Clear It with Sidney | Hillman Foundation

Clear It With Sidney

The best of the week’s news by Lindsay Beyerstein

Clear It with Sidney

#Sidney's Picks: Romney's Contempt for Workers; Income Inequality in New York; Bizarro Sex Ed

  • Paul Krugman on Mitt Romney’s contempt for workers: “Should we imagine that Mr. Romney and his party would think better of the 47 percent on learning that the great majority of them actually are or were hard workers, who very much have taken personal responsibility for their lives? And the answer is no.”
  • With poverty at a 10-year high, income disparities in New York now rival those seen in Sub-Saharan Africa.
  • An industry-funded monitoring group, Social Accountability International, certified that a Karachi factory was safe before a blaze swept through the plant, killing hundreds of workers.  
  • An Iranian woman beat the crap out of a meddlesome cleric who told her to cover up better.  “You, cover your eyes,” she shot back, ignoring his warnings. One thing led to another and the cleric soon found himself on the ground, being kicked.
  • Rick Ayers of the Huffington Post raves for Frank Bardacke’s Hillman Prize-winning biography of Cesar Chavez, Trampling Out the Vintage. 
  • New York State’s sex ed curricula are riddled with inaccurate and prejudiced information about sex, gender, and health, RH Reality Check reports. Not only that some of the illustrations of the reproductive system appear to have been drawn by Todd Akin with a pen in his mouth: 

[Photo credit: Wander Mule, Creative Commons.]

Study: Wage Theft is Routine for Car Wash Workers

Chicago wash owners are casually stealing millions from their workers, according to a new study:

CHICAGO (CBS) – Chicago car wash workers are trying to organize a union and are the subject of new research that finds their employers routinely steal from them.

WBBM Newsradio’s Mike Krauser reports new research by a University of Illinois at Chicago professor suggests car washes in Chicago are ripping off their mostly immigrant workers to the tune of $2.5 million a year.

These violations are the norm. These are not bad apples,” said UIC professor Robert Bruno.

A third of Chicago’s car wash workers have been robbed this way. It’s the de facto industry standard. Wage theft happens at 70% of Chicago car washes.

Owners regularly hold back tips and overtime pay. Most of the city’s car wash workers live in poverty despite working much more than full time. 

Car wash workers in New York report similar abuses. 

[Photo credit: Daviddag, Creative Commons.]

Chicago Teachers Strike Ends

Chicago Teachers Strike Ends; Photo credit: Peoplesworld, Creative Commons.

The 800 union delegates representing Chicago’s public school teachers voted overwhelmingly last night to end their strike:

The terms, which appeared to provide some victories for both sides, would give annual raises to teachers, lengthen the school day and allow teachers to be evaluated, in part, with student test scores. The school system would also aim to guide laid-off teachers with strong ratings into at least half of any new job openings in the schools. 

While a halt to the teachers’ strike, this city’s first in a quarter century, may end the immediate, local contract fight over pay, working conditions and job security, the episode brought to the forefront larger questions, still unanswered, about the philosophical direction of public schools here, a national agenda for educational change and the potency of unions. [NYT]

The two sides reached a tentative three-year contract with an option for a fourth year, but the document has not yet been made public. The union did not get the raise it initially sought, but it held off a proposed merit pay scheme, defused the most stringent aspects of the teacher evaluation proposal, and secured a recall procedure for high performing teachers laid off due to school closings. 

The contract must still be ratified by the rank-and-file. 

 

Who's Really Hurting Chicago's Kids

Empty Classroom (EVmaiden <http://www.flickr.com/photos/44551921@N04/6240707542/sizes/n/> , Creative Commons.

Even people who generally consider themselves pro-labor often balk at supporting teachers strikes because, they argue, “teachers strikes hurt kids.” In Dissent, Joanne Barkan casts a critical eye on that simplistic formulation. Chicago’s students are being victimized, she argues, but not by teachers striking for air conditioned classrooms and payment for the extra hours they’ll be asked to work when the schoold day is extended:

Yes, schoolchildren in Chicago are victims, but not of their teachers. They are victims of a nationwide education “reform” movement geared to undermine teachers’ unions and shift public resources into private hands; they are victims of wave after wave of ill-conceived and failing policy “innovations”; they are victims of George Bush’s No Child Left Behind law, which turned inner-city public schools into boot camps for standardized test prep; they are victims of Barack Obama’s Race to the Top program, which paid states to use student test scores—a highly unreliable tool—for teacher evaluations and to lift caps on the number of privately managed charter schools, thus draining resources from public schools. Chicago’s children are victims of “mayoral control,” which allows Rahm Emanuel to run the school system, bully parents and teachers, and appoint a Board of Education dominated by corporate executives and political donors.

