Category Archives: unions

Who revoked the dream?

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I’ve been reading this entry on barlett and steele’s website.  It was written in 1996, and was so prophetic of what was happening and now we see the ripple effect.  I don’t know about the rest of you, but I feel like I was sleepwalking through the 80s and early 90s and am now Rip Van Winkle-ing–re-learning what was…

I was busy getting married, having babies, and going along with the babbling of the Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush years….well, maybe not W.’s years, but still…the country was being demolished, stick by stick…

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American made stuff (I haven’t purchased these items, so I can’t speak to their quality or the companies’ treatment of employees):

Diamond Gusset Jeans

Union label

All USA clothing

Here’s a site that encompasses many different products.

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A bright note here.  I think it’s a good sign that small business owners are giving bonuses.  Now if they could hire more people at living wages…

Silkwood

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My apologies, I meant to blog on this last week, at the anniversary of Karen Silkwood’s death, November 13th, 1976~

So now it’s been thirty-six years since her mysterious death after she had raised too many questions about the safety of the plutonium processing plant that employed her.  The TV movie “Silkwood” raised a stir when it was aired.  I remember watching it.  For some reason, my memory had Cher as the lead role…apologies to Meryl Streep.

The only complaint I have about the movie is the emphasis on Karen’s personal life…perhaps they didn’t want to leave stuff out to make an accurate portrayal, but it seems that whenever a woman makes noise about something, her morals are always questioned and if she is not a freaking saint, then she is not to be believed.

And I wonder if anything has changed…whether plutonium is still going missing–and where it’s going to…

Pay us enough…

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…so we can raise our own families….

It’s now too common that workers in stores are paid so little that they can’t even afford to shop in the store they work for…

I’ve had a friend who shopped at Walmart and when I raised concerns about how they treated their employees, she was upset because she couldn’t afford to shop anywhere else.  I avoid it like the plague–only going there if no other option is available (i.e., I’m in another town or the item I want is not in what few independent stores are left).

Another person remarked about how a national chain grocery store that paid its employees a decent wage was “gouging them with high prices” when Walmart had so much lower prices…the national chain store eventually went out of business, naturally, so now they’re stuck with only Walmart to shop for groceries in their small town.  Wanna take bets on how long that lasts–either they’ll raise prices with no  competition or the folks in town will find yet another mega-store in a nearby town that has even lower prices so they’ll shop there, driving miles out of the way…buying more crap made out of China in sweatshops…God, this depresses me even writing it…

When is Congress going to raise the minimum wage to a living wage of $11.00 an hour?  Oh, wait, we can’t do that…because that will…what are the excuses again…?

FEMA temporarily closes relief centers

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I read a story featured on Yahoo on FEMA closing relief centers because of the nor’easter coming in…something about the story sent my “antenna” up… so I looked at other sites and found that they were rightwingers…the search continued and I also found this:  http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/11/08/fema-responds-to-criticism-of-closure-of-mobile-centers-due-to-noreaster/

So…the rightwingers would rather more people were endangered staying in tents that offered no protection to the staffers nor folks visiting them…?

Other thoughts on the disaster of the East coast–many are still without power and they said on the news this morning that it is going to be after the holiday…what is the problem?  We have had storms like this in the past and I don’t recall it taking so long to restore power?  Why is there such a long delay?  Could it be that the utility companies, in a quest for bigger profits, have scaled back their work force?  I mean, this happened here, albeit on a smaller scale, when the 90-mph winds hit here this past June…power was off for a week at some locations.  The only reason we got power back on in our building was because we had a generator…even then, we had to wait for fuel for that generator.

… and why on Earth aren’t they saying anything about off-grid power?  Why aren’t they supplying people with solar panels and batteries so they could at least power the basic stuff?  Here’s another site on off-grid products and instruction.

Big Bird breathes sigh of relief…

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Congratulations, President Obama. Big Bird lives on…:)

I know better, but I was listening to the rightwing radio last night and they were painting a dim picture of Obama’s win.  I turned it off and went to bed to read…thinking we were going to get Bush III…

Indiana voted in Mike do-nothing Pence for Governor,  and now has a super majority in the legislature…<sigh>

…well, at least I am spared Richard my-sperm-is-a-gift-from-God Mourdock…

The news on the reaction in the Middle East.  I hope this means a peaceful movement in Israel is underway….

DN! has this up on the elections.  Elizabeth Warren is animated after her win.  Thank God.

Unfortunately, the GMO lobby won and Californians defeated the measure requiring GMO labeling. Shit.

O”Reilly had a nice take on why Obama won–because people want “stuff” and Obama was going to give it to them…

Well, now…Romney has the gov’t pay $77,000 for the care and housing of his horse…has money in offshore accounts and John McCain has so many houses he can’t even remember how many he has…all because they don’t pay their fair share of taxes…now who feels entitled?

