Day: July 15, 2006

Selling Us Down the Kentucky River

Leaving for school tomorrow, now seems a good time to reflect upon the greatest current threat to labor unions: the group of cases that are collectively called “Kentucky River.” Jonathan Tasini efficiently sums them up: In a normal, sane world, these cases (involving nurses) would not pass the smell test: the employers are seeking to classify these nurses as “supervisors” because they exercise “independent judgement” (“yes, that patient is going into cardiac arrest so I better do something”) and “responsibly direct other employees.” Doing so, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, would potentially take as many as 8 million workers out of union bargaining units. Poof. with the stroke of a pen. If the Bush-dominated National Labor Relations Board rules as predicted against the rights of professional, skilled and educated workers than the boss whose workers I have been organizing for the past few months can legally […]