The cases where Judge Alito took a stand show an incredibly low regard by him for the benefits,
rights and safety of working men and women. These examples >>
1. Retirement and pension case.
This is important to retiring workers. In DiGiacomo v. Teamsters Pension Trust Fund [pdf], the 3rd Circuit Court found that a Teamster driver, who had worked from 1960 and 1971 and then from 1978 onward, should be duly credited for the time he worked before 1971 in calculating his pension. (The judges, most of them, based their ruling on an interpretation of the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) which bars a forfeiture of benefits due to a break in service.)
Sam Alito wrote a lone dissent that would sacrifice the worker's retirement to deny him the credit of his earlier 11 years of work – by virtue of Alito's anti-worker interpretation of the ERISA law.
Note. The above was written up first by NathanNewman, who I link to below. This post is written in words close to Newman's writing, not my own original. I'm reposting it here, to get ahead of Monday's hearings.
2. In
Specter v. Garrett, Alito voted to
deny judicial review to workers and their unions in their challenge of the Base Closure Commission's move to close a federal shipyard where workers' jobs were imperiled.
3. Safety Protections for Workers
In RNS Services. v. Secretary of Labor, filed in 1997, the court found that a mining services company at its coal refuse loading site was violating rules under the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act.
The company tried to claim the site should not be covered by the mining safety law, seeking to exclude it from application of the law. The Court rejected the company's claim and held the site must comply with the MSHA safety provisions.
Alito voted in dissent to hold the facility exempt from MSHA regulations.
These are only a handful of examples from NathanNewman's catalog here of Alito's positions [also here at Newman's own site].
Bush's regulators would gut every safety regulation on the books, and Alito is one to interpret the law to let it happen.
This is the wrong time to elevate a judge with a callous disregard for workers' earned rights.