Justin Katz

I’d also like to thank Mr. Crowley — especially on Labor Day — for highlighting the tactical philosophy of one of his union heroes: Power is not only what you have, but what your enemy thinks you have Never go outside of the experience of your own people Whenever possible, go outside the experience of…

I’ll start by thanking Pat Crowley for taking the initiative of putting some actual details out there for consideration. Having read through his description of the NEA-Tiverton’s healthcare proposal — doing my best to see past his ham-handed spin — I find I can only say that it’s not enough information. Given the privacy of…

So this is the final month of severance pay from the editing job that I lost in the spring. We’ve resources for approximately another six months — longer if my wife goes back to work. The local economy is such, however, that even if we were comfortable putting our children in daycare to allow for…

It occurs to me that several buildings’ worth of kindergarteners began their school experiences last week in Tiverton. What a wonderful early educational experience this would be: The teachers union membership this evening authorized its negotiating committee to call a strike if it deemed it necessary next Tuesday. Amy Mullen, the NEA-Tiverton teachers union president,…

In a comment to my post on the Burrillville teacher strike, Pat Crowley challenges me as follows: Justin, I wish you would take the time to really investigate the issues instead of having this ivory tower, knee-jerk reaction. This relates to something that has bothered me as I’ve followed news reports about the Tiverton teacher…

Patrick lays on the charm in the public-media negotiation process with the Tiverton school committee: Union spokesman Patrick Crowley replied, “It’s unfortunate that the School Committee has not taken the time to do the math accurately, and in addition to our mediation request we’re going to suggest that they get math remediation as well.” Yup,…

I’ve been meaning to note the chutzpa of retired state employee Robert Davis’s recent letter to the Providence Journal: Why is The Journal so preoccupied with the money that state workers make? Recent articles have explored who is the highest-paid state worker and how much overtime is being paid, as if the state workers were…

Shame on the Burrillville teachers for striking. As the people — especially parents — of that town are discovering, there is no better example of the teachers’ unions’ profoundly unreasonable power than their failure to obey the law and decline to strike. The district should fire anybody who doesn’t show up for work tomorrow, and…