Blogalink - America Without Unions

In case you didn't know ... this is a recap of what unions have accomplished and why we still need them. Please check the link.

America Without Unions

The Oregonian and the Unions

The Oregonian’s Saturday, February 22, banner headline, is Paychecks for not working – eye-catching, inflammatory and unsurprising given The Oregonian’s known antipathy for unions.  Full disclosure would include that these longshoremen are not among the usual whipping boys of public sector unions.  So this particular “outrage” does not involve tax money which is typically the hook to demonize PERS and all those miscreant retired teachers and custodians slurping at the public trough.

No, this particular contract is between capitalists and workers.  The poor gullible taxpayers, naively guaranteeing their public workers a retirement are not a party to these shenanigans.   Presumably tough-minded parties, the International Warehouse Union  and the Pacific Maritime Association (“which represents West Coast cargo carriers, terminal operators and stevedores that employ dockworkers”) stared each other down, eyeball to eyeball across that no-man’s-land expanse of the bargaining table.  They ruthlessly and

cynically traded pawns in an unrelenting pursuit of each of their own self-interests.  Out of this bloody struggle came the contract, such as it was.

Apparently, according to the report, there is at least one participant among the Pacific Maritime Association (the Marubeni grain elevator owned by Columbia Grain Inc.) which “has aggressively locked out the workforce and is not offering any work.  Still any displaced worker is required to accept other work throughout the port before being eligible for PGP.”

Which brings us to the PGP – Pay Guarantee Plan – which seems to be the kernel issue that rubs the Oregonian the wrong way. The longshoremen – shrewdly, cynically, and selfishly – fooled the naïve maritime association into agreeing to the plan.  The union also shrewdly, cynically, and selfishly diminished the chances of a strike or the need to use union dues to amass a huge strike fund.  Under the plan, senior union members “could be eligible for guaranteed pay if work wasn’t available at other terminals.”

The longshoremen, in bargaining with their employers, were able to protect their livelihoods and the security of their family within the parameters of their contract.  Who knows: They may have protected themselves in the medium-term only to have shot themselves in the foot in the long-term.  The Oregonian reports, “Grain terminal owners also could lack incentive to settle the dispute because they are able to load ships using fewer workers than the number required by previous longshore union contracts.”  In about ten years the labor economists might be able to tell us who “won” this particular skirmish. 

In the meantime, thanks to The Oregonian for getting my attention, providing the fine-print, and convincing me even more that unions are one of the few remaining ways working people have to protect their security and their livelihoods.

Not my first choice

Phil Knight, Oregon’s wealthiest citizen and 14th wealthiest US citizen, recently bestowed a $500 million matching challenge grant upon Oregon Health Sciences University.  OHSU would receive the grant if they could raise other money to “match” it.  It would apparently allow OHSU to build the preeminent cancer research institute in the country.  OHSU has asked the Oregon legislature to authorize bonds that would indemnify Oregon taxpayers to the tune of $13 million a year for 20 years starting in 2016 when the bonds would be sold. This would not be part of the “match” but would allow OHSU to prepare a site and recruit for the project.

I think it’s wonderful that OHSU can attract the support exemplified by Phil Knight’s challenge grant.  Certainly no one can question the worthiness of supporting such a goal as OHSU’s cancer institute.  But when tax money comes into the equation, I think OHSU has to line up like everybody else.  What are the benefits that can accrue to Oregonians by supporting OHSU with their tax money?   The Oregonian editorial board offers:

The investment ... in OHSU would move the needle on employment, tax revenue, education and quality of life for all Oregonians. Construction work would provide 3,500 jobs annually in the initial years of the expansion; the Knight Cancer Institute would create an estimated 380 permanent full-time jobs, with some salaries exceeding $100,000; and the state would eventually receive more than $5 million annually in income taxes. Throughout, the institute would share its evolving expertise with practitioners in Astoria, Salem, Roseburg, Corvallis, Medford, The Dalles and Bend – all while expanding its reach elsewhere in Oregon. Advances in the fight against cancer would be owned statewide. Cancer's cure, should it be found at the institute, would be Oregon's pride.

So … point for point, how does this list not apply as a rationale for putting the same money or more into Oregon’s public schools?  The center is certainly a sexy and glamorous trophy but the schools asked first. The schools are not funded for adequacy, let alone national preeminence. If we’re making a choice, the schools deserve to catch up, not stay at the end of the line.

We should beat cancer.  Cancer is bad.  OHSU is lucky to have talented and connected fundraisers and friends like the Knights.  We wish them the best. Everybody needs a sugar daddy and I’m still waiting for ours. So for now I hope they can make it without me. I’ve got other priorities at the moment.  Name the cancer institute after Phil and put my money into the schools.  If there’s room on the building for my name along with the other taxpayers, put all our names on the building.  But I’ll settle for civic anonymity and fully-funded schools.

blogalink - ALEC's voucher playbook.

ALEC never sleeps.  Neither should we:  more on ALEC.

Please check this link:

ALEC’s Voucher Playbook: Keep expanding, leave public school students nothing

So ... what did you expect?

