Intercepts
A listening post monitoring public education and teachers’ unions.

The Associated Press has done a series of articles on unions and organizing (there is a “three-part series,” but there are at least two more supporting articles). There’s something for every viewpoint here and well worth the time to read them all:

* As U.S. industry restructures, labor fights for relevance

* Unions, cities struggle with fallout of automakers’ cuts

* Not dead yet, unions look to new groups of workers to survive

* Japanese automakers steer clear of unions

* Q&A with SEIU President Andy Stern

Lots of great quotes. My favorite, from the president of the Mississippi AFL-CIO, encapsulates the advice I give to people with “union problems”:

“If they treat the people good and don’t screw ‘em around, it will probably be hard to organize them.”

SEIU President Andrew Stern also adds something that is profound in its simplicity:

“Unions have had a one-size-fits-all way of thinking. We don’t have a one-size-fits-all economy anymore. People don’t stay in one job anymore. We need to find ways that workers can leave their jobs but not lose their health care and pensions. We need to build organizations that appreciate that this isn’t a one job in a one lifetime economy. We’re going to need to find ways that don’t make employers uncompetitive. All of those require a different organization and a different way of thinking.”

Suppose someone tried to pass a law placing a cap on the number of students who could attend traditional public schools. Wouldn’t people see that as overly restrictive and discriminatory?

From The Oregonian:

“The [Oregon Education Association] believes the initial enrollment and residency caps are necessary to restrict the unimpeded growth of growth of charter schools.”

Let’s avoid the loaded language. Restricting “unimpeded growth” is another way of saying “restricting supply and demand.” Which is another way of saying “rationing.”

Sacramento Bee columnist Daniel Weintraub spoke to our overlords at the California Teachers Association this week, and came to the obvious, inevitable conclusion.

From a story in The South End, the student newspaper of Wayne State University, about the anti-war protests in DC:

“One speaker was Debra Colbrook from The United Teachers of Los Angeles. She started with a story:

“‘My son is 15 years old. Last week he encountered army recruiters at his high school football practice. When they approached him, he asked them how they could sleep at night knowing that they are sending away young people to die for a war over oil and greed. Our young are our future fighters.’”

Well, Skippy, I’m certain the recruiters sleep extremely well at night knowing they live in a country where even a snot-nosed kid can mouth off to a soldier – and the soldier will just politely walk away. Hope you enjoyed your football practice in peace and safety.

Ever since Wayne Johnson was term-limited out of his position as president of the California Teachers Association, it has been pretty slim pickins for pungent quotes out here. We had hopes that UTLA’s A.J. Duffy would fill the gap, but he has been a disappointment in that regard.

But now we have a new Great White Hope. The delegates to the California Federation of Teachers convention saw fit to oust long-time CFT President Mary Bergan and install Marty Hittelman in her place. Hittelman was a CFT senior vice-president and community college teacher, but he’s probably best known for his leftist – as opposed to mainstream Democratic -politics.

Hittelman is connected to US Labor Against the War and was a co-founder of Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal. In the press statement announcing his victory, Hittelman repeated his campaign promise for CFT’s new direction:

“I am dedicated to continuing the California Federation of Teachers’ strong
progressive traditions of advocacy for better working conditions for all of its
members, higher quality learning conditions for California’s students, and
better living conditions for all Californians. I believe that to further those
goals, we need to weigh in on the issues of the day – ending the war in Iraq;
cleaning up the environment; implementing a single payer universal health care
system; protecting people’s personal and civil rights; and, having a progressive
tax system which adequately invests in education in order to enhance the quality
of life for all Californians.”

Since CFT has relatively little clout in the legislature, Hittelman will be limited to mighty flights of rhetoric, making him a likely regular in “Quote of the Week.”