Walker Backlash Boosts Working America and Union Support
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Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) attack on workers’ rights and middle-class jobs is having what is surely an unintended effect, as far as he is concerned—building support for workers’ rights.
Amanda Terkel at The Huffington Post reports today that after Walker zeroed in on workers’ collective bargaining rights, more than 20,000 Wisconsinites have joined Working America, the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate for people without a union. Also, faculty members at two University of Wisconsin (UW) campuses have voted to join AFT-Wisconsin.
One union leader tells Terkel:
The increase in Working America numbers provides one of the first real-world examples of what we’ve seen, which is increased interest nationally and in Wisconsin of supporting workers’ rights.
Peinovich Named President of National Labor College
Dr. Paula Peinovich has been appointed president of the National Labor College (NLC). She has served as interim president since January and will serve a three-year-term as head of the nation’s only fully accredited institution devoted to educating working families and labor activists.
Peinovich holds a Ph.D. in higher education policy from the University of Pennsylvania and has devoted her career to increasing access for underserved learners. Says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka:
Dr. Peinovich’s outstanding track record as a teacher, scholar and administrator makes her uniquely qualified to lead the only institution of higher education in America that is solely devoted to the needs of working people and their unions.
Peinovich has served as both provost and president of Walden University, a distance education graduate university based in Minneapolis. She is the former president of the Association for Continuing Higher Education. Previously, she spent more than a decade as vice president of academic affairs at Excelsior College, another online institution based in Albany, N.Y. A former college English instructor and AFT local union officer, Peinovich says:
As someone with a passion for lifelong learning, I’ve found a true home at the National Labor College. The faculty and staff here are outstanding, and it is a rare privilege to work with our student body, who come to the NLC from all walks of life and from all corners of the U.S. and Canada to pursue their dreams.
Union Plus, Princeton Review Offer College Admission Test Help. Good Idea? Tell the NY Times
Union Plus and The Princeton Review have joined forces to provide union members and their families “college readiness educational services” to prepare college-bound students for the SAT and ACT tests and graduate school hopefuls for law, medical, business and other exams. Says Union Plus President Leslie Tolf:
Union members have said they want help with the rising costs of college. Our relationship with The Princeton Review will also give union members access to the best resources in the country when it comes to college admissions test preparation.
The courses will be delivered by The Princeton Review’s instructors and available to students via in-person or LiveOnline classes as well as individually self-paced online courses. Additional details about the program’s offerings are being finalized and will be announced at a later date.
Peinovich Takes Reins as Labor College Interim President
Dr. Paula Peinovich has been appointed interim president of the National Labor College (NLC) by the school’s Board of Trustees.
She succeeds William Scheuerman, who announced his retirement last week after serving as NLC president since February 2008.
Peinovich holds a Ph.D. in higher education policy from the University of Pennsylvania and has devoted her career to increasing access for underserved learners.
The NLC is the nation’s only fully accredited institution devoted to educating working families and labor activists. It recently announced a major initiative to offer a broader curriculum online to millions of union members and their families across the nation.
Middle Class Task Force Addresses Child Care, College Costs, Retirement Security
The White House Task Force on the Middle Class today announced several initiatives it says will help middle-class families afford soaring child care costs, care for their aging relatives, cope with the challenge of saving for retirement and pay for their children’s college tuition.
President Obama says the measures will help “ease the burdens on middle-class families who are struggling in this economy, and provide the help they need to get ahead.” The White House says Obama will discuss these and other vital middle-class issues, including job creation and health care in his State of the Union address Wednesday.
The Task Force chairman, Vice President Joe Biden, says the initiatives were developed after a series of meetings during the past year with working families around the country and at the White House.
Every day, middle-class families go to work and help make this country great. For a year, our Task Force has been hearing that they are struggling with soaring costs and squeezed family budgets. These common sense initiatives will help these families cope with these challenges.
U. of Illinois Grad Employees Strike to Save Tuition Waivers
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More than 1,100 graduate student employees, who teach nearly a quarter of the undergraduate classes at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), went on strike today after the university refused to guarantee continuation of the teaching and grad assistants’ tuition waivers.
The members of the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO)/UIUC, an AFT affiliate, say the school’s refusal to include the waivers in bargaining agreement is a precursor to eliminating the tuition waivers that allow most teaching and grad assistants to afford a graduate education. In a statement, the GEO says:
The administration’s refusal to guarantee the continuation of its current tuition waiver practice not only means that the majority of graduate employees could be forced to pay thousands of dollars in additional tuition charges, but also indicates its plans to implement such a change.
By making graduate education untenable for all but the most affluent students, the administration is abandoning its responsibility to ensure access to the highest level of public education for all.
Labor College Approved to Offer Federal Student Financial Aid
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Students and perspective students at the National Labor College (NLC) have a new option to help pay their tuition and other education expenses. The NLC has been approved to offer federal financial aid to its students.
NLC President William Scheuerman says the availability of federal student loans and grants for NLC students will provide more working adults with
the opportunity to complete their college degree. Our college offers online programming, affordable, union subsidized tuition and low-cost credit assessment. Our goal is to remove the obstacles that working adults, many with full-time jobs and families, face when considering completing their college degrees.
The NLC will begin accepting applications for federal financial aid on its website (click here) July 6. Students must be admitted into the Bachelor of arts or Bachelor of Technical Professional Studies program and establish attendance in a minimum of six credit hours (half-time status) a semester to be eligible for a federal student loan. Students may be eligible for federal grants with less than half-time status.
Thousands of Graduate Assistants Join AFT
Strong-arm tactics by the Central Michigan University (CMU) administration—including a last-minute letter filled with anti-union rhetoric and innuendo—couldn’t sway graduate assistants from exercising their freedom to form a union and bargain for a better life.
On Monday and Tuesday, the CMU graduate assistants voted overwhelmingly to join the Graduate Student Union/AFT. The 450 teaching and administrative assistants teach, grade, tutor and perform administrative duties on the university’s Mt. Pleasant campus.
Also last week, graduate assistants at Florida State University (FSU) voted to join FSU Graduate Assistants United (FSU-GAU), a Florida Education Association/NEA/AFT affiliate. The new union will represent 2,800 graduate employees.
600,000 Jobs Lost: How Bad Does It Have to Get for Republicans to Act?
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With today’s unemployment report showing nearly 600,000 jobs lost in January—worsening the U.S. unemployment rate from 7.2 percent to 7.6 percent—will obstructionist Republicans in Congress finally move the economic recovery bill?
From Bloomberg:
“Last month’s losses mark the first time since records began in 1939 that job cuts exceeded half a million in three consecutive months.”
While the official unemployment rate of 7.6 percent is really bad, the unofficial rate—which includes underemployed workers and those who have become too discouraged to look for work—is 13.8 percent. Some 21.5 million workers are either unemployed, working part time for economic reasons or dropping out of the labor force because they can’t find work.