Well, it’s not exactly a canary in a coal mine. That poor bird expired long ago.  The Oregonian reports:

Fully 18 percent of Oregon students missed 10 percent of last school year, an investigation by The Oregonian found. No other state has been found to have as bad an absenteeism problem as Oregon.

And:

… Oregon continues to rank in the national basement at shepherding students to diplomas. For the class of 2012, Oregon's on-time graduation rate was second-lowest among the states, behind Nevada.

Who is responsible?  Round up the usual suspects!  Oregon has been disinvesting in public education – drastically – since at least 1990.  Oregon school districts as a group  have made the same uniformly unpleasant choices in the face of dwindling resources from the state.  Statewide you will find that art has been cut;  music has been cut; PE has been cut;  sports have been cut; librarians have been cut; counselors have been cut; classroom teachers have been cut.  

The teachers have less time to spend preparing for class or helping students – not necessarily because of huge class sizes.  Class size is certainly a major factor but – day by day – absenteeism actually brings the numbers down.  (That’s one way to address huge class sizes.) Teachers also have less time because they have to learn how to demonstrate and report that they are following state standards or Common Core.  They must spend much time and creativity inventing “measurements” that show (spuriously) progress or achievement.  They have less time for their curriculum because they have to teach to, and administer, multiple high-stakes standardized tests.

The cruel oxymoron of “school choice” is another challenge although it’s not as bad in Oregon as in other states.  “School choice” is a formula for gutting public schools, which, regrettably is on the political agenda of the very rich.  For the rest of us “school choice” is a way to funnel public funds to special interests whether they be faith-based charter schools or profit-based charter schools.

Teachers can tell you stories like:  remembering a student they overheard in the hall saying, “The only reason I came to school today was for band”.  Today, now that band has been cut, that student is absent or unsuccessfully looking for a job.  These halls are not inviting or exciting or safe places to be.  Public schools are under siege and they look it.  Teachers and administrators are at the end of their rope. Students are bewildered, frustrated, demoralized and angry.

You will not fix this by making teachers accountable - the schools are not failing because of bad teachers. You will not fix this by giving parents choice – parents all want good neighborhood schools. You will not fix this by raising standards – raising standards without increasing support simply increases your rate of failure.  

The widely celebrated Grand Bargain last year and the promising passage of Measures 66 and 67 in 2010 combined have “restored” school funding to approximately 75% of adequate, according to the Quality Education Model commissioned by the legislature.  The millions of dollars of “savings” from public pensioners (PERS) will blow up when the Supreme Court - again - finds that illegal transfer to be unconstitutional. That “savings” will then have to be paid back to PERS, obliterating that supposed windfall and once again, beggaring the schools.

This did not just happen.  We got here by choice and the choices we made were well-understood with clear consequences.  It is by choice that we will fix it and those indicated choices, frankly, are equally clear.  This is a no-brainer.

blogalink - 80,000 March in North Carolina Proudly Pushing Back Against Radical Right Agenda

Please read about it now.

When You See a Shaft of Light, Grab It.

In 1948 President Harry Truman desegregated the armed forces by issuing Executive Order 9981.  There was much foot-dragging and even propositions by some in high places that the Order did not mean what it seemed to say; Truman reiterated that it meant exactly what it said.  Racism did not end in the United States.  And it is tar too much to say that it was the starting gun of the active Civil Rights Movement.  But it was not a trivial measure.  The President acted because his best advice and his own moral compass told him that it was the right thing to do and that NO progress was to be forthcoming from the legislative branch any time soon.

Obama’s position today is not an apple compared to an orange.  There are many indications that the “right side of history” will coalesce into a consensus that it is an appropriate role of government to provide economic access and opportunity to most Americans.  Support in that direction is not currently coming from the legislature.  The President can not do what is needed.  That would indeed take several acts of Congress.  But the President can do something.  Arguments that it’s been too long in coming do not diminish the importance of action when it finally happens in real time.

Income inequality (more accurately – wealth inequality) has only become sexy as a talking point in the last year. The fissure that became a chasm was discernable as a trend by the mid seventies.  Now even the Republicans have to pay lip service to it.  (No, that’s not irony, it’s farce.)  Obama was able to treat it like something more than an ornament in his recent State of the Union address.

The true news is that the very day after the President so elegantly and eloquently invoked the spirit of democracy to face this beast, he advanced at least two significant initiatives on his own authority.  Obama invented (yes, he gets the credit) the myRA and he increased the minimum wage for employees on subsequent federal contracts to $10.10/hour.  Is the minimum wage increase enough?  Dissenters say it will cost jobs.  Supporters say the move is a far cry from an increase in the federal minimum wage.  Does it matter?

Hell yes.  Like in 1948, it matters when the US government sets a standard of behavior, unequivocally and unapologetically.  This WILL be followed by legislated change.  It will be demanded by earnest constituents and employers needing a level playing field.

The myRA does not have the weight of a mandated structure authorized by Congress  - like Social Security, passed by Congress at Roosevelt’s request in 1935.  The myRA (a play on IRA) is a way for an ordinary person to start a retirement savings account that will act like a Roth IRA with easily affordable monthly contributions.  Is it enough to make a difference?  Not by itself.  But the federal standard and expectation is unmistakable. And like the waters that carve out a gorge or the minimum wage rule for contractors, it will prove ultimately irresistible.