Unions fight for the rights of workers, still
About the current union busting efforts, it is clearly a nationwide conservative strategy, a plan to be implemented at all levels after the midterm elections. It is an ideological attack to strip public workers with the right collectively bargain in the states where Republican governors were elected: WI, OH, and TN. Yes, TN which doesn’t get much news coverage because of culture bias in a media which assumes the South is a social hole where workers have no rights anyway. The teachers association here does have the right to collectively bargain, and much like in Wisconsin, they agreed to a number of concessions BEFORE THE ELECTION, yet almost immediately the Republican dominated state legislature still tried to rush a bill through like in WI and OH stripping teachers of that right. And there were massive protests in Nashville on Saturday. This is doubly heinous as TN placed second in Race to the Top program earning the state $500 million from due measurable improvements in education. Hopefully this will get some national coverage. There has been a lot hate towards teacher’s unions thanks to the Waiting for Superman documentary but here is what the National Education Policy Center has to say about that movie and others. The NEPC defines it’s mission as “is to produce and disseminate high-quality, peer-reviewed research to inform education policy discussions. We are guided by the belief that the democratic governance of public education is strengthened when policies are based on sound evidence.”
At the city level, conservative councilmen here in Nashville simultaneously introduced a bill erode civil service pensions. The city though is far more progressive than the rest of the state and this went no where, thanks in part to the efforts of my union.
That’s what happeing here in TN.
If you are interested in the conspiracy aspect you might have missed this story about internet security firm HBGary working with the Chamber of Commerence to undermine unions. This is an amazing story that seriously went under the radar. As of yesterday the wiki about HBGary was surprisingly fair and unhacked. I am communist so for me all this is really not part the new world order, but the old world order: the rich vs. the poor. Consider the Powell Manifesto which many consider the blue print for the corporate dominance of the American body politic. Of course concerns it self with economics (mostly) but adherents of this philosophy can always pair with cultural conservatives and win elections.
I probably shouldn’t write lunatic dream slips if I want be serial on here.
