Workers at a Chicago Dunkin Donuts and a New York McDonald's went on strike Friday to protest broken air conditioning. Temperatures have been in the 90s in both cities, and
heat exposure can be dangerous. In fact, a worker at the New York McDonald's collapsed:
Workers walk out at #4259Broadway McDonalds after being forced 2 work w/o AC on hottest day of yr. Worker collapsed
http://t.co/...
— @GBNYChange
Police on the scene of @dunkindonuts #StrikeforAC telling us it's too hot for anyone to be inside the shop. #fightfor15
— @fightfor15
Organized action had an impact in Chicago:
The owner of the @dunkingdonuts came to 27 W Lake and brought in industrial fans, pledging to get the AC fixed. #striketowin
— @fightfor15
But there needs to be ongoing pressure to be sure pledge becomes reality.
Continue reading below the fold for more.
A fair day's wage
- Hamilton Nolan's still on the true tales of Walmart workers beat.
- The economy of the squeegee: Carwasheros organizing across the country.
- Alt-labor is super exciting. But who should fund it?
- To use the old line, time for a blogger ethics panel? Or, to put it another way, wow, New York Times:
The New York Times’ DealBook, ran a blog post written by an attorney involved in some of the worst privatization deals in America. The author Kent Rowey is described by DealBook as “a partner in the energy and infrastructure practice at Allen & Overy in New York.” What DealBook fails to disclose is that Rowey was the transaction attorney for the deals he is praising in the piece and using as examples for other cities to follow. Is this anything less than a paid advertorial in The New York Times?
Really egregious.
- Josh Eidelson asks will immigration reform protect workers?
- The Building Trades on Tom Perez's confirmation as labor secretary. CWA on the same topic.
- Fourteen layoffs at the Chicago Sun-Times as the newspaper sends production jobs to India. This follows the paper's notorious layoffs of its photographers.
- An emailed statement from the New York State Nurses Association on the continuing fight over the closing of Long Island College Hospital:
"SUNY is attempting to move all patients out of LICH by tomorrow -- including a small baby in the neo-natal intensive care unit. Brooklyn patient care is melting down under the combined assault of SUNY's reckless actions and a dangerous heat wave.
"This past week we've seen patients lining the hallways of Brooklyn ERs, a city council intern who had to wait far too long for an ambulance, and an incredible increase in heat-related emergency room visits."
"SUNY is in contempt of court -- and putting hundreds of Brooklyn lives at risk. They need to stop this dangerous move immediately."
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Watch this video and read the accompanying op-ed. Seriously. It's uplifting and beautiful and I want to hear about a thousand more stories like what happened at Hot & Crusty.
- Education
- A Kansas City charter school has gone broke and left its teachers unpaid.
- Charter schools in Newark, New Jersey, are skimming off the least challenging, easiest to educate kids—a common charter strategy—they're not producing the stellar results you might expect from that, and they're getting rid of their problem students in large numbers. School Finance 101 writes:
So then, imagine if you will, an entire district of North Stars? Or an entire district of those who strive to achieve the same public accolades of North Star? That would sure work well from a public policy standpoint. They’d be in constant bitter battle over who could get by with the fewest of the lowest income kids. Anyone who couldn’t “cut it” in 5th or 6th grade, along with each and every child with a disability other than speech impairment would dumped out on the streets of Newark. Even after the rather significant front end sorting, we’d be looking at 45% citywide graduation rates—actually—likely much lower than that because some of the aspiring North Star’s would have to take students even less likely to complete under their preferred model.