Labor
[The following first appeared on Anchor Rising as a comment to this post.] I grew up in a union household. My father belonged to the IBEW until he was promoted and took a job in management, taking with him the morality and ethics of his union membership. I remember my uncle, Bill, proudly wearing his…
For some reason, the Sakonnet Times publishes different letters online and in the paper. Therefore, I can’t link to a letter of mine in the current edition. By all means, pick up a copy, but here’s what I wrote: To the editor: Tiverton School Committee Member Leonard Wright made himself the union’s champion when he…
Both Justin and I mentioned NEA President Bob Walsh’s rather intemperate anti-business comments last week: “We are never going to compete with folks, with employers who are so ridiculous they do not provide retirement security plans for their employees….If they don’t, they are terrible people and they shouldn’t be allowed to exist and that’s always…
Ian Donnis points to a “strong post” (alluded to earlier) which illustrates how approximately $11.2 million of taxpayer dollars are going to government supplied health care for workers who don’t get health care through their jobs. Where is that money going, you might ask…. It is going to Bank of America, and their 382 employees…
We are never going to compete with folks, with employers who are so ridiculous they do not provide retirement security plans for their employees….If they don’t, they are terrible people and they shouldn’t be allowed to exist and that’s always going to be the union position on those issues.” ~ Bob Walsh I wonder if…
The National Education Association couldn’t have asked for better coverage of the Tiverton School Committee meeting on Tuesday from the Providence Journal’s Gina Macris if the union had paid for it: Amid the continuing rancor over an unsettled teachers’ contract, School Committee member Leonard Wright injected a conciliatory tone. The town has high-performing schools and…
Tiverton School Committee member Jan Bergandy has an excellent letter (which is unfortunately not online) in the current Sakonnet Times: The bird-flipping spiritual leader of the NEA has not been seen in town recently but I would not be surprised if his teachings inspired the followers. This is what happens when you do not have…
Clarity on meaning is going to be absolutely crucial as competing visions are put forward to solve Rhode Island’s ills, and one pair of concepts that may have confusing overlaps in education policy is “statewide funding formula” versus a “statewide teacher contract.” The former phrase, as came out in my discussion yesterday with Representative Joe…
“We teach our children every day not to accept the easy answers but to get all the information they need before they make a decision,” writes NEA-Tiverton President (and teacher) Amy Mullen in a letter to the Sakonnet Times (which is not online). What follows that opener is, not surprisingly, another iteration of the union’s…
I’m not going to lie to you; solely in consideration of entertainment, I miss seeing Pat Crowley at the Tiverton School Committee meetings. He gives off the aura of a TV villain, and drama requires such characters. But for the school system, for the town, and even for the teachers, the quiet, respectful atmosphere of…