Red money, blue money: The making of the 2012 campaign. "More than 80 percent of giving to Super PACs so far has come from just 58 donors, according to the Center for Responsive Politics analysis of the latest data, which covers the first half of 2011." This Salon piece details who the (surprisingly small) number of large donors are, and the SuperPACs they donate to.
posted by jaduncan
on Dec 14, 2011 -
18 comments
Boeing's new Dreamliner plant in South Carolina was found to be retaliation for union strikes by the National Labor Relations Board, an independent agency (
On Point radio show).
That's prompted Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) to launch an all-out
war on the NRLB according to Dahlia Lithwick.
(
Previously.)
posted by klangklangston
on Aug 19, 2011 -
78 comments
In over 35 years of friendship and conversation, Walter Michaels and I have disagreed on only two things, and one of them was faculty and graduate student unionization. He has always been for and I had always been against. I say “had” because I recently flipped and what flipped me, pure and simple, was Wisconsin.
When I think about the reasons (too honorific a word) for my previous posture I become embarrassed. ... The big reason was the feeling — hardly thought through sufficiently to be called a conviction — that someone with an advanced degree and scholarly publications should not be in the same category as factory workers with lunch boxes and hard hats. Wisconsin has taught Stanley Fish that academics are workers too. Marc Bousquet (author of
How the University Works) responds at the
Chronicle of Higher Education with
five lessons for academics from Wisconsin.
posted by gerryblog
on Mar 23, 2011 -
48 comments
In coming months, The [Los Angeles] Times will publish a series of articles and a database analyzing individual teachers' effectiveness in the nation's second-largest school district — the first time, experts say, such information has been made public anywhere in the country. This article examines the performance of more than 6,000 third- through fifth-grade teachers for whom reliable data were available. [more inside]
posted by Anything
on Aug 20, 2010 -
61 comments
“This is hard work and these are tough decisions, but students only have one chance for an education,”
Education Secretary Duncan said, “and when schools continue to struggle we have a collective obligation to take action.” In response to a new federal mandate to fix under-performing schools,
every teacher will be fired at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island.
posted by lunit
on Feb 24, 2010 -
229 comments
York University is no
stranger to
strikes (even breaking
its own length record), and the latest is shaping up much like the previous -
TA & Lecturers' union on the picket line, admin in the ugly concrete buildings, and undergrads looking cold and confused all around (YT).
But since the last strike in 2001, a few things have changed. No, not the issues (same as always - living wages for TAs, job security for lecturers) or the effect (disruption of undergrad education) - but last time there were few
discussion forums, no
facebook groups or
videos by the local newspaper, and definitely no (somewhat
obvious, but still
mildly entertaining)
Apple ad parodies.
[more inside]
posted by jb
on Dec 18, 2008 -
15 comments
Today is May 1st, also known as International Workers Day. International Workers Day began when 340,000 in Chicago, Milwaukee and other cities struck for the eight-hour day in 1886. Flash forward to today where for many workers in the I.T. industry, years of 60-hour weeks and taking classes on your own dime to keep up with technology leave you in the unemployment line, after being laid off with no notice. For
years, people have been
calling for the I.T. Workers of the world to unite and form a unified labor union. I.T. workers should form a union for the same reason that workers have always formed unions: together we have more power to improve the terms and conditions of our employment than we do as individuals. This is an announcement and a call to action to the world-wide IT worker community to become involved in the development of a new resource —
The International I.T. Workers Union that will represent the interests of I.T. Workers around the world.
posted by Babylonian
on May 1, 2007 -
73 comments
The dirty underbelly --
I'm sick and tired of these hypocritical Hoosier legislators who think that my sex life or relationship status is any of their business. Do I intrude on who they're sleeping with? I didn't, but I'm going to start now. ...Consider this a call to arms gossip. ... -- Bilerico, a GLBT blog in Indiana, fighting their proposed state Constitutional Amendment to ban marriage and all other rights for gay and lesbian couples and families.
posted by amberglow
on Jan 25, 2007 -
40 comments
NYU President John Sexton warns striking grad students that they must resume teaching or lose their benefits. After
weeks of
marching outside Bobst library and refusing to teach classes, NYU grad students have been sent a
letter from President John Sexton, warning them that any TA who does not return to work next week will lose their stipends and eligibility to teach next semester.
