And more:
- Good news in New York, where a strike has been averted by a tentative agreement for office cleaners:
The 32BJ Bargaining Committee tonight announced a tentative agreement with the Realty Advisory Board (RAB) on a four-year contract covering more than 22,000 New York City office cleaners that provides a nearly 5.6% wage increase over the life of the contract and bonuses totaling $1,100.00. The agreement, which must still be ratified, maintains fully employer-paid family health care coverage.
- The National Labor Relations Board ruled that symphony musicians are employees, not independent contractors, and as such have the right to organize and join unions.
- Scott Walker has company in trying to limit protest:
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ administration will limit the number of people who can assemble in the statehouse beginning Jan. 1–a move that Indiana AFL-CIO President Nancy Guyott says creates a “policy to shut out the voices of dissent and limit access to government to only those they favor.”
IndyStar.com reports state security agencies have capped the number of people who can be in the statehouse in Indianapolis at any one time to 3,000, including about 1,700 employees–a fraction of the number who have turned out at the statehouse to protest proposed “right to work” (for less) legislation.
- I kind of love Hamilton Nolan.
- Atrios takes off from the news of disparities in the rates at which black and white students are suspended and expelled in the Washington, D.C. area to make this more general observation about the outcome of even small amounts of racial bias:
The stories of those exceptional individuals who rise above the system are heartwarming, but as a society we compare those individuals with the people who were born on third and narrowly manage to stay there even as they inexplicably and repeatedly try to steal second. When kids born to insane privilege barely manage to navigate their way through their teen and college years, it's absurd to expect a significant number of kids facing racism and other barriers to all hit homers their first time on the field.
- Quiz yourself on education.
- New York Times staffers express "profound dismay" with management.
- Chicago teachers battle Mayor 1 percent.
- Worth a read.
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