Supreme Court Hands Major Victory to Rail Workers—and Labor Lawyer Geoghegan

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5292/supreme_court_hands_major_victory_to_rail_workersand_labor_lawyer_geoghegan/

Thursday December 10 12:34 pm

By Lindsay Beyerstein

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that railway workers can challenge rulings by the National Railroad Adjustment Board in court. The court's ruling is a decisive victory for Tom Geoheghan, a Chicago labor lawyer and author who ran an unsuccessful insurgent campaign for Congress earlier this year.

The Railway Labor Act of 1926 placed unusual restrictions on the organizing rights of railroad workers. The goal was to prevent strikes, officially because railways were so vital to the national economy; realistically, because the people who made them run would otherwise be too powerful. One such restriction is that railroad workers have to take their greivances to a national arbitration board.


Tom Geoghegan (Photo by Lindsay Beyerstein)


The main question before the court was whether the workers had a right to challenge the final ruling of the NRAB if its decision violated their constitutional right to due process. In this case, Union Pacific Railway said no. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, represented Geoghegan, said yes. The Supreme Court sided with the Locomotive Engineers, 9-0.

Earlier this year, Tom Geoghegan (pronounced: gay-gun) ran an unusually progressive congressional campaign in a special election to replace Rahm Emanuel in Illinois's Fifth District. Geoghegan campaigned on Medicare for all, job creation, banking and mortgage reform, and the revival of the American labor movement.

FULL story at link.

[eridani]

1. I phonebanked for the guy, but he lost the primary in IL

Glad he's been keeping himself busy and productive.

[clear eye]

3. Lost it on e-voting machines, no doubt.

These days you never actually know who the majority voted for.

[defendandprotect]

2. kick

[Earth Bound Misfit]

5. Hey, d-n-p!

How's the 'puter running? :hi:

[Earth Bound Misfit]

4. Advocatus, et non latro, et mirando populo

Kick too late to rec.

Tom Geoghegan, mensch and hero

Advocatus, et non latro, et mirando populo
(Epitaph allegedly inscribed on the tomb of St. Ivo of Kremartin (1253-1303). Roughly translated, it reads "A lawyer and not a thief, and therefore a wonder to the people.")

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Geoghegan#Works

Works
1991: Which Side Are You On?: Trying to Be For Labor When It's Flat On Its Back (FSG), ISBN 0-374-28919-0
1998: The Secret Lives of Citizens: Pursuing the Promise of American Life (Pantheon Books), ISBN 0-679-42153-X
2002: In America's Court: How a Civil Lawyer Who Likes to Settle Stumbled into a Criminal Trial (New Press), ISBN 1-56584-732-6
2005: The Law in Shambles (Prickly Paradigm), ISBN 0-9728196-9-X
2007: See You in Court: How the Right Made America a Lawsuit Nation (New Press), ISBN 978-1-59558-099-3

:kick: :kick: :kick: