Solidarity for Workers’ Struggles Grows | AFL-CIO NOW BLOG #wisolidarity #wiunion

Solidarity for Workers’ Struggles Grows | AFL-CIO NOW BLOG

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The American public opposes taking bargaining rights away from workers, according to a new USA Today/Gallup poll. Indiana's deputy attorney general suggests using "live ammunition" against Wisconsin workers. Locked out of their own Capitol building, Ohioans sing "God Bless America." Wisconsin worker website blocked in Capitol building. Dropkick Murphys' new song backs Wisconsin workers. After one month in office, Wis. Gov. Scott Walker has blocked creation of more than 14,000 jobs.

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Should we un-do due process? « Failing Schools #wisolidarity #wiunion

Should we un-do due process? « Failing Schools

Should we un-do due process?

FEBRUARY 23, 2011

by Sabrina

With all the recent attacks on teachers’ due process rights, and on teacher unionism and organizing, continuing reports of retaliation against ethical teachers continue to disturb me. For instance, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently reported on teacher whistleblowers who have been targeted for helping expose local testing scandals there:

His bosses had no trouble dismissing Ryan Abbott’s report of cheating on standardized tests in an Atlanta school. They simply cast him in a self-fulfilling role, Abbott says: “disgruntled teacher.”

Abbott was already on probation, after four years at Benteen Elementary. His students had not posted the big increases in test scores seen in other classrooms. Yet he had the audacity to level charges against a popular colleague. After word of

Queens Teacher: Senator Sanders on American Capitalism

Queens Teacher: Senator Sanders on American Capitalism

Senator Sanders on American Capitalism

Coordinating committee in Wisconsin to contact the European unions on general strikes

http://bit.ly/dIdKMS

A coordinating committee is being formed in Wisconsin to contact the European unions with experience conducting general strikes

Written by Danny WeilEducationFeb 23, 2011

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From: Larry Miller’s blog:

Larry miller is a member of ReThinking Schools and is a school union director in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

STEVEN VERBURG | Posted: Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The 97-union South Central Federation of Labor of Wisconsin is laying groundwork for a general strike if Gov. Scott Walker succeeds in enacting legislation that would strip most bargaining rights from most public employee unions.

Federation president Jim Cavanaugh said Tuesday that he couldn’t predict how many unions might take part in a strike, but opposition to Walker has 

New Action website « JD2718 #wisolidarity #wiunion

New Action website « JD2718

New Action website

by jd2718

We’ve been making some effort to keep the New Action website better updated.

• We’ll keep getting DA leaflets up
• We’ll link a bit more to current issues
• We’ll include some information on what we are doing
• We are including occasional signed pieces
• Comments are open (moderated)

For example, on the events in Wisconsin we’ve put up videos from the WEAC, the state AFL-CIO’s tv ad, the text of an Egyptian trade union leader’s solidarity statement (w/video link), a list of proposals New Action madeto the UFT leadership, and an on-line petition to build support for the public employees, including teachers, in Wisconsin.

Popular Pages Today on #wisolidarity #wiunion Big Education Ape

Popular Pages Today
1.	Big Education Ape: Wisconsin Update: Ranking State SAT/ACT Statistics By Teacher Union Laws « Student Activism #wisolidarity #wiunion #weac 29.38%
2.	Big Education Ape 22.60%
3.	Big Education Ape: Awake the State Rally – Florida March 8th – Stand UP for Police Officers – Firefighters – Teachers – Public Workers « Continuing Change #solidarity 8.19%
4.	Big Education Ape: Photo From Egypt: "Egypt Supports Wisconsin Workers." on Twitpic#wiunion #killthebill #solidarityWI #wiunion 6.78%
5.	Big Education Ape: Wisconsin Democrats: ‘Gov. Scott Walker Is a Dictator’ | Politically Illustrated #wisolidarity #wiunion #weac 6.78%
6.	Big Education Ape: Es el momento - Educacion, Becas, Universidades, Aprendizaje 5.65%
7.	Big Education Ape: Teachers Unions, ACT/SAT, and Student Performance: Is Wisconsin Out-Ranking the Non-Union States? « Student Activism #wisolidarity #wiunion #weac 5.37%
8.	Big Education Ape: Unbelievable Outpouring of Solidarity #wisolidarity #wiunion #weac 5.08%
9.	Big Education Ape: - Solidarity Actions #wisolidarity #wiunion #weac AFT - A Union of Professionals 5.08%
10.	Big Education Ape: Big Education Ape: Special #wiunion Edition #wiunion #killthebill #solidarityWI 5.08%

