- Searching for Comrade Obermeier (3/28/2006) - On September 9, 1947, federal agents stormed the offices of Hotel & Restaurant Employees Local 6 and arrested the president of the union, Michael J. Obermeier, on politically motivated immigration charges. Obermeier had been the president of Local 6 for the last ten years, and a militant union leader for food workers in the city since 1922, having organized hundreds of hotels and restaurants and thousands of poor, immigrant, minority and female workers in the… …
- I Want Candy (3/27/2006) - When I was younger, my favorite treat at the candy shops in the malls was the red licorice shoelace. I'd tie them into knots and gobble them up before I'd make it to the parking lot. I have been craving them for some time, and I think I may never taste them again. The problem is that, a number of years ago, some genius and his focus groups decided to change the formula for the… …
- Living on in the Archives (3/26/2006) - History is awfully fragile. I spent yesterday at the Science, Industry and Business Library of the New York Public Library system (my new girlfriend, "Sybil," as I like to say, with whom I have been spending all my Saturdays) reading through the 70-year-old archives of the "Free Voice of the Amalgamated Food Workers." The Amalgamated Food Workers was an independent union, focused mainly in the hotels, restaurants and bakeries of New York City. They were… …
- WFP: Now Send a Message to the Senate (3/22/2006) - From the Working Families Party: No employee of a multi-billion dollar company like Wal-Mart should be forced to go without medical care or forced to resort to Medicaid. The Fair Share for Health Care Act will ensure that large employers provide decent health benefits and level the playing field for responsible local businesses. We've got over 50 Assembly cosponsors - now it's time for you to ask your Senator to cosponsor the bill. Ask your… …
- Bill O’Reilly’s Flying Circus (3/19/2006) - Four years ago, I was a guest on the "O'Reilly Factor," part of a panel discussion on the income gap. It was a wonderfully surreal moment that, alas, I have yet to repeat. I just stumbled upon a transcript of the show. Below is a pretty funny bit that I believe is short enough that I can legally quote it. Missing here is O'Reilly's assertion that Cornell University is a socialist plot, "Parade" editor and… …
- Newsflash (3/15/2006) - This just in. After analyzing subpoenaed Google search records, the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security announced that they foiled a new 9/11 Al Quaeda plot involving "blonde hair big tits." I hope that all you refuseniks and ACLU'ers out there stop and think about what kind of busty, peroxide doomsday your interference might have caused. Have more faith in your government. You're not even using those civil liberties, anyway. …
- “…But they don’t mind throwing a brick…” (3/15/2006) - It's touching that there are still people in this world who care enough to riot. I first heard about France's proposed "first job contract" law from some of the French scientists with whom I am working. They're absolutely pissed off. The law would allow employers to hire first-time workers under the age of 26, and, for the first two years of this job, have no obligation to provide benefits and can fire the employee at… …
- McLaughlin is Presumed Innocent (3/2/2006) - In a very troubling development, FBI agents raided the offices of the New York Central Labor Council and the district office of Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin, the President of the CLC. McLaughlin has been President of the CLC for two decades, the third of three representatives of IBEW Local 3 who have headed the Council for the entirety of its 51 year history. His files were seized in connection to an investigation of a contractor, Petrocelli… …
- “…the lines sag heavy and deep tonight…” (3/2/2006) - So, Friday, March 3 is my birthday. I'll be turning 27. If I were a rockstar, I'd be about to die, but I'm a union organizer so I'll merely get balder and fatter. I'd like to see my friends, particularly those of you that I have not seen much lately (those of you that I have seen, I'm frankly getting sick of you). Being an extensive party planner, I'm probably just going to go to… …
- More Cat Charity (2/22/2006) - The Stony Brook Cat Network is a group of students, faculty and staff at SUNY Stony Brook who humanely trap, neuter and vaccinate feral cats on the campus. They try to find homes for the tamer ones, and release the others back into colonies in the woods behind campus, where the cats are fed and live healthier lives than before. I'm awfully sympathetic to this project since my own duck was a rescue cat, herself… …