Labor Notes
1. I know we all took the words of charter school advocates very, very seriously. It was all about the students and not about busting the teacher unions at all. Or not.
Teachers and staff at a Chicago charter school for troubled youths have filed an unfair labor complaint that claims the network that runs the school announced plans to close it a day after teachers voted to form a union.
I’m sure Michelle Rhee approves.
2. Yesterday, I talked about how Honeywell CEO and Catfood Commission member David Cote wants a corporate tax rate of 0%. Well, Cote was on Capitol Hill yesterday for what was supposed to be a lively discussion of economic policy. And that was fine so long as the attendees praised him. But when labor reporter Mike Elk tried to ask him a question about Honeywell labor practices, specifically busting a union at a uranium plant it owns, the mike was stripped from him. When Elk followed up, he was detained by guards. Video here.
3. Machinists at a Caterpillar plant in Illinois overwhelmingly rejected a contract offer that would have froze wages, doubled health care premiums, and eliminated many pension and seniority rights. Meanwhile, Caterpillar is an incredibly profitable corporation whose CEO made $17 million last year. They have been on strike since May 1.
4. Chris Hamby of the Center for Public Integrity has an outstanding if depressing story on the huge number of preventable accidents on the job that kill American workers.
A most excellent post illustrating once again important truths:
1) Public sector unions, especially teachers unions, are the most evilest institutions in America with unlimited power which are destroying America;
2) Unions were useful in necessary in the past, but have outgrown their usefulness and become anachronistic.
For our next lesson, how markets always work perfectly and how management and capital always look out for the best interests of their workers.
There’s a trillion dollars in public school money just waiting to get stolen. If teachers’ unions didn’t stand in the way of that theft they wouldn’t be so evil.
Plundering the public treasury is a Republican virtue.
If you want to see some great push back from Chicago, check out this video of CPS Parent Matt Farmer challenging Rahm and Pritzker.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMUboOIQT48
Michelle Rhee is the world’s greatest third grade teacher. Check out her test scores (oh wait, there aren’t any). She’s clearly gone all Grover Norquist, selling out to the right wing money.