Labor
In a town that has witnessed nearly a 12% increase in property taxes in the past year, this sort of thing should get the union-busting, pink-slip-preparing blood boiling: [Johnston teachers] were a no-show on Monday at Winsor Hill School’s open house, an event where they typically meet parents and fill them in on their instructional…
So the teachers head back to class today, in Tiverton, and although their contract is still under negotiation, there appears to be some movement. One of the reasons, however, is probably not a positive: … both sides agreed to keep the details of negotiations private, in a departure from the practice of publicly airing differences…
Nothing says Labor Day quite like a good Samuel Gompers quote…Time is the most valuable thing on earth: time to think, time to act, time to extend our fraternal relations, time to become better men, time to become better women, time to become better and more independent citizens.In terms of understanding the subtle shifts of…
Granted, I don’t have his business experience, but sometimes news reports give the impression that Governor Carcieri doesn’t have a feel for the push-and-shove momentum with which one must grapple when bringing painful, but necessary, change: “We’re going to do our best efforts to negotiate and discuss this in good faith and get a resolution,”…
Congratulations to the National Education Association’s Pat Crowley for managing to push his story about Governor Carcieri’s Florida condos onto (astonishingly) the front page of the Providence Journal, which used it as a contextual gotcha against the backdrop of the union healthcare story. (Gee, I didn’t realize that the governor is rich!) Normally, I wouldn’t…
Bob Kerr sounds a familiar argument, although I find it no more persuasive in print than in pixels: I know as well as any keen observer that labor unions cause hair loss, teen pregnancy, sexual dysfunction, adolescent obesity and poor gas mileage. I have heard repeatedly from the dashboard sages how unions are plotting to…
According to the Sakonnet Times, the Tiverton teachers’ union is softening its demands in the face of fiscal reality. I note, also, that according to an RI Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education table published in the Providence Journal, not a single Tiverton school had sufficient performance or progress to merit commendation after the last…
Richard Forbes, of Warwick, offers an argument we’ve heard before: I continually see negative commentaries about unions. Many people express resentment that union members (especially state worker and teacher unions) have excessive perks that the general population cannot obtain. Their anger is directed toward the wrong place. In the past, unionization raised the bar for…
Reading some of the comments to my post on the Lincoln teacher union contract agreement, it strikes me that many of my anti-union compatriots give due appreciation to the reality of change. The bottom line, as far as I can see, is that the union acknowledged the reality of limited funds and, rather than tumble…
Ah, the magic of the Lincoln compromise: Despite these tensions, Lincoln is an example of what a community can accomplish, even when money is scarce, says [Larry] Purtill, president of NEARI. “What Lincoln shows is that both sides were willing, in a tough financial environment, to find a way to make sure that they reach…