College athletes, unionization, and the bogeyman

Let’s imagine a woman’s on fire.  She screams for water.  One person near her says, “That woman’s on fire!  She’s asking for water.  Water’s good.  Sand would be better.”  Another person says, “You know what would be perfect?  A fire extinguisher.  This room should have a fire extinguisher.”  A third chimes in, “There are lots […]

NCAA athletes closer to unionization, closer to the workplace safety they deserve

Two days ago, adjuncts unionizing in DC, yesterday, a ruling from a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional director that college athletes may unionize.  The ruling is essentially provisional, because Northwestern University, one of whose football players pushed for the union, will appeal the decision to the NLRB.  The AP does a pretty good job […]

Big win for unionizing adjuncts in DC! Applicability to other areas? Too early to tell

Adjunct organization is on the move.  As noted in the Chronicle, adjuncts are now very close to becoming organized city-wide in Washington, DC.  Georgetown, American, and George Washington are already signed on, and Howard will be joining soon.  This will give much greater leverage to adjuncts in their relationship with universities there, and it already […]

Ohio legislator: public education is socialism, so let’s privatize everything

In a blog post, Ohio state representative Andrew Brenner (R) asserts that “public education is socialism.”  Insofar as he uses the wikipedia definition of socialism and notes that public education is publicly owned, he’s not necessarily wrong.  Brenner goes on to blame public ownership of schools for what he perceives as the evil of teachers’ […]

Union, No…

In a close vote, workers at the Chattanooga VW plant rejected unionization.  While anti-union groups often complain about the muscle of “big labor” (financial and otherwise), it’s clear that the forces arrayed against the UAW, including the Republicans who control the Tennessee statehouse and several conservative front groups, had far more leverage over workers than […]