Scranton, Pennsylvania moved ahead with its plan to reduce the pay of city workers to the federal minimum wage starting Friday. Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty claims the city is broke and that the minimum wage payments are all it can possibly pay, the Scranton Times Tribune reports:

Amid Scranton’s ever-deepening financial crisis, Mayor Chris Doherty said his administration is going forward with a plan to unilaterally slash the pay of 398 workers to the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour with today’s payroll, insisting it is all the city can afford.

That will likely earn administration officials an appointment with Judge Michael Barrasse, who granted the city’s police, fire and public works unions a special injunction temporarily barring the administration from imposing the pay cuts after a brief hearing Thursday.

Many of those workers are police officers, firefighters, and other public safety workers, industries that have been slammed by contractions in state and local budgets since the Great Recession. Congressional Republicans repeatedly blocked efforts to extend aid to the states that would have helped shore up their budgets and keep these workers on payroll. In the case of Scranton, such aid may have helped the city actually pay its workers a living wage instead of a federal minimum that hasn’t been raised since 2006 and has less buying power than it had in 1968.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/07/08/512572/scranton-minimum-wage-workers/

[otherone]

1. it is on!

[meow2u3]

2. Your Honor, hold the mayor --and the repukes -- in contempt of court

If that won't force him to carry out the order, what will?

[Kennah]

3. Imagine what happens when all the cops show up WITH the Occupy Movement

[AnotherMcIntosh]

5. When is this happy event going to take place?

[Kennah]

9. Pay 'em all minimum wage, then watch

[AnotherMcIntosh]

11. Some (such as Frank Serpico) think that cops know how to supplement their incomes.

[Kennah]

12. Frank Serpico is a hero, and I think he would agree it's a totally different world today

Corruption still exists, but no where to the degree it did when he took a bullet in the face.

[Pizz]

4. I'm telling ya.....

Firemen Unions have been o.k. but not great in understanding the dangers
of the republican party. Cops however have been terrible and I blame union leaders.
For the most part, Cops have been supporting the republican party for 30 years solely
based on social issues. Falling for anti crime republican bullshit, anti entitlement
rhetoric, xenophobia crap etc., cops better wake up to this stuff and realize that
pro privatization right wingers would love to get rid of police, their unions and
their benefits and replace them with $12.00 an hr security guards.

I am close with several cops and it seems always to be about I've got mine
screw everyone else. O.W.S.ers,( although some are idiots) are out there
essentially marching to protect police jobs and yet they are treated like shit
by the police. W.T.F.! Cops stop watching fox, the yankees and mets and start
educating yourselves to whats going on! Please.....You guys are top notch at
what you do and we are on your side, but you are about to be blindsided by the
republican free market agenda.

[russspeakeasy]

6. Well said and welcome.

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. Welcome to DU

[permatex]

29. Good morning Nadin.

[SammyWinstonJack]

28. +1.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

7. No FEDERAL judge issued an injunction. Federal judges are different from traffic court judges and

other local state judges. They take their injunctions seriously.

The judge that issued the injunction is Judge Michael Barrasse. He's a local judge in the 45th Judicial District of the Court of Common Pleas for Lackawanna County, Scranton, Pennsylvania. He's a local politician who needs the support of local leaders to be re-elected and enage in other political activities. It would be interesting to see him act with the authority of a Federal judge, but he is not a Federal judge. No Federal injunction was issued.

[coalition_unwilling]

35. In fairness to the OP, I think it was the source article from thinkprogress that used the

phrase 'federal judge' and OP merely passed along the source's error.

But thank you for pointing out that very important distinction. I think a local judge's injunctive power has as much validity as a federal judge's, but within a far smaller jurisdiction. But I'm not an expert on this and I could well be wrong. Here, ironically, the local police would be enforcing said local judge's injunction, which sets up a very interesting tableau.

[cloudbase]

8. Mr. Doherty should lead by example. n/t

[Marooned]

10. According to another article I read on DU

the min wage goes for all city employees, including the mayor and city council.

[cloudbase]

34. Thanks for that information. n/t

[HiPointDem]

13. how much does the mayor make? has he taken a pay cut? how about the state legislators and

the governor?

[sweetapogee]

15. all of the local media are reporting...

The Mayor, Council, everyone, all city employees are taking the pay cut.

[HiPointDem]

39. can you link a confirmation?

[rdking647]

14. a question

the city has no cash (5k) in the bank
how are they supposed to pay more? they cant simply create money out of thin air. how exactly are they supposed to write a check with money they dont have?

[HiPointDem]

40. if they only have $5000 they can't pay anyone, so why not ask everyone to work for free?

how are they able to pay minimum?

[SlipperySlope]

41. $5k is how much was left in the bank AFTER sending out the minimum wage paychecks

They sent out the minimum wage paychecks last Friday. According to the news I read there was only $5k left after sending out the checks, and the total shortage to employees for that two-week pay period was around one million dollars.

[HiPointDem]

42. and next pay period? it's crap reporting.

[SlipperySlope]

43. More information...

I tried reading more about this, the information I'm finding is spotty.

Keep in mind that a city like Scranton has a constant inflow of revenue (from taxes and fees).

