2006 Endorsements: Bring Back the Greens
Election time is around the corner, and I’m sure you’re dying to read my endorsements. This election, in truth, offers a rare opportunity to alter the political landscape for a progressive change. No, I’m not talking about the increasing likelihood of a Democratic sweep in New York. That is a foregone conclusion since the Republican party has collapsed under the weight of Pataki’s bland presidential ambitions and the national GOP’s right-wing extremism. The Republicans have put up scarecrows against the Spitzer and Clinton steamrollers, and are poised to lose members of their Congressional delegation and perhaps even control of the state Senate, ushering in what could become a generation of Democratic dominance in New York State. Don’t get too excited. Spitzer and the Democrats will govern from the center, and much of the tax-cutting, welfare-slashing, tuition-hiking agenda that Pataki carried out over three terms is now accepted as status quo. […]
The Little League Thief Who Was Never a Leader
The recent charges against former president of the NYC Central Labor Council, Brian McLaughlin, are incredibly disappointing. While most of his alleged embezzlement is not connected to his role as head of the local labor federation, the shocking abuse of power as an elected Assemblyman and community leader is a real black eye for the movement. (I mean, we simply do not need to be represented by the cartoonish villainy of a man who would steal $95,000 from a little league.) The tabloids, of course, are touting this as a story of a corrupt union boss, the president of the most powerful labor body in the city. The sad truth is that Brian McLaughlin was a weak leader, totally beholden to the building trades who pursued the lowest common denominator agenda that couldn’t unite the various union locals that make up the council to support each other’s strikes and contract […]
Union Busting 102 at Pace University: Professors as Temps
I am continuing to guest blog at DMIblog, writing about unionization, academia and Kentucky River, and giving Pace University a black eye. This is my second post, which appears there. Please direct comments to that site. The National Labor Relations Board’s terrible Kentucky River decisions, which this week greatly expanded the definition of “supervisors,” has handed the bosses a powerful new union busting tool. The implications for these decisions go far beyond hospitals and nurses and may eventually deny the right to form a union to all professional employees (perhaps a quarter of the entire workforce in a few short years, according to the NLRB). The union rights of employees in higher education have been under assault for much longer. Back in 1980, the Supreme Court denied the right to organize to most college professors, ruling that if they sat on advisory and recommendatory committees, and had a say in […]
Union Busting 101 at Pace University: Delay, Appeal and Refuse to Bargain
I am currently guest blogging at DMIblog, highlighting the difficulties of union organizing through the NLRB (pre-Kentucky River, even!), specifically at Pace University. This is my first post, which appears there. Please direct comments to that site. The business of union busting is booming, guided by law firms and consultants that are adept at manipulating the legal process to delay union recognition and stretch out their campaigns of harassment and intimidation to defeat workers’ attempts to gain a voice at work. The hallowed halls of academia are not immune to the ugliness of union busting, not with CEO-style presidents like Pace University’s David Caputo, who recently gave himself a $100,000 raise while doling out meager “merit” increases of less than 2.5% to his staff. It’s no wonder that the employees of Pace have begun to organize. What is a wonder is that Pace will be celebrating an “employee recognition day” […]
Rally at Pace University for Union Rights
Two years ago, the bus drivers and mechanics at Pace University, – an institution that just gave its President David Caputo a $100,000 raise while doling out stingy “merit” increases of less than 3% to the staff – organized a union to win better pay and benefits. The University has refused to recognize and bargain with the union ever since. On Friday, October 6th, 2006, Pace University will host an “employee recognition day” and a self-congratulatory “birthday celebration” for its 100th anniversary. Join New York State United Teachers, the NYC Central Labor Council and AFL-CIO on Friday, October 6th, 2006 at 2:00 for a solidarity rally in support of the bus drivers and mechanics at Pace University. Hold Pace accountable. Demand that they recognize the rights of their workers on this “employee recognition day.” Let them know that a legacy of union-busting is nothing worth celebrating. Join us at 1 […]
Still More Turkeys
I just got yet another $400 check from Mayor Mike to thank me, the Finance Commissioner says, “for keeping New York City strong during difficult times.” Well, gosh, I try. But I’m still not voting Republican.
Mall Strike!
For years I’ve wanted to picket a shopping mall. Low wages, tacky store names urban sprawl and poor design are the crimes that leap immediately to mind. Add union-busting to the mix. At the Simon mall chain, which owns the Walt Whitman, Smith Haven, Source and Roosevelt Field malls here on Long Island, the employees of the firms that are subcontracted to clean the malls are members of the janitors union, Local 32BJ – all except for the food court cleaners. Now they too are organizing to join the union and are facing the typical barrage of threats, harassment and intimidation. The federal government’s National Labor Relations Board has ruled that management’s activities are illegal Unfair Labor Practices, and on Friday the union will stage a one day strike to protest this illegal activity. There will be a rally on Friday the 15th at 5:30 PM at the mall entrance […]
Things Overheard on the First Day of College
1. “Dude, our dorm is, like, the loudest dorm on campus. We were playing Blink 182 really loud all night long.” 2. “Excuse me. Can you tell me where room L77 is?” 3. “So, my mom called me this morning at, like, a quarter to seven, and she’s like, ‘I just want to know how your first day of school was,’ and I was like, ‘Mom, give me some space.’” (Whining italicized.) 4. “Is room L77 in the basement?” 5. “They’re selling dorm posters by the bus stop. I got this cool ‘Scarface’ poster.” “Cool.” 6. “Are you looking for room L77, too?” 7. “Cute shoes. Are you a biology major?” 8. “If we can’t find room L77, does that mean that class is cancelled?”
Post-K
Tomorrow is the much-discussed anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and politicians of all stripes are spinning the recovery to suit their agendas. I just got back from five days in New Orleans, helping United Teachers of New Orleans reorganize their union after craven politicians took the opportunity to try to smash it. The city is in a truly sorry shape, with hardly any meaningful rebuilding having taken place in the last year. A tourist would get no real sense of how bad things are, so don’t trust your vacationing Limey friend’s account of how how things are getting back to normal in New Orleans. Landing at the airport in the unscathed and prosperous Jefferson Parish, one would find the airport largely empty of people, but in good shape. Driving down I-10 to the city’s central business district, one finds lots of roadwork and some year-old billboards mixed in with signs advertising […]
P.S. 504
The elites in this country used to have shame, or, at least, you could shame them when they did the wrong thing. Those days are long-gone, as evidenced by the naked power grab of the Katrina recovery in New Orleans, where, shortly after the hurricane, the state legislature took over most of the city’s schools and voided the teacher’s union contract. How utterly shameless must a politician be to view an unprecedented natural disaster as an opportunity to bust the teacher’s union? Where the union once numbered 6,000 members in 117 schools, it now has just 300 members at the four remaining public schools. The rest of the schools that survived the devastation of Katrina to reopen this week are doing so as charter schools. Many of the teachers serving in these schools are the same who taught there before the hurricane, returning to the city to help rebuild, only […]