Labor
To the members of the six Providence municipal unions who, in the words of Philip Marcelo of the Projo, “[oppose] the city’s decision to change its health care benefits manager”, let me one more time pitch the most obvious solution to your dilemma…Your health insurance should be separated from any direct employer involvement; David Cicilline…
The shadow that unions cast over our education system never ceases to sting: [East Providence’s] current contract with its teachers expires on Friday, and talks are at a deadlock. The sides can’t agree on ground rules and the sticking point is the School Committee’s demand that the bargaining be done in public. “The union representatives…
Julia Steiny recently heard a speaker whose conclusions point to the same problem in education, but from a different aspect: University of Chicago Prof. Charles Payne spoke recently on the subject of his book So Much Reform, So Little Change. … “Because you have institutions in which the adults fail to cooperate. Grown-up people unable…
I understand that arbitration is a wildcard that Rhode Island officials might not wish to risk, but something about the latest deal — as with previous deals — worked out with public sector union leadership brings into relief the practices that have gotten our state into its current difficulties: Council 94’s new agreement — like…
Just in case anybody missed this nugget from our state’s leading education unionist: Robert A. Walsh Jr., executive director of the National Education Association Rhode Island, said repealing the tax levy law would also alleviate the problem. Said Walsh, “We simply can’t continue to produce a competitive public education system in our current state.” Put…
To follow up on Don’s post, from the editors of America’s middle-of-the-road (to be generous) national newspaper, USA Today, an essay against “card-check” legislation: A win for Obama and big gains for Senate Democrats could remove the remaining obstacles to the euphemistically named “Employee Free Choice Act.” Cajoled choice is more like it. The proposed…
Power Line discusses Obama’s support for the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation which would effectively eliminate private votes for union elections. Not even George McGovern agrees with Obama on this one. If elected, maybe Obama could send union members who resist coercive pressures off to a re-education camp run by Bill Ayers! Hey, if our…
Asks Matt Jerzyk in a comment to a previous post: Is it too much to ask for that American workers who work full time be paid a living wage with affordable and accessible health insurance? Well… yes. The reality is that we can’t just wish and make it so. Like it or not, every job…
Putting aside my biases, I truly do wonder: Do folks who are voting to unionize — as have five Providence-region Head Start faculties — ever ask themselves from where the money will come, or do they just decide that they need an organization protecting their interests, without giving much consideration to the hows and wherefores?
This has to stick in the craw of anybody who’s struggling to make monthly housing payments and considers continued employment to be a month-to-month thing (emphasis added): Carcieri immediately put legislative leaders on notice of the likely need to borrow from the state-run disability-insurance fund earlier in the state’s budget year than anyone could recall.…