Happy Labor Day's Disturbing Thoughts!

Wish I could say it better than Scott McKay writing for R.I.'s N.P.R.  As goes the Union movement, so go all of us- like it or not. 

Donnybrook Brewing in Prov.

Have you been following this? Prov.'s Mayor Cicilline seems surprised that a mayors' conference (June 12-16) planned for a number of years is going to be picketed by Unionists. Oddly enough, go to the conference web site and you'd never know there is a problem, let alone that V.P. Biden & many other White House officials will be no-shows. Well, duh, this isn't the first time it's happened. Let's see- '04, '07, '08. It was inevitable & now Prov. officials seem surprised & shocked, yes, shocked, that the fire dept. is angry that the Mayor promised them a contract & after 7 yrs. they're still waiting.


So now invitees are cancelling & other groups are planning on joining the picket lines. What? You've never walked a picket line? Ever run into one & consider crossing it? Never? Wow, you've led a secluded life. I recall many years ago when I went grocery shopping with my mom. Some of the union workers there were striking & picketing. My mom would not cross that line, food purchases would just have to wait. I don't cross either.




"That individual protestors and/or protest groups give notice in writing of the maximum number of persons participating, and the names and addresses of the organizers of any such march, assembly, meeting or gathering, its route, and its time of inception and duration at least 24 hours before such inception." (There is a special form here). Yes, we know that you have the right to assembly, but we don't want to make it too easy for you.




So the city suddenly decides that it is need of some new picketing rules. You must sign up 24 hrs. in advance, stand in certain places only, be prepared for searches if you have a backpack, or bad, etc. Oh, and no glass bottles. Wow, shades of '68 & "the whole world is watching."




So far, here are the group participants in the pickets:




•Local 799, International Association of Fire Fighters
•Lodge 3, Fraternal Order of Police
•AFL-CIO
•Local 217, United Here
•RIFuture.org
•People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
•Direct Action for Rights and Equality
•Local 1199, Service Employees International Union (Providence Head Start employees)




Hmm, I'm kinda curious about the Animal group. Well, I suppose that firemen are animals or maybe it's in the interests of the old firehouse dog (more treats- now!). This conference will attrack world-wide coverage now- for you does/does not show up. Will some agreement be reached before all this comes-to-be? LOL! More later with updates as the come in.

Foxwood Pequots Hate Unions!

One might speculate that with a history of discrimination and unfair treatment, that the Indian nations would be supportive of Unions. Evidently, one would be wrong reading the latest anti-Union Projo story. The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation own & operate the wildly sucessful Ct. Foxwood's Casino .

In case you missed the story in the Business Digest:

"The National Labor Relations Board has issued a complaint alleging that Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut broke federal law by retaliating against a new union and refusing to bargain in good faith. The United Auto Workers won a union election last November to represent nearly 3,000 dealers and the NLRB certified the UAW in June, rejecting an appeal by Foxwoods. The board, in a complaint dated Thursday, said the casino refused to promote dealers, changed its medical leave procedures and eliminated coat hooks and chairs from employee cafeteria restrooms because its employees formed the union. The findings now go before an administrative law judge in Hartford for a hearing Nov. 17. The NLRB is seeking an order for back pay and other relief for the employees. Foxwoods had no immediate comment Friday. The UAW says it’s the third complaint the NLRB has issued against Foxwoods since the dealers organized. The casino has challenged the jurisdiction of the federal agency, saying Foxwoods is run by the sovereign Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.

No coat hooks? Petty? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I suppose turnabout really is fairplay, isn't it?

"The Union Movement: The People Who Brought You the Weekend."

I saw this on a truck bumper sticker recently. It made me smile.

Turns out it's true. Check this link. It was commonplace to have Sun. off to acommodate Christians. Jews, then, were out of luck. The first factory to adopt a five-day week was a New England spinning mill, in 1908. This was done expressly for their workers. Ford workers were given weekends off with SIX days of pay (in the 20's) when Henry realized that good wages & free time would cause workers to SPEND money, much of it on his product. Unions then began fighting for BOTH Sat. & Sun. for all their workers.

The weekend idea really took hold in the forties when unions were able to get concessions for factory workers. At that time most were not allowed to change jobs (wartime rules) & often did dangerous munitions work. Of course, this is also when health insurance, life insurance, working hours, & retirement benefits took hold, among others. Thank you.

Times have certainly changed and not all for the better.

R.I. Republicans Love Workers - Not!

“... [Democrats] whose primary base of support is unions…the last vestige of institutional racism in this country.” This from the recently elected Chair of the R.I. Republicans.


I hope every Dem. or Independent will remember this quote & others come the next round of elections - like in Newport. This is what this political party thinks of working people who join together. Institutional racists? Finally, the truth outs.


What are unionists looking for - good pay, fair working conditions, help and support when they can no longer work, medical care, a home, and better lives for their kids. Don't we all want those things? Wouldn't we all belong to a union if we could?

