Labor

 
The Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP) is winning an ongoing battle against Temple University Hospital. PASNAP wants reimbursement for tuition benefits that Temple abruptly stopped providing last March despite the fact that the benefits are part of their current contract. Jerry Silberman, staff representative, spoke with me about this legal fight and also discussed PASNAP's negotiations for a new contract.

Amendu Evans reports on the effort of SEIU to gather support for Health Care. Recently they rallied at the District Office of Sen. Robert Casey. This is the latest action in their yearlong campaign. 

 
The full Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board (PLRB) has affirmed a previous decision that finds Temple University guilty of engaging in bad faith bargaining by illegally discontinuing a long standing tuition benefit for the children of Temple University Hospital nurses and other professional staff.  The 1,500 Registered Nurses and professional staff are represented by the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP).
 

 
BRYN MAWR, PA – The teachers at Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy went on strike Monday, after reaching an impasse with the schools’ management. Teachers set up picket lines in front of the campus here early in the morning, attracting tremendous support from students, alumni, parents and passers-by. Check out the Facebook page in support of the strike: Strike Strike Strike!

In These Times reports that La Colectiva de Mujeres, a collective of domestic workers in San Francisco, have undertaken a new advertising campaign unveiling posters, billboards, bus ads and postcards depicting domestic workers as strong, independent and "green" savvy. The aim of the campaign is to both protect the rights of domestic workers while supporting a worker-run cleaning collective.

The six-day stoppage of mass transit in Philadelphia is over, as SEPTA and the state reach an agreement with the leadership of the Transit Workers Union Local 234.

Political Scientist Michael Parenti catalogued seven generalizations about the way the news media create anti-union messaging--from painting workers as greedy, to omitting the salary of management or depicting public officials (like Mayor Nutter) as neutral. Using this lens to dissect the coverage of the SEPTA strike, it becomes clear that local media like the Inquirer and Daily News have a dangerous anti-union bias, once again making the case that to build our own movement we need our own media.

Yesterday, several representatives from the Unified Taxi Workers Alliance, Philadelphia Student Union, Philadelphia Joint Board/Workers United, Casino-Free Philadelphia, and the Media Mobilizing Project visited SEPTA workers, who have gone on strike to demand a fair contract. To show support and solidarity, we visited several picket locations across the city, including 58th and Vine, 69th and Market, Bridge and Pratt, and 49th and Woodland, and spoke with members of TWU Local 234 to get the real story.

Workers at Baltimore's Inner Harbor announced today that they are demanding that developers require businesses in the development to respect worker rights to a living wage and treatment with dignity.  This is a major development in the United Workers Human Rights Zone campaign, and is also a big step in organizing workers in the new economy.