Brown’s Millionaire’s Tax, A Gift to Private Charter Schools

89% of Gov. Jerry Brown’s “Millionaire’s” tax is slated to go to K-12 education, should the bill be approved by California voters in November. However, according to journalist Danny Weil, the legislation allows this money to go to private charter schools or to the private contractors hired by nonprofit charters. (You can see Weil discussing this on YouTube by clicking here.)

Today in Labor History—June 6

A Rake's Progress, by William Hogarth, depicting a man's downfall to debtor's prison

June 6, 1778 – Debtors prisons were abolished in the U.S., though debtors continued to flourish and creditors came up with numerous other ways to punish them. (From the Daily Bleed)

U.S. Amphibious transport landing on Omaha Beach

 June 6, 1944 - British, U.S. and Canadian troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, for the suicidal assault known as D-Day. Over 150,000 men and 5,000 ships took part in the operation, with an estimated 10,000 allied troops dying. (From Workday Minnesota)

June 6, 1961 – A Military junta took over in South Korea. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 6, 1978 – Proposition 13 passed in California, allowing commercial property owners to maintain phenomenally low property tax rates and bleed the state of revenues for education and public services. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 6, 1982 – Israel invaded Lebanon, remaining until June 6, 1985. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 6, 1982 – An antinuclear rally at the Rose Bowl, in Pasadena, California, drew 85,000 people who heard Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Wonder and Tom Petty. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 6, 1988 – 2 million people participated in a 3-day General Strike in South Africa. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 6, 1989 – Citizens voted to shut down the Rancho Seco nuclear plant in Sacramento, California. There had been a near melt-down in 1985 that had been covered-up until after the Chernobyl disaster. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 6, 2000 – Brazilian Rancher Jeronimo Alves Amorim was sentenced to 19 years for ordering the murder of union leader Expedito Ribeiro de Souza. (From the Daily Bleed)

Majority of New Grads Embrace Vow of Poverty

The majority of new grads say they would gladly take a pay cut if that meant they could do something that “made a difference,” according to a recent survey by Net Impact. The survey found that 72% of graduating seniors felt that making a “positive societal impact” was essential to their happiness, while 45% said they would take a 15% pay cut to work at an organization they believed was making such an impact, according to Good Education.

Of course similar secular vows of poverty have been embraced for generations by teachers, nurses, social workers and others in the “helping” and care industries. People do not go into these professions to get rich—that’s not possible on a teacher’s, nurse’s or social worker’s salary—but because they want to do something positive for society. Indeed, this altruism is exploited by managers, administrators, politicians and pundits who know the do-gooders will continue to line up for jobs, even when wages and working conditions are declining.

However, there is something particularly twisted and irrational when framed as a willingness to take a pay cut in exchange for the belief that one was “making a difference.”

Considering that material insecurity and social inequality are probably the social issues most immediately threatening to the majority of people’s health and wellbeing (second only to climate change in terms of the long-term threat to global peace and security), it seems bizarre that a comfortable and secure income for all, including recent graduates and those in the “helping” fields, would not be considered a pressing social issue.

Yet even for those who see this as a pressing social need, there are very few jobs out there with this focus and it is questionable whether they are actually doing anything to improve people’s material wellbeing. Most paid union positions, for example, are bureaucratic, while the real power of a union lies in its members and their willingness to take job actions, something union bureaucracies have been increasingly discouraging (see here, here and here). There are also numerous jobs in social work, advocacy and services for the poor and the homeless, but these mostly provide temporary relief and do little or nothing to actually end homelessness and poverty.

Another way to parse the “vow of poverty” statistic is that large numbers of recent college grads accept social inequity, poverty, hunger, homelessness and suffering as normal and unalterable aspects of life, so they might as well get paid to provide some assistance to those who are suffering. By accepting low pay for this work, however, they are also accepting the notion that jobs in the “helping” fields are worth less than those in tech, finance, law or business, thus helping to keep these professions undervalued. And by taking jobs that depend on the continuation of social inequity, rather than fighting to end the causes, they help perpetuate the same problems they seek to remedy, by making it easier for the rest of society to ignore the problems.

