Tag Archives: unions

President Obama Nails Republicans On Auto Bailout – Hard!

Posted on February 28, 2012 by | 8 Comments

I just love when our President calls out the Republicans on their stupidity. Since the media just plays along with them, it falls on the President to do it himself. And he does it sooooo well, doesn’t he?

Cross-posted at Extreme Liberal’s Blog

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Posted in Election 2012? Oy vey!, Extreme Liberal, Obama 2012: Yes We Will!

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Arizona GOP: I Spit On Your Union Grave

Posted on February 2, 2012 by | 1 Comment

If GOP Gov. John Kasich got an ugly bloody nose from public unions last year and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and his GOP pals wanted to leave public unions bleeding in the street (only to now face the wrath of the state’s voters), Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is by comparison sending wreaths and dry cleaning her little black dress for the occasion.

With a sweeping series of bills introduced Monday night in the state Senate, Republicans in Arizona hoped to make Wisconsin’s battle against public unions last year look like a lightweight sparring match.

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Posted in Balloon Juice Cross-Posts, Teabilly and GOP Mendacity, Zandar

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James Hoffa's Speech at the Labor Day Rally in Detroit

Posted on September 6, 2011 by | 7 Comments

“Everybody here has got a vote. If we go back, we keep the eye on the prize, lets take these sons-of-bitches out and give America back to America where we belong.”

 Here is a transcript of Teamsters President James Hoffa’s speech at yesterday’s Labor Day Rally in Detroit.  As a commenter at Balloon Juice noted, ”it’s a great speech for the Democrats to learn how to talk to people”:

“Are there any Teamsters in the house? This is Motown, but today, this is union town. We are union, we are workers. That is the message that we send today, and that is the message that we send to America.

There is a war on workers. You see it everywhere: It is in the unemployment, it is in the Tea Party, it is in the people that fight what we believe in. And we see the war in Wisconsin where they try to take collective bargaining from our public employees. We took two senate seats back, we are taking Wisconsin back.

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Posted in Obama 2012: Yes We Will!

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President Obama in Detroit on Labor Day defies the laughable myth that his "base" has deserted him

Posted on September 6, 2011 by | 22 Comments

Detroit’s a special place. On Labor Day, it doesn’t just have one labor union parade.

It has two.

Yes, in Detroit both the building trades union and the AFL-CIO both held simultaneous parades to celebrate workers in general and union membership specifically. The theme of the day was “Labor and Community: We are One”. Thousands of union members walked along the streets of Detroit, streets that are showing surprising amounts of life and resurgence despite the tales of gloom and doom we read about on a daily basis. Detroit’s quiet reemergence from the desperate economic straits we’re in was reflected in the quiet dignity of the union members who walked today. In their faces you could see hope, resolve and an acknowledgment that they are stronger speaking with one voice than they could ever hope to be alone. Out of many, they are indeed one.


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Posted in Eclectablog, Obama 2012: Yes We Will!, Obamaganda

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The War on Leeches. No, Wait. It's the War on TEACHERS.

Posted on July 19, 2011 by | 4 Comments


IT’S WARRRR!!!!

It’s been a rough year for teachers in this country, particularly in the Midwest. Wisconsin notwithstanding, teachers in Michigan may be taking it on the chin from Republicans more than any other group in the country. Last Thursday, we learned that GOP House Speaker Jase Bolger’s next legislative target is teachers’ pensions.

That’s right: pensions. It’s not enough that school funding has been drastically cut back, forcing school districts into difficult financial straits. It’s not enough that they have made it “more illegal” for teachers to strike. It’s not enough that the new Emergency Manager law is being used as a cudgel to force even more wage concessions. It’s not enough that their ability to collectively bargain has been severely curtailed. It’s not enough that they will now pay more for their health insurance after giving up wages to secure what they have. No, none of this is enough. Now their pensions, the money they will live on in their retirement, are in the bullseye.

Whether Michigan school districts will see more funding next year will depend on the state’s economy, but lawmakers are working on pension reforms to free up money for Michigan K-12 classrooms, state House Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall, said Wednesday.

~SNIP~

“Our goal is to make schools better” by giving school officials “the tools they need” to better contain costs and improve teacher quality, Bolger said Wednesday during an hourlong discussion with the Kalamazoo Gazette in his office at the state Capitol.

“The whole point was to face reality,” he said of the Republicans’ 2011 agenda this spring on education. “I don’t think the past 10 years were helpful, where schools got marginal increases in funding, and there was not an attempt to contain costs.”

But wait! There’s more teacher-bashing goodness!

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Posted in Eclectablog

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Whither humanity? I have no idea.

Posted on March 22, 2011 by | 2 Comments

I find myself struck by the enormity of the times we’re living in.

I don’t know what will happen next, but when my grandchildren learn about the early twenty-teens, it’s clear they’ll be taught that this was a time in which humanity — turned.

Of course, there’s the ongoing upheaval in Middle East and North Africa (MENA), while here in the United States, we have the right’s astonishing over-reach on unions. In both cases, I don’t think anyone on the ground has a clear sense of the direction we’re all going, but given the sheer quantity of dynamics and cross-dynamics, both here and abroad, I believe we’re likely to wind up in some pretty unexpected places.

