Labor Day
Dear Laborers:
It’s a tough Labor Day in DC, with not much for union people,
especially those who work for the DC government, to celebrate. Last week
at the Democratic National Convention, the Metropolitan Washington
Council of the AFL-CIO distributed a flyer listing some of the
anti-worker and antiunion actions taken by Mayor Fenty, http://www.dcpswatch.com/wtu/080827.htm.
On August 28, Councilmember Phil Mendelson pointed out another, quite
serious antiunion action by the mayor (http://www.dcwatch.com/mayor/080828.htm).
The mayor has unilaterally defunded the Office of Labor Management
Partnership, even though it is fully funded for next year in the FY2009
budget passed by the city council and signed by the mayor. Mendelson
explained to Mayor Fenty why this is important: “It is hard to believe
that you would allow — or encourage — the demise of the
labor-management partnership process. Established in 1997-98 with the
encouragement of the Control Board and the US Department of Labor, the
LMPC concept has always been considered cutting edge best practice.
under Mayor William’s the District had one of the best, if not the
best, LMPC programs in the country. The LMPC program improves
labor-management relations outside the collective bargaining process,
and it improves service delivery within the agencies. The annual awards
ceremony was proof of this success. This government cannot succeed if
its leaders are at war with its workers. I am sure that you agree that
the working men and women in District government are vital partners as
we strive to be a world-class city. Disbanding the OLMPC, and the labor
management partnership councils, is incongruent with this goal. Quite
simply, alienating those workers on whom we rely is a serious mistake.”
The mayor’s war against unions and government workers, especially
his actions to strip teachers of their job protections, have their
defenders. This week Steven Pearlstein, normally an insightful
columnist, wrote “A Watershed Labor Negotiation,” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/28/AR2008082803324.html?sub=AR,
in which he cheered on Fenty’s efforts to cripple DC government worker
unions: “It would trigger a national debate on why public employees
continue to enjoy what amounts to ironclad job security without
accountability while the taxpayers who fund their salaries have long
since been forced to accept the realities of a performance-based global
economy.” Pearlstein ignores the history of the good government reform
movement, which ended the political spoils system that subjected
governmental workers to the ills of political favoritism. In fact, he
longs for the return of that system: “Sure, there will be times when
teachers will be treated in an arbitrary and capricious way if they give
up their tenure rights. Guess what: it happens all the time in the
private sector, where hiring, promotion and pay decisions are sometimes
made with incomplete information, favoritism, or undue emphasis on one
factor or another. But despite this imperfection, despite the numerous
instances of unfairness and poor judgment, somehow the vast majority of
Americans manage to find a job, move up the ladder and enjoy their work,
and companies manage to operate successfully and turn a profit.” This
attitude is unworthy of Pearlstein, who understands the strengths and
weaknesses of capitalism much better that this. The fact is that the
most successful companies treat their workers fairly and evenhandedly,
and consider them partners. Workers who feel they have reasonable job
security and the support of the companies they work for simply work
better. Government workers who are subjected to the arbitrary and
capricious decisions of a parade of political appointees are unlikely to
be devoted to their jobs. Instead of hoping that government employees
share the fate of those private sector workers who are employed by
companies with the worst labor practices, Pearlstein would do better to
hope that more workers in the private sector gain more protections from
the kind of stupid management decisions illustrated daily in Dilbert.
George Santayana said, “He who does not remember the past is
condemned to repeat it.” Does anyone remember Santayana anymore for
anything other than that quotation? Does anyone read him? I suspect not
and, if so, it’s a shame; he was a graceful writer at a time when
philosophers still wrote readable books, intended as literature for the
general public. In any case, those who forget why the spoils system of
government employment was replaced by the merit system, those who forget
why unions gained power to balance the excesses of corporate
mismanagement, are not just condemned to repeat history, they will be
condemned by history.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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DC Department of Public Works (DPW) services will be affected in
observance of Labor Day on Monday, September 1. There will be no trash
and recycling collections. All Monday trash and recycling collections
will “slide” to the next day. Trash and recycling containers should
be put out for collection no earlier than 6:30 p.m. the night before
collection and removed from public space by 8:00 p.m. on the day(s) of
collection. DPW will suspend enforcement of parking meters, residential
parking, and rush hour lane restrictions. It also will suspend towing of
abandoned vehicles. The Ft. Totten Trash Transfer Station will be closed
Monday. It will reopen Tuesday for residents to bring bulk trash.