I went to Las Vegas a few years ago & saw a thriving economy. Much of this is built on most workers being unionized.

I've read on "Anchor Rising" a reference to the cancerous blight of teachers' unions in Tiverton (among others). How insulting to any working person, let alone a union of working people to refer to them in this way. I know cancer. To connect anyone with this devastating disease is unconscionable.


At some point the strike in Tiverton schools will be over. Teachers are no saintlier than the rest of us and harsh words are not quickly forgotten. To portray teachers as dupes of union officials is at best naive, more properly idiotic.


So Sen. Gibbs, Rep. Long, what say you? Council persons of the Republican ilke, what say you? We certainly know what Sen. Chafee said, "Adios."


So we finally get down to what Republicans always said their party was not about - economic status & class warfare. Gone are the days of Republican moderates, even liberals, being welcome in this state. Can it be any clearer that this state Party is now the home of the neo-cons, the "compassionate conservatives" a la Bush.

Racist? I have a reprint sign in my house- "Irish Need Not Apply." I remember my grandmother who was born in Worcester & lived there much of her life, telling me how hard it was for her as a young woman to find a job. "No Irish or Dogs Allowed" read the signs. Now that is racism. And the "Whites" & "Colored" signs I remember in the South for restrooms & drinking fountains - racism pure & simple. To associate this with being a Democrat is just plain stupid & ignorant. Words do matter.

Schools Open Again in Tiverton

It's back to school Wed. for everyone after a judge's consent decreet and a state mediator is finally on the job. The agreement ordered that a majority of the school committee be present for the negotiations, including the Chair/Vice Chair. Pretty sad when a judge has to order a school committee to negotiate. Why it took so long for the mediator to get on the job is beyond understanding.
The consent decree means that both sides agreed to it with the judge enforcing it. The School Committee agrees to show up & negotiate, the Union agrees to return to work, a mediatior will be present, and the towns gets its school opened. A fair deal all around. Too bad it could not have effectively done a lot soon without the judge.
The Guv finally woke up & is now meeting with the Dept. of Labor & Training to see what the glitch wash that held up these negotiations with no mediator. "From the governor's point of view, it is a shame that the situation got so far down the road that contract negotiations are allowed to affect the education of Rhode Island students," said Neal [his spokesman]. Duh, where the devil has he been all these years? He's just figured out there is a problem? Dynamic leadership involving education ain't ever been his forte. But he sure does like charter schools. And dislike unions.
This year provided the perfect storm for school funding problems by communities with the lege's basically freezing aid (instead of the guv for a change) while contemplating the results of the report that the State should better fund education which they paid for. This was also the first yr. that property tax caps kicked in. Thank the lege & the guv for all this "wind." Next year may well be better - it's an election year.
Here is the take on the Republican chair on all this: " [strikes are] nothing but an organized effort by the unions to break the law, and the unions have to be held accountable.” "The U.S. Attorney should consider a RICO Act investigation against the NEA, Rhode Island, which is authorizing, and has authorized in the past, illegal strikes by teachers unions. The NEA involvement in these local teachers union strikes amounts to extortion, which is an explicit RICO violation.”
BTW, declaring a strike is not illegal. Actually performing it is AFTER a judge reviews it. Why any teacher is a Republican escapes me. A RICO investigation??
These teachers are asking for raises that don't even cover cost-of-living increases here. They want quality health care. Book 'em, Dano, and ready the noose! I'm reminded of a Molly Ivins quote (boy, do I miss that woman), " It's like, duh. Just when you thought there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between the two parties, the Republicans go and prove you're wrong. "
Let's get these communities who are without contracts, back to work. Let's end this yearly nonsense. And, most of all, let's not forget next Nov. (unfortunately, the guv's got another 3 yrs.)

Labor Day Obsolete?

Another great article from Projo in case you missed it. ""WITH NO SMALL IRONY, Labor Day has become much more about finding cheap Chinese goods on sale than a celebration of the strength and dignity of the American worker."' An excellent readable article.
'"In fact, the emergence of China as the world’s factory floor appears to be the final nail in the coffin of the American labor movement."' Inevitable? Not so. China's sucess if at the expense of the American worker - record trade imbalances, loss of jobs, downward pressure on wages.
1. Unfair trade practices. Few U.S. imports, but plenty of cheap exports.
2. Cheap, sometimes slave labor, at the expense of their own people.
3. The cooperation of large multinational corps. No longer do they have to worry about the AFL-CIO, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or even the Internal Revenue Service.
The inevitable effects of globilization on the American worker? Not exactly. Has the bringing of everyone else up to our standards now sunken to the level of lowering ourselves to the lowerst common denominator? '"What these politicians and pundits miss is the critical difference between China’s pernicious brand of 'beggar thy neighbor' free trade and the kind of robust fair trade that characterized the Golden Age of the 20th Century when the labor movement was, like our country, so very strong and vital."'
Well said. If ever there was a need for strong leadership across the board in our country, state, and district, now is the time for it! It doesn't have to be this way. Otherwise, except for a few precious few, our future is not that bright.
The author's website is http://www.peternavarro.com/. His new book is the "The New China Wars" & is a Ph.D. of Economics at the Univ. Of Calif., Irvine.