 

What If Labor Dies?

In a new article in the American Prospect, Hillman judge Harold Meyerson asks what will happen to America if organized labor continues its long slide into oblivion:

Where are unions in the new economy? Can a union do anything for a temp? A part-timer? A software writer? A barista? Will anyone under 30—will anyone over 30—even notice if unions cease to be?

Perhaps not. But everyone will notice the consequences. Absent a substantial union movement, the American middle class will shrink. Absent a substantial union movement, the concentration of wealth will increase. Absent a substantial union movement, the corporate domination of government will grow.

If labor dies, Americans can look forward to falling wages, rising inequality, and permanent Republican majorities. The only way to stave off this dire outcome, Meyerson argues, is for the rest of the liberal movement to rally behind organized labor in its hour of need.

[Photo credit: Peoplesworld, Creative Commons.]

#Sidney's Picks: Anti-Union Liberals; Bangladeshi Murder Mystery; and the Wal-March

  • Sarah Jaffe of AlterNet calls out five supposedly liberal pundits for bashing the striking Chicago teachers.
  • Bangladeshi labor organizer Aminul Islam disappeared on April 4, after an extended campaign of police harassment. His tortured body was found a few days later. Many believe Islam was murdered for trying to organize workers at local Tommy Hilfiger and American Eagle factories. Four months later a lead surfaced: On the day he disappeared, a man with suspected intelligence ties showed up and asked Islam to officiate his wedding. Islam left with him in a rickshaw and was never seen again.
  • President Asif Ali Zardari has ordered an investigation into a fire that killed 258 garment workers in the Pakistani capital of Karachi, Businessweek reports. Labor activists have been pushing for an investigation and compensation for the families of the victims.
  • About 100 warehouse workers from the Inland Empire set out on a 50-mile “Wal-March” to protest wages and working conditions at Wal-Mart warehouses, Thursday.

[Photo credit: Wander Mule, Creative Commons.]

"Chicago Teacher": Rebel Diaz Raps For Strikers

The unions uprising! takin to the streets!
The workers are United so the Mayor’s got beef!
Rahm’s a fake pretender with a corporate agenda
Neo Liberal Offender, of course you offend us!
This aint about money! That’s far from the truth,
they want better work conditions to teach the youth.

The labor movement has a rich musical heritage. Songs raise spirits on the picket lines and recall the stories of struggles past. This week, Rebel Diaz took up the tradition of Joe Hill, Woodie Guthrie, and Phil Ochs with his new song, “Chicago Teacher.” Listen here.

An End in Sight for Chicago's Teachers Strike?

Striking teachers and school officials are making progress at the bargaining table, the Chicago Sun Times reports. The two sides are said to be coming closer to an agreement on the contentious issue of teacher evaluations. If all goes well, students could be back at school by Friday:

After a long day of talks that ended around 11:30 p.m., Lewis said the system’s offer on teacher evaluations, a key stumbling block, had improved to the point that “I’m smiling. I’m very happy.’’

Although she was not ready to check it off her list, “it’s a lot better,’’ Lewis said.

Earlier, Chicago Public School officials Wednesday released what one expert called a “pretty generous concession” to the union on teacher evaluations.

Teachers and parents across country are watching the Chicago dispute as a bellwether for the national debate over teacher evaluations and standardized testing.

[Photo credit: People’s World, Creative Commons.]

Chicago Teachers Strike Roundup

Some of the best reporting and commentary on the Chicago teachers strike:

 

 

Post-Gazette Wins September Sidney Award for Fracking Exposé

Erich Schwartzel and Julia Rendleman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette have won the September Sidney Award for “Fouled Waters,” a 3-month investigation into a mysterious blight on the water supply of a small Pennsylvania town surrounded by natural gas wells.

Read my Backstory interview with Erich and Julia about their prize-winning piece.

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