Compiled by Steven Wishnia and Neal Tepel
Walker Caught Lying About ‘Teacher of the Year’
Late last month, Wisconsin Gov.Scott Walker told an Iowa audience that the state’s “outstanding teacher of the year” in 2010-11 had been laid off because union seniority rules. He was lying. The woman he mentioned had won a very obscure award for first-year teachers—and on Feb. 9, the woman who actually was Wisconsin’s high-school teacher of the year denounced him in an open letter. Instead of blaming the seniority system for the younger teacher’s layoff, Claudia Klein Felske wrote, Walkershould have blamed his own “systematic defunding of public education to the tune of $2.6 billion.” Noting that Walker had tried to delete legal language stating that the University of Wisconsin system’s purpose “is the search for truth,” she added, “Hmm… I guess I shouldn’t be surprised about that one.” Read more
Trumka Calls Illinois Anti-Union Move Unconstitutional
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s plan to end the union shop for state workers is "unconstitutional," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told CNBC on Feb. 10. “He's saying he wants to have people that don't pay for the services they get," Trumka said on the show Closing Bell. “They get a collective bargaining agreement and all the benefits under it and he says they don't have to pay for it. What he's doing is actually unconstitutional.” If the government can force unions to provide representation for people who don’t want to pay for it, Trumka modestly proposed, then maybe workers shouldn’t have to pay taxes for the governor’s salary: “He's doing stuff to lower my wages and I don't want my wages lowered. Should I be able to withhold my taxes from him? Isn't that my First Amendment right as well?" Read more
Boston University Adjuncts Join SEIU
Adjunct professors at Boston University voted by a 2-to-1 margin to unionize Feb. 4, making it the fourth Boston-area college where part-time faculty have joined Faculty Forward, a part of Service Employees International Union Local 509. Bayla Ostrach, who serves on the BU union organizing committee, said a top priority would be to change the current system of assigning courses, in which “you don’t know until the first week whether you’re going to have class,” even if adjuncts have spent weeks preparing to teach a course. Ostrach, a 34-year-old single mother, said that last year, her first at BU, she taught six classes in three programs but was paid so little that she was eligible for Medicaid and food stamps. Read more
Kellogg Threatens to Close Plant
Kellogg Co. has threatened to close one of its four U.S. plants “in the very near future” if workers don’t approve contract changes they rejected in December. Workers at the four plants—in Battle Creek, Mich.; Memphis, Tenn.; Lancaster, Pa.; and Omaha, Neb.—overwhelmingly rejected the contract, which would have switched them to a high-deductible health-insurance plan, reduced time off, and cut pay for casual and seasonal workers in exchange for some benefits. The company urged people in those four communities “to implore local union leaders to provide their membership another chance to be heard and to preserve jobs in their hometown.” Trevor Bidelman, president of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union local in Battle Creek, said the about 400 employees at the plant there would not vote on the proposal again. “At no point in time at all has the company said they can't afford to pay us what they're paying,” he said. “It's just they're not wanting to." Read more
Wisconsin to Eliminate Third Shift for Prison Guards?
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has proposed leaving guard towers at the state’s prisons empty for the midnight shift, saving 46 million by eliminating 60 jobs. The governor said having guards in the towers overnight doesn’t “provide any real additional security. That’s done through electronic monitoring.” “He's talking about replacing people with technology, which just shows he has no idea what the job actually involves,” responded Marty Beil, executive director of AFSCME Council 24, which represents the state prison system’s workers. “Walker is playing with the lives of correctional officers here and threatening community safety. It makes no sense to cut staff at correctional institutions that are already understaffed.” Read more