Labor Day

In cased you missed it today in Projo. Who would have thought Projo? It's even more applicable today than when it was spoken 115 years ago.


‘Rights of the masses’

What does labor want? It wants the earth and the fullness thereof. There is nothing too precious, there is nothing too beautiful, too lofty, too ennobling, that is not within the scope and aspirations and wants. We want more schoolhouses and fewer jails, more books and fewer arsenals, more learning and less vice, more constant work and less crime, more leisure and less greed, more justice and less revenge — in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures, to make manhood nobler, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood brighter and happier. The labor movement of our country and of all countries stands for progress, for protection of the interests and rights of the masses. There can be no real freedom where labor is enslaved. It is our mission to see to it that the heritage handed down to us by our forefathers of this and other countries, who have borne scars of battle, is accepted, and that we take up the struggle where they were compelled to lay it down, be true to them, be true to ourselves and to the people of our time, and, more important than all, to hand down the heritage of freedom to those who shall come after us to bear the burden of their day, to make life and toil better — better worth the living and the doing.
— Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, 1886-1924, in a speech on Aug. 28, 1893.

Laying Middletown Teachers Off O.K. with "Daily News"

"Good teacher lost as result of bad policy" shouts the editorial headline. In other words, as long as seniority doesn't play a factor, fire all the teachers that you want.
Witness the "Daily News" editorial on the "pink slipping" of Middletown teachers. The focus was outrage that the "Middletown Teacher of the Year" was included. While it could have mourned the loss of all fourteen staffers who have not yet been recalled and the many circumstances resulting in this, instead the outrage centered on seniority.
This seniority issue presents itself in the editorial as contract policy mysteriously foisted upon the schools (and the public). This abominable policy is totally responsible for the loss of this one teacher.
The School Committee's reasons to resort to lay-offs is barely mentioned. Yet this group negotiated the contract with seniority in it. Good teachers were indeed laid off because of the big, bad Union. Reminds me of the Linda Ronstadt song, "Poor, poor, pitiful me."
The last factor to actually figure in staff layoffs is seniority. How else would you choose? I'd like to know. Specifically and not in glittering generalities. We've been talking about this for 20-30 years & still haven't figured it out.
Why get to the heart of a matter when jumping on the bandwagon sounds & looks so much better. Teachers' union bashing is in & has been for a while. We love teachers individually, but these people sure get stupid when they band together. Sure, Projo is unionized but we don't want no stinkin' union here! Ooops, I digress.
The "Teacher of the Year" designation deserves discussion also. The idea behind it was to bring positive attention to all teachers. The idea was to have teachers designate one of their own to represent them yearly. One year it's a high school teacher, then an elementary teacher. Age, gender, experience, area of specialization, etc. play a part in the selection of a representative teacher.
When this "Teacher of the Year" received a lay-off notice this year, the point wasn't that she's special & should be excluded. Rather, she represents ALL the laid off staff. They ALL deserve some attention, consideration, & explanation.
It might be useful here to discuss exactly why seniority is in teachers' contracts & how it got there. Before seniority was policy, staffing could be decided for many reasons, especially political, relationships (nepotism), & payoffs. Hence, civil service laws for state/federal workers & seniority for teachers. Without seniority, what then is used in final decision making? During my tenure, I've seen at least 7 different "evaluation" instruments used, all of them, without exception, lousy. The only noticeable change that time brought to these (and school committees helped develop them) was length.
So what makes a good teacher exactly? You can't tell me definitively , no one can. That's why computers haven't replaced teachers despite predictions of such. One size does not fit all. You can't even tell me how people learn. Otherwise we'd do a lot better in the education realm than we currently do. So, how would you fairly choose who stays & who goes?
Ah, but that's not the point, is it? The point is that you don't like Unions. They demand decent wages, good health care, and retirement benefits for starters. We'd all be better off with more union members. What working person doesn't want someone who will stand up for them and work in their best interests?
Faced with rising costs, who would School Committees continue to employ without seniority - a "Teacher of the Year" or newer & cheaper version ? It's not just quality that school systems are interested in. It's cheap. And who can blame them? The facts of restrained spending town limits, caps, declining populations of some schools, loss of Little Compton students, etc., was totally ignored.
So if you've got a better way to choose who stays & who goes, I'd sure like to hear it. Or even better, how we can prevent these jobs and even more next year from being lost. Now THAT would be a community service. .
BTW, The "Teacher of the Year" may yet return. Her name is still on the schedule... The rest just don't matter.