- Alternet's Sarah Jaffe looks at rising college tuitions and a system of subsidies that help individuals rather than lowering tuitions and asks one of my favorite questions:
In other words, the hidden subsidies are not helping those who most need help in getting a degree. It's also helping lenders, by providing an incentive to borrow. So why not take that $22.75 billion or so that we're already spending and putting it directly toward making public higher education free.
- Fifty years ago this week, John F. Kennedy opened the door for federal employees to join unions.
- Kay at Balloon Juice takes Newt Gingrich's child janitors idea from the perspective of what he's saying about adult workers:
But Newt Gingrich believes that janitors are overpaid and that children can replace adult janitors, so let’s conduct one of those thought experiments that conservatives love so much, and see if any other adult workers can and should be replaced by children.
Could nine year olds replace the adults who cleaned up after that gathering of political and media luminaries last night? Working adults did that, after all. After the political and media celebrities left that room, real live adult janitors came in and cleaned up after them. Why didn’t Newt Gingrich suggest that the people who cleaned up after him last night be replaced by children?
What about Gingrich’s staff? How much do they make? Can children do their work as well as they can? Why or why not? Newt Gingrich has been paid an absurd amount of money for lobbying since he left Congress in disgrace. Could a nine year old replace Newt Gingrich? How hard could Newt Gingrich’s “job” be, after all? A lot of lavish meals, ass-kissing, and bloviating, right? We could employ a hell of a lot of nine year olds on the absurd amount of money Gingrich is paid.
- And speaking of Balloon Juice, in honor of the crappy jobs Willard Mitt Romney never had, new Juicer Betty Cracker lists the three worst jobs she ever had. How would Mitt do with those?
- Cablevision workers are attempting to organize and join the Communications Workers of America.
- And speaking of the CWA, its president has joined with those of the UAW and SEIU to urge New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to keep up the fight for public funding of elections.
- With so many jobs requiring people to work unpredictable, non-traditional hours, parents face big challenges arranging for child care. Some day care centers are adding evening and even overnight hours to accommodate the demand.
- Whatever you thought of the AFL-CIO's new ad, the companion website Work Connects Us All is worth playing around with.
- Hyatt continues to suck:
The General Council’s Office of the National Labor Relations Board has issued a complaint against the Hyatt Andaz in West Hollywood for increasing the number of hotel rooms housekeepers’ must clean in a shift, and threatening discipline to workers who spoke up about the problem.
Hyatt housekeepers voiced concerns in March 2011 immediately after managers increased the cleaners’ room quota by two--meaning housekeepers were expected to complete an additional hour worth of cleaning in the same amount of time. Under the law, the hotel is required to negotiate workload increases with the workers’ union.
The Assistant Director of Human Resources threatened to discipline workers who voiced concern about the increased workload. The complaint alleges that the Hyatt Andaz’s actions violated the National Labor Relations Act.
Sat Jan 21, 2012 at 04:55 PM PST
This week in the War on Workers: 'Hoosier jobs are at stake'
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