Labor

Moving Money Around in Different Ways

By Justin Katz | November 18, 2009 |

This quote from John Derbyshire’s book, We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism, which I found via a review by Kyle Smith, in National Review, gave us opportunity for discussion and encouragement ’round the construction site: American parents are now all resigned to beggaring themselves in order to purchase college diplomas for their offspring, so that…

Swing and a Miss

By Marc Comtois | November 6, 2009 |

This morning, the NEA’s Pat Crowley’s lamely attempted to use Alinsky’s Rules #5 (Ridicule) and #11 (” Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it”) on Education Commissioner Deborah Gist and put up a post that displayed the sort of empathy and prudence we’ve all come to expect. In the post, Crowley vaguely alluded…

Chariho Teachers Approve Contract: Stepping Away from Steps?

By Marc Comtois | November 3, 2009 |

As the ProJo reports, the Chariho teachers have approved a new contract (PDF) that includes nearly the complete eradication of the traditional increases (go “here” to see what I mean by “traditional”) in the hard-coded contract step increases. This is what the Chariho contract looks like: Usually, a step contract would have something like a…

Update: Permanent Contracts Sent Back To Committee

By Carroll Andrew Morse | October 29, 2009 |

Here is the status report on the permanent contracts bill, from the state legislature’s website…Senate Bill No.713 BY Perry, Levesque C, McCaffrey, Miller, Sosnowski ENTITLED, AN ACT RELATING TO LABOR AND LABOR RELATIONS – CERTIFIED SCHOOL TEACHERS ARBITRATION (would amend section 28-9.3-9 to provide that if a successor collective bargaining agreement has not been agreed…

Where Even the Watchdogs Are Corrupt

By Justin Katz | October 29, 2009 |

WPRI’s been promoting its newest Target 12 investigation as “The Biggest Yet”; reporter Tim White sends along some specifics in advance of the official revelation: CRANSTON – The Rhode Island State Police have opened a criminal investigation following a Target 12 Investigation into government waste. The investigation, which airs tonight at 11 p.m., reveals four…

Update: Yorke Reporting that the Permanent Contract Won’t be Passed Tonight

By Carroll Andrew Morse | October 29, 2009 |

Dan Yorke of WPRO (630 AM) is reporting that he has spoken with House Speaker William Murphy’s spokesman Larry Berman, who says that the permanent contract bill has been placed on the House calendar for procedural reasons only, because it needs to be officially tabled before the end of the session.

Perpetual Contract: Making a Spark in a Gunpowder Factory

By Justin Katz | October 29, 2009 |

Andrew’s news might explain the lack of the usual angst from the state’s unionists over legislative assurances that binding arbitration is dead, for the time being: The unions’ first choice — perpetual contracts — is alive and well. You’ll recall that the deadly bill, S0713, passed the Senate and the House Labor Committee and then…

BREAKING: The Permanent Contract is Still Alive in the Legislature

By Carroll Andrew Morse | October 29, 2009 |

Following a comment from “Madmom”, I checked the General Assembly’s official online calendar, and found this… Senate Bill No.713 BY Perry, Levesque C, McCaffrey, Miller, Sosnowski ENTITLED, AN ACT RELATING TO LABOR AND LABOR RELATIONS – CERTIFIED SCHOOL TEACHERS ARBITRATION (would amend section 28-9.3-9 to provide that if a successor collective bargaining agreement has not…

The Audacity of the Union

By Justin Katz | October 28, 2009 |

If you’ve paid even moderate attention to union squabbles in this state, you’ve got to drop your jaw at some of the pro-binding arbitration ads that the National Education Association is putting out. Look at the clippings at the top of the picture highlighting all of the lawyers fees and other bad effects of recent…

Preemptive Support for Evaluations

By Justin Katz | October 26, 2009 |

Is it too cynical to be suspicious of union enthusiasm to develop evaluation standards for teachers? The Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals has received a $200,000 national grant to develop a much more demanding method of evaluating and mentoring new teachers. The union will work closely with four urban school districts: Providence,…