Labor
If the Sunday Providence Journal is any measure, commentators as a class have moved toward greater concern about the effect of Rhode Island’s stacked public-sector deck. From Froma Harrop to Julia Steiny to Mark Patinkin. Here’s an interesting bit from Patinkin’s offering, which imagines the Starship Enterprise reaction: “But things seem more peaceful and stable…
You know, this sort of talk can only expand the sense of unreality between unions and the general public: “Something is insane in Providence,” [American Federation of Teachers President Randi] Weingarten said, standing on the steps of City Hall. “On a week where teachers and students were taking a well-deserved break, a secret plan was…
There was a rally for Providence teachers yesterday and union leaders, who never met a crisis they didn’t like to exploit, regaled the crowd with unsurprising rhetoric that served to add heat but shed little light. AFT Union President Randi Weingarten: [The Providence teacher dismissal notices are] the most wrong-headed thing I have seen in…
In yesterday’s Projo, Linda Borg reported that Providence Teachers Union President Steve Smith wants Mayor Angel Tavares to reconsider his decision to formally dismiss all of the teachers in the Providence School System…The Providence Teachers Union president offered the School Board another option Monday night: send out letters that include the possibility of layoffs and…
My Patch column, this week, discusses the latest acronym with which active citizens must acquaint themselves: … OPEB stands for “other post-employment benefits” and, in Tiverton for example, includes health, dental and life insurance covering employees and their families after their retirement. According to a press release announcing the issuance of the final report from…
Thomas Russell of Barrington pushes a logical error frequently confused for an argument: I am (unfortunately) old enough to remember the state of education before the birth of teachers unions. Teaching positions were treated as patronage jobs, and salaries were so low that many graduates only turned to teaching after they failed to find work…
That was the topic Andrew introduced when he called in to the Matt Allen Show, last night. Stream by clicking here, or download it.
Further to Marc’s post, David Brooks outlined additional differences between public and private labor unions in a piece Tuesday about the Wisconsin situation. Private sector unions push against the interests of shareholders and management; public sector unions push against the interests of taxpayers. Private sector union members know that their employers could go out of…
As first reported on the Matt Allen Show, Adam Cole was in a confrontation with a union brother at the recent union solidarity rally held at the State House. National blogs are picking up the story, particularly the quote from a union brother, ““I’ll f**k you in the ass, you faggot!” Nice. Here’s the video…
Let me try and find a basic principle of conservative philosophy that I believe that many public union members will agree with, that human nature is fixed, that the fundamental nature of 21st Century Americans is not intrinsically different from the people of centuries past. If we today do have it better than the previous…
