Labor

Learning to Hear the Union

By Justin Katz | February 19, 2010 |

Mike at Assigned Reading is dead on that the Newsmakers head-to-head between Central Falls union representative Jim Parisi and Superintendent Frances Gallo is very revealing about the two sides’ priorities. Perhaps the most crystallized example of unions’ determination to spin rather than inform — because everything’s “negotiable” — comes at approximately 9: in the video:…

Trading Schools for Raises

By Justin Katz | February 17, 2010 |

The Newport Daily News isn’t very friendly about putting information online, so I don’t have a link to the story, but I read this weekend that the Tiverton School Committee is floating the idea of closing the town’s high school. In hopes of saving $450,000, as I recall, the town would either send its students…

The Union Chooses Firings

By Justin Katz | February 13, 2010 |

Anybody who’s surprised that the teachers’ union in Central Falls has chosen to stare down mass firings and do battle rather than submit to some eminently reasonable additional responsibilities should think through the future scenarios of the game. With administrators now standing firm on key planks that were previously popular political catch phrases, the unions…

Hurting a Dedicated Constituency

By Justin Katz | February 13, 2010 |

In an article about the ways in which Democrats’ preferred policies hurt black Americans, Kevin Williamson emphasizes union racism and especially the minimum wage: THE first answer many economists will give to that question is: the minimum wage. Milton Friedman, a Nobel laureate who spent much of his career showing how government programs reliably end…

A Clash of Realities in Central Falls

By Justin Katz | February 12, 2010 |

You’d think some higher-up planner in the teachers’ union would begin advising members that it’s time to back off for a while for the purpose of public-impression rehabilitation. Apart from the wholly inappropriate imagery of using a candle-light vigil for a union action, the particulars of the circumstances in Central Falls are absolutely certain to…

Contrasting Candlelight Vigils

By Monique Chartier | February 11, 2010 |

On Tuesday, a candlelight vigil was held for the five people killed in a fire over the weekend. Also on Tuesday, the Central Falls teachers union held a candlelight vigil because they had received layoff notices. Projo.com actually had a picture and story about each vigil on the front page last night which accented the…

Even FDR Was Wary of Public Employee Unions

By Marc Comtois | February 10, 2010 |

This article by Rich Lowry and this piece in the Wall Street Journal both alluded to Franklin Roosevelt’s wariness towards public employee unions. I was surprised. So I dug around and found one source that supports this claim. In a letter to a public employee union, Roosevelt explains that, yes, they do have a right…

Ahh, the Transparency of the Campaign Finance Reform Inspired 527 Schemes

By Marc Comtois | February 10, 2010 |

We’ve heard the caterwauling in reaction to the recent Supreme Court ruling regarding corporate political donations. But, whether you like the idea of big business giving directly to political candidates or not, you have to admit that at least it’s a relatively transparent process. A simple check of any number of sources will readily reveal…

Post-Contract Expectations Make All the Difference

By Justin Katz | February 9, 2010 |

Megan McArdle highlights an important distinction between union and individual employment contracts: Obviously, people who are not in unions write employment contracts, which are similarly hard to write. But non-union employment contracts operate in an environment where both sides often hope to continue the relationship beyond the initial term. This offers quite a bit of…

State Exceptions to Unemployment

By Justin Katz | February 8, 2010 |

Owing to some legislation put forward by union-friendly state Senator John Tassoni (D, Smithfield, North Smithfield), I’ve been poking around state law related to unemployment insurance. Tassoni’s bill would remove the word “private” from the following paragraph related to the state’s workshare program: “Eligible employer” means any private employer who has had contributions credited to…