A call for armed counterprotesters to Atlanta labor rally | Jay Bookman #wiunion #wisolidarity

A call for armed counterprotesters to Atlanta labor rally | Jay Bookman

A call for armed counterprotesters to Atlanta labor rally

10:02 am February 23, 2011, by Jay

SEIU, the Service Employees International Union, is holding rallies at state capitols around the country to demonstrate solidarity with public employee unions in Wisconsin. The union has scheduled an event at the Gold Dome in Atlanta at 4 pm today.

This has been posted on the far-right Free Republic site, under the headline:
“Atlanta Tea Party and Many Other Groups, Facing Off the SEIU Thugs Wednesday”

“Members of the various Tea Party, 9/12, and other freedom-oriented folks in the Atlanta area will be assembling in the vicinity of Georgia State Capitol this coming Wednesday afternoon at 4 pm. We’ll be providing balance to the ravings of the passengers aboard the SEIU Thugbus, which is scheduled to vomit forth its stooges at that same place and time.

If you are within three hours drive of ATL, come join us.

Dan and others from RTC will be there, with the usual accoutrements. As always, each participant is responsible for compliance with all applicable local laws.

Rahm. No clever headline. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Rahm. No clever headline. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Rahm. No clever headline.

by Fred Klonsky

There’s not much clever I can say about Rahm Emanuel’s crushing victory in the Chicago mayor’s race yesterday.

In the lowest voter turnout in 30 years, Rahm got 55% of the vote. He carried 40 out of 50 wards. He creamed the lack-of-consensus African-American candidate, Carol Moseley Braun. She came in 4th. King Alderman Eddie Burke’s guy, Gery Chico, barely got a quarter of the vote. Progressive candidate Miguel Del Valle came in third.

Chico gave one of those “now we’re all Chicagoans” speeches. He has too much invested in city contracts to

12 Things You Need to Know About the Uprising in Wisconsin | AlterNet #wisolidarity #wiunion”

12 Things You Need to Know About the Uprising in Wisconsin | AlterNet

12 Things You Need to Know About the Uprising in Wisconsin

Public workers and supporters picketing the mansion of Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, February 13, 2011

What's happening in Wisconsin is not complicated. At the beginning of this year, the state was on course to end 2011 with a budget surplus of $120 million. As Ezra Klein explained, newly elected GOP Governor Scott Walker then " signed two business tax breaks and a conservative health-care policy experiment that lowers overall tax revenues (among other things). The new legislation was not offset, and it turned a surplus into a deficit." (Update: please seethis note for more detail on the cause of the budget gap.)

Walker then used the deficit he'd created as the justification for assaulting his state's public employees. He used a law cooked up by a right-wing advocacy group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC likes to fly beneath the radar, but I described the organization in a 2005 article as "the connective tissue that links state legislators with right-wing think tanks, leading anti-tax activists and

Reality Check: Wisconsin Unions Have Already Agreed to Major Concessions - Dana Goldstein #wisolidarity #wiunion

Reality Check: Wisconsin Unions Have Already Agreed to Major Concessions - Dana Goldstein

Reality Check: Wisconsin Unions Have Already Agreed to Major Concessions

by Dana Goldstein

My comments section is happily overflowing with debate over Scott Walker and the Wisconsin union protests. I've noticed that, more than any issue, people seem to be irked by the fact that public sector workers contribute so little to the cost of their health insurance compared to private sector workers.

So I just want to point out that Wisconsin's unions have already agreed to $30 million in pay cuts and to increase their members' pension and insurance contributions. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:

Earlier Friday, Marty Beil, head of the Wisconsin State Employees Union, said his members would agree to pay more of their pension contributions and health insurance benefits as Walker is demanding. But Beil said his union would never agree to give up decades-old bargaining rights.

Beil's union is part of AFSCME, the largest state and local employee union in Wisconsin, which represents 68,000 workers for the state, Milwaukee, Milwaukee County and other municipalities. An AFSCME spokesman said Beil was speaking for all the group's union locals in the state.

