The North Carolina legislature recently
banned anything that might create an "imminent disturbance" in the legislative building. In other words, the legislature, faced with months of Moral Mondays protests, is cracking down, giving itself a rule under which to silence protesters.
Threatening protesters with arrest for peaceful demonstration is a hot Republican trend of the last few years, with bills proposed in Tennessee and Georgia targeting union picketing specifically.
But, as the video above points out, many of the moments that moved America forward relied on imminent disturbance. Not that North Carolina Republicans would necessarily see it that way.
Continue reading below the fold for more of the week's labor and education news.
- Workers at more than 100 CVS stores in California have joined the UFCW.
- "Rescuing" sex workers ... so they can work in sweatshops?
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- Sheryl Sandberg is all about women leaning in ... except when it's hotel workers leaning in by trying to unionize. Sandberg said she wouldn't meet with hotel workers while she's in Boston.
- Hourly pay for union workers at the convention center in Philadelphia is outrageously inflated ... but most of it isn't going to the workers:
Whether the bulletproof-vested attendees at the Convention Center's National Homeland Security Conference last week knew it or not, their organization was paying $152.25 an hour per union rigger - the workers who set up heavy convention equipment.
But how much were the riggers earning?
They made $35.11 an hour - $59.70 with health insurance, pension, and union dues rolled in. On wages only, the $152.25 rate represents a quadruple-plus markup. On the total package, it's 2.5 times.
Most of the money is going to the middleman companies that do scheduling and logistics for the conventions. But why can't they just break out their own fees and label them, rather than making it look like union workers are raking in huge paychecks?
Education
- Pay for presidents of the 25 highest-paying public universities shot up by a third in recent years, and:
The study makes some disturbing observations about “the top 25.” Student debt is worse than at other schools. Administrative spending is twice the spending on student aid. The percentage of tenured faculty members fell dramatically, while part-time adjunct faculty increased more than twice as fast as the national average for all universities. The “worst overall offenders,” the study said, were Ohio State, Penn State, the University of Minnesota, the University of Michigan and the University of Delaware.
- A Long Island charter school has fired a teacher who is, coincidentally, no doubt, a union leader.