In terms of workers’ rights and the American electorate, I genuinely believe that this is one of those moments in which people are woken from their slumber, and the GOP’s business-led right-wing will face tremendous push-back in the coming years. You don’t try to tell Americans that teachers, cops and firefighters are our enemies — are what stand between this country and fiscal security — and expect it to fly for long.

In MENA, well, who knows? Forty-one percent of Egypt’s eligible voters (the highest turnout in history) just voted to accept constitutional changes that some credible opposition voices wanted to see rejected. Good for Egypt? Bad for Egypt? I don’t know, and I would suggest that anyone who says they know for sure has delusions of grandeur. Issandr El Amrani (who blogs at the always interesting The Arabist) wrote a really helpful piece for Time : Egypt’s Referendum: What the Nation’s Historic Vote Means, concluding “This time, even if it was far from perfect, it meant something.”

And Libya? Truly: No one knows. It bears repeating: No one knows, no one knows, no one knows. The sheer cacophony of controversy surrounding the decision to declare a No Fly Zone should serve as our most powerful indicator that no one knows what the future holds in that part of MENA (though I will grant you that there are some, such as POTUS, who should surely have a better grasp on it than the vast majority of us). Continue reading →

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Posted in Emily L. Hauser, Musings, Political Shenanigans

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Don’t ever make me go back there! Unless you carry me.

Posted on March 16, 2011 by | Leave a comment

I spent all of last week writing/thinking/emoting about terrible things and while the Awful has hardly abated, I’ve decided that this week, I won’t write about it. I’ll tweet, I may well comment elsewhere, but this space will be largely Awful-free — except at the end of each post, where I will provide a few links to Your Day In Horrible, should you feel the need.

*************

All told, I’m pretty happy to be an adult.

We get to vote, drive, and keep our own hours, more or less, not to mention that the pay is better.

I remember (I mean: really, really remember, visuals and the whole thing) being a four year old, being ooh-ed and ahh-ed over by a group of third or fourth graders, and just thinking “Can you not see the book in my hands? I want to read.”

I never wanted to be cute. I wanted to be taken seriously. Which is, let’s face it, kind of tall order for a tow-headed girl who is, in fact, totally cute and, moreover, the youngest of three children. I wasn’t taken seriously nearly anywhere, and if I tried to demand it? Well, wasn’t that just the cutest thing! (Which goes a long way toward explaining how I deal with my own, undeniably adorable children, but that’s another post all together).

So mostly I like being an adult because adulthood is a prerequisite, in most circles, to being taken seriously.

However. And yet. Regardless (and even irregardless, if irregardless were a word):

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Posted in Emily L. Hauser, Everybody Loves Lists, Musings, Personal Tales

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How to help in Wisconsin.

Posted on March 10, 2011 by | 1 Comment

Another quick and dirty post, a guest post essentially, featuring the suggestions of Ta-Nehisi Coates commenter torrilin on how to help the folks in Wisconsin as they struggle to keep their civil rights — please note the bottom-line message: “But if you live in WI, the biggest thing is to get to the city clerk and VOTE!” Indeed.

Ian’s Pizza is a Madison institution, and has been delivering pizza to the protesters. (608) 257-9248 is the location within walking distance of the Capitol. If you can’t get through, Glass Nickel and Topper’s Pizza should also be able to help, but they can’t deliver by walking, and the Square is frequently getting corked by car drivers protesting.
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Posted in Criminally Stupid, Emily L. Hauser, Political Shenanigans, Tales and Tirades, What the Crap!?

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Missouri: Repealing child labor laws? It's just common sense. Kids are useless anyway.

Posted on March 8, 2011 by | 8 Comments

Please, sir.  Can I ‘ave some more?

Let’s face it.  Kids are a drain on our society. What good are they?  They just take up space, eat all the food, breathe all the air, and contribute nothing of value to society.

Well, comrades, this is a problem that the GOP plans to fix.  No more handouts for these little crumbsnatching welfare queens.  The Missouri GOP (Jane Cunningham, to be precise) is leading the way by trying, like, actually trying to repeal child labor laws.

Enter SB222, a bill that would result in (among other things)1:

  • children under the age of 14 no longer being limited in being able to work;
  • children being able to work during the school term without a permit;
  • 16-year-old children being able to work in hotels and motels without restriction on hours;
  • the removal of restrictions on employing 16 year olds and requirements regarding obtaining certification and permits for children to work;
  • the elimination of authority of the Director of the Division of Labor Standards to oversee employers of children;
  • the removal of an evidentiary presumption that any child under the age of 16 present at a place where labor is employed is employed there.

Here is the bill’s official summary:

SB 222 – This act modifies the child labor laws. It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age fourteen. Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed. It also repeals the requirement that a child ages fourteen or fifteen obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed. Children under sixteen will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished. It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ. It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment.

So, what — I ask you — the fuck?

Well obviously, given that the GOP and Teabillies think that teachers are living the good life and barely working, and when they do deign to work, they do such a shitty job anyway, so why not just put kids to work?  Yank ‘em out of school, slap a miner’s cap on their head, and toss them down a well.  They are freeloaders and we’re sick of ‘em.

Here’s a BBC report from 2006 about worldwide child labor issues: Continue reading →

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Posted in Balloon Juice Cross-Posts, Culture Critic, Political Shenanigans, What the Crap!?

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