Other services that will be suspended for Labor Day include scheduled
street and alley cleaning, graffiti removal, and nuisance abatement. The
Benning Road Trash Transfer Station, at 3200 Benning Road, NE, and the
Ft. Totten Trash Transfer Station at 4900 Bates Road, NE, are open every
Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. to receive residents’ unwanted
toxic items, such as pesticides, batteries and motor oil. Electronics,
including televisions, computers and cell phones, will be accepted.
Residents also may bring up to five boxes of personal paper documents
and credit cards to be shredded for free.
To view DPW’s trash and recycling holiday schedule for the
remainder of the year, visit http://www.dpw.dc.gov
and click on Holiday Schedule under the “Information” header or call
the Mayor’s Citywide Call Center at 311 or 727-1000 if calling from
outside the District.
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Maybe I Should Stay Longer
Ed T Barron, edtb1@macdotcom
I’ve been out here in the other Washington a week, and missed three
Nationals games this past week. They won all three and two others as
well. If they keep this up they’ll miss out on the opportunity to lose
one hundred games this season. Hey, if I’d come out sooner they might
have had a shot at the playoffs.
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Using Screencasts to Communicate with Local
Government
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com
When the DC Office of Planning requested ideas for possible uses of
eight closed schools in DC, it occurred to me that I could best explain
my ideas using a screencast, a narrated explanation of activity on my
computer screen. So with the help of other educators whom I admire, I
assembled a 16.5 minute web video that explains what I consider to be
one of the best possible uses of Clark Elementary School, near Georgia
Avenue (continued at http://tinyurl.com/6gs9u5).
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Paying Off the Summer Jobs Youth
Bryce A. Suderow, streetstories@juno.com
Friday night I visited Sherwood Recreation Center, where they were
dispensing checks to the youths from the Summer Job’s Program. I was
surprised to see several police cars parked in front, and a number of
police officers, including Commander Diane Groomes, standing on the
sidewalk.
I asked one officer why they were there. Were they afraid of a
robbery? The officer said, “The kids get bored standing in line and
then they want to fight. It shows you how bad things are when the police
need to be here to make sure there is no violence.”
Afterwards I wondered how these thugs could work effectively on any
kind of job, even bullshit jobs like the summer jobs program.
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My New Education Blog
Candi Peterson, kepmclp@msn.com
I hope all of you will stop by my new education blog from time to
time at http://www.thewashingtonteacher.blogspot.com.
Feel free to post comments so that we can have an equal balance of
opinions.
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I’m wondering exactly how the criteria of behavior, attendance and
grades will be applied. They are all subject to interpretation by a
teacher or an assistant principal. What happens if someone feels sorry
for a “poor baby”? What happens if a disruptive student says, “If
you mark down my behavior, you better watch out! I better get my money!”
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How easy it is to move one’s hand across a keyboard, then press “enter”
and post complaints for all to see. How infinitely more difficult (and
authentic) it is to attack a community’s problems with big ideas, to
take a stand for something different, and to do actual work. I’m sure
most readers will keep a clear head and carefully separate those who
just talk from those who lay it on the line every day and give
themselves entirely to making a better life for this city.
I am perusing a profile of Ward 8, published recently by the Post
in connection with political opposition there to Councilmember Barry. I
note that not even half the working-age adults in his ward have a
high-school diploma, which brings to mind stats printed earlier in that
paper on the chances of our ninth-graders ever reaching college (less
than 5 percent) or the prevalence of functional illiteracy among former
students. Such data represent tens of thousands of ill-served young
people pushed into adulthood every year by our schools — generation
after generation — unable to advance themselves in an economy where
most decent jobs require articulate service and technical skill. In
terms of earning power (and learning power) their lives are stillborn.
For Mr. Imhoff, though, the burning issue is “consensus”; it’s all
about respect for unions and accommodating teachers who have “served”
our schools so many years. These are relatively small things, are they
not? It seems to me that anything or anyone long associated with our old
school system merits nothing but presumptive skepticism.
As I say, it’s the political season; elections will soon be held
from one end of the District to the other; the people will speak, yet
again. These contests will test the arguments made right here every
week, so I ask: how many viable candidates now running for elected
office in Washington are advocating a reversal of Mayor Fenty’s
takeover of our schools? How many are campaigning to get rid of
Chancellor Rhee or undo her work? How many want voters to accept a
return to anything remotely like the school system we had just two years
ago? Do any such candidates exist? If so, how many stand a snowball’s
chance of winning?