Until recently, NYU was the only private school that allowed graduate teaching assistants to unionize, following a
2000 NLRB decision, which was subsequently reversed.
NYU claims that it has negotiated in good faith and that the union's demands would limit decision making that should remain in the hands of academics, while the
grad students argue that they cannot trust NYU's admistration to take care of them without unionization (and representation by the
UAW). Meanwhile, many undergrads paying tuition upwards of 50K/year will have to
retake classes or opt for pass/fail. Do you
sympathize with highly educated American grad students who
receive free tuition, health insurance, and stipends in exchange for modest teaching duties (when many other students depend on student loans), especially compared the with
19th century coal miners,
third-world factory workers, and
modern-day wage slaves we normally associate with unions and strikes?
posted by banishedimmortal
on Nov 30, 2005 -
98 comments
UAL (United Airlines)
dumps four pension plans[optional audio interview with Businessweek expert] ; bankruptcy court authorizes shifting of USD 5 billions (allegedly largest pension default in U.S. history) in pension obligations to the
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. As a result the burden of private failure and incompetency will be shared by all taxpayers (whose taxes finance PBGC which is already operating on a
23 Billion deficit) and by beneficiaries of the pension plans who
will see their pension severely cut : pilots from 100K to 30K pensions but also less privileged workers will be hit. For instance Mrs Tamuk, spokeswoman from
Association of Flight Attendants said her pension will be reduced from $1,700 a month to $800 a month.
posted by elpapacito
on May 11, 2005 -
94 comments
Who Lost Ohio? As more evidence comes in
disproving voting fraud in the 2004 Presidential election, perhaps the real lessons for Democrats can be gleaned from this NYT (Reg required, of course) feature on ACT, a Democratic 527. Lavishly funded by George Soros and unions, this high tech organization turned out a record number (2.66 million) of Democratic voters in Ohio, but were out-organized and beaten by a grass-roots Republican effort operating below their radar. [MI]
posted by mojohand
on Nov 21, 2004 -
57 comments
Unionized Clergy?! Some members of the clergy with the United Church of Canada are looking to unionize over four thousand pastors across the country. Their compliant, bad working conditions and sweatshop wages. Bad working conditions? Give me a break.
via
posted by Coop
on Nov 5, 2004 -
13 comments
SEIU union and other Democratic groups have been holding rallies at early voting locations in Palm Beach County, where they have a captive audience of voters standing in line. Normally campaign workers can not come with in 50 feet of polling places, but apparently that rule does not apply to this year's new Early Voting in Florida.
One woman who voted early in Boca Raton, at the Southwest County Regional Library, complained that as she stood in line, two men behind her were "trashing our president," Fletcher said, declining to identify the woman. She tried to ignore them. Then the man touched her arm and said, "Who are you voting for?"
"I said, `I don't think that's an appropriate question,'" the woman said she responded.
"Uh oh! We have a Bush supporter here," screamed the man behind her.
For the 2 1/2 hours she had to wait in line, she was heckled by the man. As they neared the voting room, someone in the rear of the line yelled, "I sure hope everyone here is voting for Kerry!" she reported.
That's when the man behind her held his hand over her head and screamed, "We have a Republican right here!" There were "boos and jeers" from the crowd.
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood
on Oct 23, 2004 -
105 comments
Rod Paige Criticizes Teachers Union Education Secretary Rod Paige called the nation's largest teachers union a "terrorist organization" during a private White House meeting with governors on Monday.
Democratic and Republican governors confirmed Paige's remarks about the National Education Association.
posted by Postroad
on Feb 23, 2004 -
39 comments
