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New Bill Would Allow Graduate Assistants to Join a Union |
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The folks who teach a lot of college undergraduate classes, grade the papers and do much of the same work as full-time teachers could soon catch a break and get paid what they deserve.
The two chairmen of the congressional education committees—Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.)—have introduced a bill that would include graduate teaching and research assistants at private colleges and universities as employees under the National Labor Relations Act, which would give them the freedom to join a union.
The Teaching and Research Assistant Collective Bargaining Rights Act (H.R. 5838 and S. 2891) could overturn a 2004 ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that university graduate assistants are not employees and are not protected by the National Labor Relations Act.
The decision took away the right of more than 51,000 teaching assistants, research assistants and proctors to collectively bargain for better wages and working conditions at 1,561 private universities. Graduate assistants at public colleges are covered by state laws.
Miller says in a statement:
As many colleges and universities cut costs, they have relied on graduate students to take on more responsibility—they teach classes, develop course curriculum, grade student papers and provide counseling. The Bush NLRB has once again forced Congress to step up in order to protect American workers’ basic rights.
So far, more than 40,000 college and university graduate student employees have joined unions in a dozen states.
The AFT, the UAW and other unions have been working on this issue for years. AFT’s Craig Smith cites a 2004 report written before the NLRB decision that clearly lays out the case for graduate assistants joining a union. Here’s what he says on FACE Talk, AFT’s higher ed blog:
Surely, all the private institutions that have been spending millions of dollars to stop graduate employees from organizing on their campuses will again jump up and yell, “No fair!”
We’ve heard all the arguments before—and we exposed the flawed logic in Recognition and Respect: Standards of Good Practice in the Employment of Graduate Employees. Here is what we said then, right before the Board made their decision.
Graduate employees are responsible for a critical university function: undergraduate education. To suggest that they are not qualified to teach courses, run discussion groups, lead labs, etc.–that is, that they are untrained apprentices who should not be considered employees–is both demeaning and contradictory. Institutions want graduate teaching and research assistants to be valued employees when it comes to undergraduate education, but want them to be students when it comes to unionization.
Or as Kennedy boils it down in a statement:
Teaching and research assistants are in classrooms every day, educating students in colleges and universities across the country. This bill restores the bargaining rights unfairly denied by the NLRB to these hard-working graduate students.
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Subject: In just 16 Months
Part 1
In just 16 months.. Remember the election in 2006?
Thought you might like to read the following:
A little over 16 MONTHS ago:
1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%.
Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen:
1) Consumer confidence plummet;
2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $3.50 a gallon;
3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase);
4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value evaporate (stock and mutual fund losses);
5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars;
6) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.
America voted for change in 2006, and we got it!
Remember it’s Congress that makes law not the President. He has to work with what’s handed to him.
Quote of the Day……..”My friends, we live in the greatest nation in
the history of the world. I hope you’ll join with me as we try to
change it.”
– Barack Obama
Part 2:
Taxes…Whether Democrat or a Republican you will find these statistics enlightening and amazing.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.html
Taxes under Clinton 1999 Taxes under Bush 2008
Single making 30K- tax $8,400 - Single making 30K- tax $4,500
Single making 50K- tax $14,000- Single making 50K- tax $12,500
Single making 75K- tax $23,250- Single making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 60K-tax $16,800- Married making 60K- tax $9,000
Married making 75K-tax $21,000- Married makes 75K-tax $18,750
Married making 125K-tax $38,750-Married earns 125K-tax$31,250
Both democratic candidates will return to the higher tax rates
It is amazing how many people that fall into the categories above think Bush is screwing them and Bill Clinton was the greatest President ever.
If Obama or Hillary are elected, they both say they will repeal the Bush tax cuts and a good portion of the people that fall into the categories above can’t wait for it to happen. This is like the movie
The Sting with Paul Newman; you scam somebody out of some money and they don’t even know what happened.
PART 3:
You think the war in Iraq is costing us too much? Read this:
Boy, am I confused. I have been hammered with the propaganda that it is the Iraq war and the war on terror that is bankrupting us. I now find that to be RIDICULOUS.
I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again until they are read so many times that the reader gets sick of reading them.
I have included the URL’s for verification of all the following facts.
1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens
each year by state governments.
Verify at: http://tinyurl.com/zob77
2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://www.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal
aliens.
Verify at:
http://www.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary
school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!
Verify at:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html
5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the
American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.
Verify at
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.
Verify at:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.
Verify at:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers.
Verify at: http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html
9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that’s
two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular,
their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US
Verify at:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html
11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border.
Verify at: Homeland Security Report:
http://tinyurl.com/t9sht
12. The National Policy Institute, “estimated that the total cost of
mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.”
Verify at:
http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf
13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin.
Verify at:
http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm
14. “The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex
Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States .”
Verify at:
http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml
The total cost is a whopping $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.
Are we THAT stupid?
If this doesn’t bother you then just disregard these facts. If, on the other hand, it does raise the hair on the back of your neck, I hope you forward it to every legal resident in the country including every representative in Washington , D.C. - five times a week for as long as it takes to restore some semblance of intelligence in our policies and enforcement thereof.