What Tom does in his day job

Many people across the country are familiar with Tom’s acclaimed writings. But few have a very strong grasp of the kind of things Tom does in his day job as a labor and public interest attorney.

Today comes news of interesting developments in two public-spirited lawsuits Tom has filed.

First, the Chicago Tribune is reporting that Tom is edging closer to victory in a lawsuit he filed on behalf of over 1,000 city workers cheated out of back pay by the Daley administration. Says Tom in the story, “[The Daley administration] ought to pay people the money they worked for. That is especially important at this time, as the value of people’s homes and investments has declined. They should not be trying to nickel-and-dime these retirees.”

The second story involves a lawsuit that Tom has just filed against Governor Rod Blagojevich. Blagojevich is being sued for his failure to make appointments to the Illinois Education Advisory Board, a nonpartisan committee which recommends how much funding the state should allocate per pupil in the public schools. The Governor is required to make such appointments by law, and in practice the Board has often advocated for higher levels of education funding than the state has been willing to meet. Illinois schools have been chronically underfunded; in a recent report, Illinois ranked 34th out of the 50 states in per pupil expenditures, spending over $1,000 less per pupil per year than the national average.

Fighting for workers, and fighting for the public schools: those are the kinds of things Tom’s law practice have been about.  Help Tom bring the fight to Congress!