It is even questionable whether recent grads truly prefer the belief they are doing good in society over having a decent salary. Consider that the study found that 24% of ”Millennials” are dissatisfied with their current job, compared with 14% of Gen Xers and 18% of Boomers. While this might be due to innately different values between the generations, it is likely influenced by the fact Gen Xers, and especially Boomers are more likely to have job stability, higher income, better benefits, better chances to live a comfortable, middle class American Dream lifestyle compared with the Millenials, who are saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in college debt, a protracted recession, decimated union movement, and a job market dominated by low income service sector jobs.

Today in Labor History—June 5

June 5, 1832 – The poor of Paris revolted against the new monarchy. The Society of the Friends of the People raised the red flag, declaring "Liberty or Death." The uprising was the inspiration for Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. (From the Daily Bleed)

Ruins of Columbus, New Mexico, 1916, After Raid by Pancho Villa

 June 5, 1878 – Francisco "Pancho" Villa was born, San Juan del Rio, Durango. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 5, 1906 – The leaders of the Cananea copper strike were arrested. (From the Daily Bleed)

Lowly Driving Off in His Busytown Apple Car (Image by Valerie Everett)

June 5, 1919 – Children’s book author Richard Scarry was born, Boston. Scarry wrote or illustrated over 300 books and brought us characters like Huckle the Cat, Lowly the Worm, Wild Bill Hiccup and Gold Bug. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 5, 1919 – 67 anarchists were arrested and set up for deportation in the wake of a bomb explosion, marking the beginning of the infamous "Palmer raids" that ultimately led to the deportations and imprisonment of thousands of union members, communists and anarchists. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 5, 1919 – Merchants and workers struck in Shanghai to support students. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 5, 1925 – Mine owners in La Coruna, Chile, launched an attack on rebel workers in a nitrate mine encampment. Over 500 workers were tortured in Iqueque. This came in the wake of an earlier massacre in March, in which 500 were slaughtered by the government. (From the Daily Bleed and Wikipedia)

June 5, 1967 – Israel attacked Egypt and Syria, during the Six- Day War, resulting in its illegal occupation of the Sinai Peninsula, West Bank, Gaza Strip & Golan Heights. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 5, 1969 – Imprisoned U.S. soldiers rioted at the military penal stockade at Fort Dix over barbarous conditions and the tortures being inflicted on them by the US military state. The majority were in prison for going AWOL, resisting the draft, or as conscientious objectors. Many were being held without trial. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—June 4

1850 – During June of 1850,  Mikhail Bakunin's death sentence in Germany was commuted to life imprisonment. (From the Daily Bleed)

1861 – During June of 1861 Mikhail Bakunin escaped from Siberia via the Amur River, and arrived in Nikolavsk in July, where he boarded an American merchant ship, Vickery, to Hakodate, Japan. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1904 – Members of the International Brotherhood of Paper Makers struck Wisconsin paper mills in. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1906—Francisco Ferrer (founder of the first Modern Schools) was arrested and imprisoned for participating in Mateo Morral’s assassination attempt against Spanish monarch Alfonso XIII. Ferrer was later released due to lack of evidence. Morral worked in Modern School’s publishing house and was a friend of Ferrer’s.

Nestor Makhno during the Ukranian Free Territory, 1919-1921

June 4, 1919 – The 4th (Ukrainian) Congress of Free Soviets, was banned by Leon Trotsky, Bolshevist troops were sent to destroy the Rosa Luxemburg Commune near Provkovski, and the Ukrainian anarchist insurgent Nestor Makhno was declared an outlaw. (From the Daily Bleed)

March in support of the Chilean socialist republic, 1932

June 4, 1932 -- Chilean politicians and the military carried out a coup d'etat, installing Marmaduke Grove, who declared Chile a "socialist republic." However, workers and were given no means to participate. Twelve days later, the military ended the "workers republic." (From the Daily Bleed)

Zoot Suits, 1942 (Library of Congress)

June 4, 1943 – The Zoot Suit riots began on this date in Los Angeles, with white soldiers attacking blacks & Hispanics. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1963 – Jimmy Hoffa and seven other members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, were indicted on charges of fraudulently obtaining $20 million in loans from a Teamsters Union Pension Fund. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1979 – The Sandinistas called for an "insurrectional general strike." (From the Daily Bleed)