Is it entitlement when one wants to eat? Have a roof over their head? Get medical care? I’m confused.

They went on to talk about the shift away from the standard–now women and minorities are getting their voices heard. The boys of the old school are threatened…and it will probably get uglier before it’s all done.

To my sisters who were the power behind getting President Obama re-elected:  Thank you.  We can move mountains when we focus on what’s important to us and fight for it.

I want to say, though, that women have been characterized as of “one mind”–that any woman who manages to get before a microphone speaks for all women.  They don’t.

This is one of the reasons that the middle-of-the-road women backed away from the Feminist Movement–they were treated as if they spoke for all women.  Women who wanted to stay home with their children were characterized as dull twits who lacked ambition.  Women who didn’t believe in abortion but believed in equality were marginalized, also.

And the 70s Feminists who fought against alimony because it…well, I’m not really sure why they were fighting against alimony…but as this quote by Barbara Seaman, amongst others, puts it quite well–this is something that I lost out on when I divorced.  I also got less than half of the assets (with a mortgage to pay off) and my ex got away with only paying one-fifth ($20,000) of his income to support his three children.  Although I had stayed home for eleven years, the judge did not allow for that, and had instead computed the amount of support as if I had a job!!  Yes, I had a lousy lawyer–whose partner still smirks at me to this day whenever I have to trudge back to the place I grew up in…I’ve always wondered what that smirk means….

Anyway, I hope that with the election that women and minorities will do their homework, and support thoughtful politicians who approach the legislative process with the “Do unto others…” mindset…it would make life so much easier and just might bring about Peace…

Albany Pro-Fracking Rally

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“Advocates” of the poisonous fracking practice were bused into Albany, NY.

In the book, Not in Our Backyards! by Nicholas Freudenberg (1984), the author notes the long history of corporate owners pitting unions (workers) against environmentalists.  Some union members saw the environmentalists as elitists.  They feared job loss if the company picked up and moved their jobs to another area or another country that would be more “friendly”.  This fear was not unfounded, as many companies did just that.  The threat was very real.

From this article, that blackmail is still at work–forcing people to choose having income or taking a risk with theirs and their family’s health.  It’s only after a tragedy occurs that they realize they gained a little at first, but lost their precious health or livestock or poisoned their land or water forever.

Artists Against Fracking website here. Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon beg Gov. Cuomo not to rush into allowing fracking.

Oh, and let’s not forget the resulting earthquakes linked to fracking…nobody seems to want to address that issue.

From Ohio. And Texas.

Here’s a good article from Bloomberg summarizing it.

It is stunning that energy companies who violate the rules over and over again, and again, are  allowed to continue.  Why?

Oh, and this just adds to the total picture of unethical behavior and lack of accountability.  And this stuff has been going on since the beginning of the oil industry—so why isn’t something done to correct it?

Victory for the kids in CPS

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DN! has a report up from Karen Lewis, President of the Chicago Public Teachers Union.  She is saying that the biggest thing that got applause for the new contract was the clause that the teachers could write their own lesson plans.  Woot!!

I saw how much the stupid No Child Left a Mind law did for teacher’s ability to conduct their classrooms according to their own intellectual, creative, and intuitive talents.  As Karen Lewis stated, teachers have been micromanaged in the classroom for things they know are harmful to their kids.

The anti-bullying clause is stunning–principals who were setting up teachers to fail.  This has been in the back of my mind with this whole evaluation process putting the full load on the teacher’s shoulders.  A school administrator could easily set a teacher up to fail by loading her/his class with students who are slow learners or have behavioral problems, etc.  Then she/he would have a failing classroom, by the impossible standards set up by these draconian laws.

The best thing that Karen Lewis spoke of was not only a longer school day, but a higher quality school day including a more well-rounded curriculum with arts, etc.  From my own experience as a substitute teacher, I could see how myopic the math and reading curriculum was–and how mind-numbing it was for kids.  The creative thought is what creates intelligence…anyone can recite numbers and facts, but to truly be able to problem-solve, one needs creative thought to look at all factors influencing the problem.

It’s very telling that President Obama, a Democrat, did not lend his support to the union.  Also very telling, but not surprising, is the Romney/Ryan ticket supporting Rahm Emanuel, a democrat in name only.   That should raise red flags as to what this is all about.

What also should raise red flags is Lewis’ assertion that the school closings are about real estate–and a school board that did not attend the school closing hearings.  See, they frame it to be about the kids, while making land deals behind the scenes.

And as Karen Lewis asks, “Where is the accountability?”  The “Accountability Movement” is geared towards one goal and one view.  God Bless her for her courage and strength.