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This is another indication, in my opinion, that Fenty, and anyone
else who agrees with him to pay students to attend school, needs some
serious professional help. First, to pay students to go to school is
nothing less that bribery. As children, they are required to go to
school until a certain age. It is the parents’ responsibility to make
sure their children go to school. Why should taxpayers who do not have
children, have their tax money used for this purpose?
If the students are paid to go to school, I believe that is income as
defined by IRS, and taxes have to be paid on income. Also, if students
are paid to go to school, shouldn’t they be responsible for purchasing
their school supplies, books, and the cost of transportation to and from
school if school buses are utilized? However, the whole idea of this is
totally stupid!
As for Fenty and Rhee and their hostility to the teachers and
teachers unions, I find it hard to believe these two individuals are
being allowed to continue without legal action being taken, unless there
is someone hiding in the background who will. If Fenty wants to conduct
himself as a self proclaimed dictator, he should find a country that
will accept his actions in my opinion. It is my sincere hope that
residents will find a way to oust Fenty and Rhee and get leaders in
those positions who will improve our nation’s capitol city.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Public Employees Under Attack, September 1
Joni Eisenberg, tohealdc@yahoo.com
Public employees under attack in the nation’s capital is the topic
for Heal DC’s Labor Day special, which can be heard Monday, September
1, at 10:00 a.m., on WPFW 89.3FM. Listen to two union leaders who
represent the majority of DC government employees — George T. Johnson,
Executive Director of AFSMCE DC Council 20, and Eric Bunn, President of
AFGE Local 2725 — as they talk about how the rights and dignity of DC
government employees are being eroded under the Fenty Administration.
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DC Public Library Events, September 3-4
George Williams, george.williams2@dc.gov
Wednesday, September 3, 6:30 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, Auditorium A-5. Co-authors Susan Burch and Hannah Joyner will
discuss their book, Unspeakable: The Story of Junius Wilson.
Junius Wilson, who was African-American and deaf in the Jim Crow South,
served over seven decades in a state hospital for the colored insane
after being convicted of rape and found insane in 1925. His story
examines the dynamics between race and disability in the segregated
south
Thursday, September 4, 12:00 p.m. Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, Auditorium A-5. Brown Bag Recital Series. Music of Dutilleux
and Rachmaninoff performed by cellist Vasily Popov and pianist Ralitza
Patheva. Popov, who was born in Russia, and Patcheva, originally from
Bulgaria, are a husband and wife team. Both musicians have won
international and local music competitions and have performed in concert
halls all over the world. The program will begin with remarks by the
witty and knowledgeable music scholar Sorab Modi. The September 4
performance will begin with Benjamin Britten’s Suite No. 3 for cello
solo, an emotional work that includes themes of Russian folk tunes.
Second will be a short work for unaccompanied cello by 20th century
French composer Henri Dutilleux, and the concert will end with a varied
group of Rachmaninoff pieces for piano. For more information, contact
727-1285.
Thursday, September 4, 2:30 p.m. Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, Arts and Literature Division, Room 221. Let’s Talk About
Books. Discuss The Poetry of Charles Bukowski. Next month’s selection:
Long Day’s Journey into Night, a play by Eugene O’Neill.
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The DC Office on Aging, Family and Child Services and the Office on
Aging Senior Service Network will present Elderfest 2008 on Thursday,
September 4, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Freedom Plaza, Pennsylvania
Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, NW. Elderfest is a free outdoor
festival for seniors that includes live music featuring the Legendary
Orioles, entertainment, dancing, health and fitness demonstrations, free
health screenings, information exhibits, demonstration bingo, and much
more. Purchase handmade arts and crafts from seniors or food from food
vendors. Something for everyone!
Take Metrorail to Metro Center (Blue, Orange or Red lines) or Federal
Triangle (Orange and Blue lines) or Metrobus routes 32, 36, 52 or 53.
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Shelters and Shadows, September 5
Greg Finch, outreach@smithfarm.com
The Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts will have an opening
reception and artist’s dialogue for its exhibition, “Shelters and
Shadows” on Friday, September 5, 5:30-8:00 p.m. Curator Lillian
Fitzgerald unites four artists — Sheep Jones, Lynden Cline, Angela
Hennessy, and Allegra Marquart — who each “revel in their materials”
and speak to the fragility of our lives in their own way. “Shelters
and Shadows” will be shown at the newly dedicated Joan Hisaoka Healing
Arts Gallery, 1632 U Street, NW, in the vibrant U Street corridor. The
exhibition will remain open until October 30. Regular gallery hours are
Wednesday-Friday 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Saturday 11:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.,
and by appointment. For more information, go to http://www.SmithFarm.com/gallery
or call 483-8600.
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