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Date Posted: December 23 2005

GOP rejects hike in minimum wage 
LANSING - Michigan House Republicans on Dec. 4 voted against raising the state minimum wage to $7.15 per hour.

House Democrats introduced legislation to raise the minimum wage to $7.15 an hour, up from the federal rate of $5.15 an hour, which has been unchanged since 1997.

"By raising the minimum wage, we're showing that we value hard work and that we want to help young families get a start in life," said state Rep. Marie Donigan (D-Royal Oak), who sponsored the minimum-wage amendment. "A higher minimum wage will help many working men and women better care for their families and improve their quality of life."

In Michigan, a $7.15-an-hour minimum wage would directly benefit more than 460,000 workers, Dems said. To date, 16 states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages that are higher than the federal $5.15 an hour.

Supreme Court tests urinalysis case
Does repeated and seemingly unwarranted urinalysis drug tests constitute "illegal search and seizure?"

The question puzzled the U.S. Supreme Court justices, who heard testimony on a federal worker's case that he was excessively - and unconstitutionally - repeatedly subjected to drug tests on the job

The justices wrestled with Federal Aviation Administration worker Terry Whitman's claim that 14 urinalysis tests he took from 1996-2002 - he passed them all - violated his constitutional right against unreasonable searches and seizures. The government responded by claiming that federal civil service law bars Whitman from going to court at all. (And some building trades workers here in Michigan might claim that providing 2.3 urine samples a year sounds about average for them).

Whitman's case, which he lost in the lower courts, is important to the two million federal workers. Two of their unions, the National Treasury Employees Union and the American Federation of Government Employees, filed legal briefs supporting him. "It may seem odd, but he wasn't challenging a personnel action. He was challenging a warrantless search - the repeated drug tests," Whitman's attorney, Pamela Karlan, told the court.

The Bush Administration's argument is that federal civil service law, as passed in 1978 and amended in 1994, virtually bars federal workers from taking almost any of their conflicts with supervisors to court, except in cases of racial and sexual discrimination, or "major personnel actions" greatly affecting a worker's career.

Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was skeptical of the constitutional issue. "When I first looked at this, I thought it was something that should have been resolved at the arbitration level, not even through grievances, if he thinks he's being picked on." she said. That led Karlan to point out the arbitration and grievance process for federal workers covered only personnel matters - not drug testing and not constitutional issues.

No rulings were immediately issued. (From PAI)