Well, it's the bosses against the workers in the State Senate again tomorrow, and you would think it would be a walkover, right?

After all, the Democrats and Progressives have a 23-7 lead in the upper chamber, which should guarantee their ability to drive the agenda. That, in turn, should mean that where the issue is a very stark bosses vs. workers battle, the workers should come out on top, right?

What will happen tomorrow, though, is still undecided. The issue, once again, is the treatment of the people the newspapers hire to deliver their papers door to door. Over the winter we saw the newspapers mass their efforts to try to block a rule that would make the newspaper carriers eligible for unemployment benefits. As we reported here in February, the Department of Labor had proposed a rule to implement a law passed by the Legislature way back in 2006 to exempt certain sales people from unemployment as independent contractors, but the Douglas administration had ideas of its own and issued an internal policy applying the exemption to newspaper carriers and denying them the protection of unemployment benefits. After seven years and a change of administration organized labor found out about the Douglas administration's secret policy, the Department of Labor looked into it, and a rule was proposed to reverse the exemption.

What's happening tomorrow is that some Republicans and a few of the most conservative Democratic Senators are pushing a bill on the floor of the Senate to enshrine the newspaper carrier exemption in law. It's a proposed amendment to H. 169 and the sponsors are Senators  Mullin, Benning, Flory, Galbraith, Mazza, McAllister, Sears, Starr, Snelling, and Westman, and they're trying once again to push through an exemption they couldn't get through the House in 2006.

  You probably realize that newspapers generally aren't delivered by the iconic paperboy anymore, that eager youth pedaling his bike up and down the lanes, tossing each day's paper on the doorsteps of his neighbors. No, newspapers are now mostly delivered by adults driving motor routes, getting up at ungodly hours, driving for miles in their broken-down cars for meager pay. (As you might guess, this is not exactly a plum job; I've never known anyone who had another option who has done this for a living.)

 I encourage you to hop over to Vermont Digger and read their story. More importantly, read the comments from the hardworking men and women who actually have to do this work and see what it's like to try to scrape together a living driving the daily paper all to hell and gone.

 There are undoubtedly newspaper delivery drivers in every county of the state, and almost every town. I don't think there are any figures of who many in total, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's in the hundreds. All thrown under the bus if this amendment passes. Low-wage workers all over Vermont lose out if the amendment passes.

And who benefits? A handful of newspaper publishers, not least of whom is John Mitchell, the publisher of the Times Argus and Rutland Herald, who has been stalking the halls of the State House all session  to drum up support for his amendment.

The amendment has only ten sponsors, so that's not enough to pass it without a major pickup. Legislators listen to phone calls, so if you think that the Vermont Senat should not be dishing out favors to business owners at the expense of low-wage workers, let your Senators know about it.

If you think newspaper delivery drivers should have the protection of unemployment compensation, call the Sergeant at Arms and ask them to leave a message for your senators to vote NO on the newspaper carrier amendment to H. 169. That number is 828-2228 and they'll be glad to take your message.