So what I'm reading was that the total payroll they sent out on Friday was $311,000 which left only $5k in their bank account. They were trying to meet a deadline for the payroll processors. But by the end of the day Friday the bank account had grown to $83,000 due to funds flowing in (still very far from enough to meet the entire payroll). I have no idea how much they will have available in two weeks.

There is plenty of blame to go around. A lot here on DU want to blame the mayor - but the mayor is a Democrat who asked the City Councel to increase taxes by 78% so the city can pay it's bills - and the City Council turned him down.

Another problem is that the city is far behind on making payments to the employee's health insurance provider. The insurance carrier has temporarily extended coverage to July 17th.

It sounds like the entire city budget is just being run hand-to-mouth.

[HiPointDem]

45. he's been mayor since 2006. i wonder why this was done so suddenly?

[HopeHoops]

16. Brought to you by our asswipe governor Corbett.

[Cestode]

17. Who is going to work for that salary?

I mean seriously, I understand the commitment some have towards their careers and their cause but emergency workers have some of the most dangerous and stressful jobs out there. Minimum wage doesn't cut it for anyone, especially emergency services employees. Who is going to stick around in these positions for minimum wage?

As a cop, all day you deal with conflict, accidents, violence, disputes, etc... That takes a toll on you, big time.
A lot of cops, and any emergency service worker for that matter, has a high risk of developing some kind of PTSD throughout their career. Minimum wage?!?!?! I'd rather flip burgers for that wage than be in a squad car. Just saying.

[permatex]

19. This is just temporary

until they get their fiscal house in order.
I can tell you from 30 years experience that the huge majority of Firefighters don't do it for the money, we do it for the love of the community and, I hate to admit it, for the adrenaline rush.
There's nothing like running into a burning structure while everyone else is running out.

[progressivebydesign]

31. love don't pay the mortgage. n/t

[permatex]

38. I never said it did

what I said was that most of us don't join for the money, we do it for love of the community, although the money and bennies are good also.

[SoCalDem]

20. The problem is that if they quit, they will surely lose any health care coverage

they have for their families and any hopes of ever collecting a pension (seems bleak already).


This is a huge cruelty being perpetrated on people who did not participate in the fleecing of their state economies.

I am a sec-treasurer of a couple of large bowling leagues (about 200K between both leagues)and before I get paid, I have to produce a thorough audit, showing every penny of expenditure..and all during the league, the other two officer get monthly accountings.

It is stunning to me that a bowling league operates with more fiscal responsibility than a city..

There should be an audit , back to the last day of "solvency", and all subsequent "leaders" should be called to account..and jailed if necessary.

[permatex]

24. I 2nd that.

[SlipperySlope]

44. They might lose health care coverage anyway

The city is $2M behind on payments to Blue Cross for city employee's health coverage, and Blue Cross has told the city they have until next week to pay or they will be cut off.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

37. Compassionate people can agree, but some people would like to be cops no matter what the wage.

Outside of the military, where else can a person deliver violence with the approval of the government?

[WI_DEM]

18. Wow! and yet give more tax cuts to the RICH!!

[randome]

22. And the governor of Pennsylvania is...where?

This is his responsibility as much as anyone else's. It's his state and he's just going to sit back and watch it fall to pieces? Another lazy Republican.

[hifiguy]

23. One does not openly defy a federal judge without

serious consequences. The mayor may wind up in the happy old hoosegow for contempt of court.

[yurbud]

32. we are seeing this more and more though...

If politicians get their marching orders from the rich, they do it, knowing there will be no consequences or at least no serious ones.

Besides everything the Bush administration did, we saw it hear in California when Arnold ignored a law based on a ballot measure about the percentage of the budget that had to go to education. He negotiated with one of the teachers unions about how much to ignore the law so they wouldn't take him to court. So if no one with standing is going to make an issue of it, it isn't an issue.

The community college where I work is trying to implement a two tiered tuition program in spite of the state chancellor of community colleges and the state attorney general saying it's illegal. It's hard to imagine people as cautious as college administrators doing something like that unless they know someone with money has their back.

[sweetapogee]

33. sorry to say

but the Mayor of Scranton is a Dem.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

36. True, but no federal judge was involved. See #7.

[fascisthunter]

25. the right doesn't want a small government, they want to destroy it so they can take over

and the people are left without the means to work with and for each other. They want kings and queens... they want economic royalists to run everything.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

26. How are people getting away with defying court orders?

Seems like the Judges should start holding these officials in contempt! These people (city officials) are supposed to be leading. It's their problem to solve and if they can't do it, then maybe they should resign so that the public can elect people whom can!

[yurbud]

30. It should have been clear since the Bush admin: no action FOR the very wealthy is big

enough to be a crime, and no action AGAINST the very wealthy is small enough to NOT be a crime.

[Douglas Carpenter]

27. actions like this are inevitable and will become common place due to the right-wing political agenda

The obvious natural consequences of cutting taxes and spending while demanding balanced budgets without regard to the obvious consequences. If politicians are in fact really afraid to defy Grover Norquit and his band of crazies - massive cuts in necessity services or arbitary actions like this are inevitable.