June 4, 1989 – The Chinese army massacred at least 2,000 peacefully protesting students and workers in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—June 3

Today in Labor History—June 3

June 3, 1900 - The International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) was founded. (From Workday Minnesota)

June 3, 1901 – Carpenters struck for higher wages & union recognition in Ottawa, Canada. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 3, 1910—The Francisco Ferrer Association was founded in Harlem, by supporters of the educator who had been executed by the Spanish government the year before. The organization’s goals included founding libertarian schools throughout the U.S. based on the principals of Francisco Ferrer.

June 3, 1918 - A federal child labor law that had been enacted in 1916 was declared unconstitutional. A new version was enacted on February 24, 1919, but was also later declared unconstitutional. It was not until the 1930s that child labor provisions were enacted as part of sweeping labor law reforms, though exploitation of children continues to be a problem in the United States today). (From Workday Minnesota)

Jobs Trump Wages: Ironworkers Great Sellout

(Image From Recollection Books)

In an economy with high numbers of unemployed workers who require a year or more on average to find work, it is understandable that workers would fear for their jobs and a secure livelihood. However, for many industries, particularly manufacturing, the problem has been ongoing for the past forty years, as U.S. manufacturing has downsized or moved off shore. The problem has exacerbated the decline of unionism, particularly in the private sector, as union manufacturing jobs disappear and either never come back at all, or get replaced by lower waged, nonunion jobs.

New York’s unionized iron workers, fearing they will be squeezed out of jobs by cheaper nonunion workers, have voluntarily agreed to a 15% cut in compensation (roughly $14 per hour in wages and benefits), in hopes of undercutting their nonunion colleagues. According to the New York Daily News, 86% of union members approved the deal.

This brings up a couple of disturbing questions. What is the point of being in a union if it is not improving wages, benefits and working conditions? If union workers voluntarily reduce their pay to a level commensurate with nonunion workers and must continue to pay union dues, they are actually earning less than their nonunion colleagues. Such a strategy is not likely to preserve union jobs for long, as workers start to see fewer benefits to remaining in the union.

Then there is the question of why there are so many nonunion workers out there to undercut their pay and benefits. If the union was really doing its job, it would be aggressively organizing nonunion jobsites and creating an atmosphere in which it is more painful and expensive for employers not to hire union workers.

LAUSD Sabotages Harassment Settlement, Imposes Abuser’s Name on School

A settlement with an employee who accused formed LAUSD Sup. Ramon Cortines of sexual harassment may be coming apart at the seams over both the disputed terms of the agreement and the disclosure of the victim’s name by LAUSD without his consent, the Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday. The proposed settlement would have required the accuser to resign from his post in exchange for $200,000 and lifetime benefits.

The settlement proposal was announced by LAUSD before the victim had a chance to sign it. One point of contention was the value of the lifetime benefits, which the victim believes was agreed to be $300,000, whereas the district publicly announced a value of $250,000.

It was not clear from the Times article whether the victim has agreed to resign. State law prohibits an employer from firing an employee because he has filed sexual harassment charges against his employer, but they can tie a voluntary settlement to his resignation. However, considering that his yearly salary (not including benefits) was $150,000, it would not be surprising if he was unwilling to accept this conditon.

In related news, a delegation from the Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts met with Board of Education President Monica Garcia to request a name change for the school. While it is completely reasonable to not want one’s school named after an accused harasser, the controversy over the naming of this school has a longer and more sordid history. According to the Times, Garcia and her colleagues overrode an earlier pledge to give students, parents and teachers a say in the naming of their school, and then imposed the Cortines name on them. Now Garcia is ignoring parent’s and teacher’s claims that the stigma of the name is harming student and teacher morale, arguing that the school’s name is a good one since Cortines promoted the arts and played a key role in the development of the school.

It is disturbing and ironic that LAUSD fired the entire staff at one school because of the sexual misconduct of two teachers, yet just a few years earlier had actively covered up the sexual misconduct allegations against its own superintendent and then allowed him to retire with benefits (see here).