"We are prepared to implement the financial concessions proposed to help bring our state's budget into

That Plan to Close Half of Detroit's Schools? It's Really Happening - Education - GOOD

That Plan to Close Half of Detroit's Schools? It's Really Happening - Education - GOOD

That Plan to Close Half of Detroit's Schools? It's Really Happening

Eminem's acclaimed Super Bowl advertisement for Chrysler told the world that despite what you've heard, Detroit is making a comeback. Tell that to the city's children, because the State of Michigan has sounded the death knell for Detroit Public Schools. DPS's Emergency Financial Manager (EFM), Robert Bobb, has received approval for his plan to shut down half of the city's public schools over the next two years, raising remaining school class sizes to 60 students. The decision could be the tipping point that pushes Michigan into Wisconsin-style protesting.

Bobb's solution addresses a $327 million budget deficit and will reduce the current 142 schools in the district down to 72 by the 2012-13 school year. The plan will likely drive more families out of the Detroit, setting

Blog This Rock: Inside the Cheese Revolution: Poetry in Motion #wisolidarity #wiunion

Blog This Rock: Inside the Cheese Revolution: Poetry in Motion

Inside the Cheese Revolution: Poetry in Motion

Dancing with Liberty

(Madison, Wisconsin, February 19, 2011)

My friend called to say, “I’m waiting
at the top of State,” but I was across

the square, so I kept walking with the crowd
past the media stands where a few angry

men screamed through bullhorns while
we answered the call: Show me what

Democracy looks like, singing back over
and over, This is what Democracy

looks like, the marchers slowing to let
parents with strollers cross to the Capital,

past the costumed onlookers, past the sax
player giving us “Solidarity Forever,”

past the Harley-jacketed family, past
“Queers from Chicago” with raised fists,

Show me what Democracy looks like—
This is what Democracy looks like—

but at the top of State, amid thousands
of marchers, my friend and I could not

find each other, so I called and told her,
“Look for the man dressed as Liberty,”

and cut through the crowd to stand
beside a young black man in green silk

and a plastic-foam Lady Liberty crown—
Show me what Democracy looks like—

This is what Democracy looks like—
and he told me he was from Milwaukee,

and that his mother was a teacher,
and I told him I was from Alaska

and my father was in the service,
and all the while music was pounding

out from the Capital steps, and after
a few minutes we were dancing to

Michael Jackson, swaying and pumping
our arms, Show me what Democracy

looks like—This is what Democracy
looks like—and somehow, my friend

never did find me, and none of us
who are hoping for justice know

whether we will find it, now or soon
or never, but what the heck, my friends,

isn’t this what Democracy looks like:
each of us, all of us, dancing with Liberty?

-Patricia Monaghan Used by permission.

Providence: dismissal notices to all teachers « JD2718

Providence: dismissal notices to all teachers « JD2718

Providence: dismissal notices to all teachers

by jd2718

h/t Tom Hoffman.

From the Providence Journal:

PROVIDENCE — In an e-mail sent to all teachers and School Department staff, Brady said, “We are forced to take this precautionary action by the March 1 deadline given the dire budget outline for the 2011-2012 school year in which we are projecting a near $40 million deficit for the district,” Brady wrote. “Since the full extent of the potential cuts to the school budget have yet to be determined, issuing a dismissal letter to all teachers was necessary to give the mayor, the School Board and the district maximum flexibility to consider every cost savings option, including reductions in staff.” State law requires that teachers be notified about potential changes to their employment status by March 1.

“To be clear about what this means,” Brady wrote, “this action gives the School Board the right to dismiss teachers as necessary, but not all teachers will actually be dismissed at the end of the school year.”

Did Scott Walker Get Crank-Call Pwned? (AUDIO) | Mother Jones #wisolidarity #wiunion

Did Scott Walker Get Crank-Call Pwned? (AUDIO) | Mother Jones

Did Scott Walker Get Crank-Call Pwned? (AUDIO)

— By Adam Weinstein

| Wed Feb. 23, 2011 2:15 AM PST

Buffalo Beast

Is that really Scott Walker? A New York-based alt-news editor says he got throughto the embattled Wisconsin governor on the phone Tuesday by posing as right-wing financier David Koch...then had a far-ranging 20-minute conversation about the collective bargaining protests. According to the audio, Walker told him:

• That statehouse GOPers were plotting to hold Democratic senators' pay until they returned to vote on the controversial union-busting bill.

• That Walker was looking to nail Dems on ethics violations if they took meals or lodging from union supporters.

• That he'd take "Koch" up on this offer: "[O]nce you crush these bastards I'll fly you out to