Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has two votes on the School Reform Commission—votes he hasn’t been using to defend Philadelphia’s public schools. He and Gov. Tom Corbett have failed Philadelphia students and families and now they are holding schools hostage for $130 million in concessions from teachers.

As it stands, these massive education cuts will result in huge losses for teachers and students, including:

– 13% percent pay cut and longer hours for teachers
– One nurse for every 2500 students
– Most guidance counselors will be laid off
– No more teacher preparation periods
– Later school start dates
– All while partial or full union strikes loom

Now, organizers on the ground are saying that, with large layoffs and school closures hitting the city’s schools, public pressure is beginning to make him nervous. We need to pile on.

Tell Nutter to not let Corbett make Philly the next Detroit. Defend families, teachers, and public schools.
To Mayor Nutter:

Please, don’t let our schools fall. Philadelphia is a world class city that we deserve to be proud of. We’re a city that could be educating the best and greatest minds of tomorrow. Gov. Tom Corbett has failed Philadelphia students and families, but you don’t have to. Stand up to Corbett and defend our families, teachers, and public schools.

TO SIGN THE PETITION: GO TO: http://campaigns.dailykos.com/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=542

By Bruce Vail

– Unions are strongly backing a march in Washington, D.C., to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I have a dream” speech. Participating unions are heralding King’s strong ties to labor, and many are using the opportunity to renew the original march’s call for jobs and freedom.

AFSCME [American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees] is one of at least 15 unions who are financially sponsoring today’s (August 24) rally and bringing members to participate. AFSCME has chartered about 100 buses and plans to bring 3,000 to 5,000 marchers, says spokesperson Chris Fleming.

“At AFSCME, we have a special connection to Dr. King,” says Fleming. “Many will remember that he died in Memphis in 1968 when he went there to support the sanitation workers who were organizing with AFSCME. The same struggle for economic justice continues today, so we are proud to honor him by continuing the struggle.”

AFSCME is not the only union with a special connection to King. The United Auto Workers noted in an announcement this week that the UAW was one of the few unions to openly support the original 1963 march and that then-president Walter Reuther was one of the foremost labor leaders associated with 1960s civil rights movement. The UAW is organizing a fleet of buses to bring union members and supporters to the march, and union President Bob King is planning to march himself, the union says.

The principal organizer of the march is the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, which is joined by a wide array of other civil rights groups, religious organizations, women’s groups, and others. Organizers are unwilling to estimate the size of the expected crowd, but several publications have speculated that some 100,000 will attend. Some of the nation’s top political leaders are also scheduled to take part, so anticipation is building that the march will become a major national event.

Other unions sponsoring the march are the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the American Federation of Government of Employees (AFGE), the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the International Association of Machinists (IAM), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA), the National Education Association (NEA), the Office & Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), 1199SEIU (United Healthcare Workers East), the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), UNITE HERE, United Steel Workers (USW) and the Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA). Several other labor groups are also sponsors, including the AFL-CIO, Council of Labor Union Women, and the A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI).

The APRI, named for one of the original organizers of the 1963 march and the long-time president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (later merged with another union and now part of IAM), is hosting a week-long schedule of events built around the anniversary of the “I have a dream” speech. The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was the first union for black workers chartered by the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and Randolph is remembered as the first black labor leader to become a member of the AFL executive board. There he was a tireless champion of the rights of African-American workers within organized labor and of civil rights within the larger society. He is credited with ensuring that 1963 march stressed “jobs” just as strongly as “freedom.”

Though the list of speakers is not finalized, many organized labor figures are tentatively scheduled to address the Augustt 24 crowd, including: AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Arlene Holt-Baker; AFT President Randi Weingarten; APRI President Clayola Brown; NEA President Dennis Van Roekel; SEIU President Mary Kay Henry; and 1199SEIU President George Gresham. AFSCME President Lee Saunders will be one of the featured speakers, says Fleming. Saunders appeared on Sharpton’s MSNBC show last week to proclaim the importance of the march in light of U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to curtail the Voting Rights Act, and other events of special concern to African-American workers.

Donna McDaniel, Assistant Director of the Minority Advancement Department of LIUNA, says her union has chartered 16 buses, some from as far away as Ohio and Kentucky, and expects to bring 1,000 people to the march.

McDaniel spoke for several union representatives contacted by Working In These Times when she commented that “it is amazing how far we have come in the last 50 years in civil rights. But the original march had the theme of ‘jobs and freedom,’ and I think we have lost ground on the jobs part. Unions are smaller and are under constant attack. Unemployment is high, particularly in our African-American communities, and very few of our politicians seem to care about that at all. We’re still fighting for jobs.”

Claude Cummings, a Texas-based CWA official at center of the union’s march organizing efforts, agreed. “Some the same things we were fighting for in 1963 we are fighting for today. At CWA, we are working to strengthen our alliances with other labor unions and with other progressive groups beyond labor. So we’ll be there next week,” he says.

Source: http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/15477/labor_unions_go_big_in_support_of_mlk_50th_anniversary_rally/

By Alan Pyke

– American workers have suffered a “lost decade” of stagnant or falling wages. Despite productivity gains of nearly 25 percent from 2000 to 2012, “wages were flat or declined for the entire bottom 60 percent” of the workforce, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

EPI looked at two sets of data for “A Decade of Flat Wages,” including information from household-based surveys and information from employer-based surveys. The household data provides the most accurate picture, and it isn’t a pretty one. The median hourly earnings for American workers are back to where they were in 2000, while the highest-earning Americans are now paid over 10 percent better.

The median American worker earned $768 per week in 2000. That rose to $770 just before the financial crisis, then slid back to $768 by 2012. Worker productivity increased nearly 8 percent from 2007 to 2012, but earnings actually fell. Looking deeper into the demographics, the picture gets uglier: black men earn $15 less per week than they did in 2000, for example.

The less accurate average figures for pay and other compensation from the employer-based survey data show slight upticks in earnings due to the wage growth at the top of the income distribution dragging the numbers up. But even in that data, productivity growth has far outstripped the slight boosts in pay.

Furthermore, sales professionals, production and transportation employees, and service workers all saw their average wages slide even in average terms.

The paper closes by noting that policies that have benefited consumers through lower prices – “globalization, deregulation, weaker unions, and lower labor standards such as a weaker minimum wage” – have destroyed the virtuous capitalist cycle in which consumers and workers are both supposed to benefit from greater output. In order to restore a sustainable relationship between work and earnings, the authors call for aggressive minimum wage hikes and strengthened worker bargaining rights, because technology and energy innovations are not enough on their own.

Source: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/08/21/2507061/report-lost-decade-for-us-workers-underscores-need-for-wage-hikes/

by Dale Mezzacappa

– Less than three weeks left. The good news: Each school is staffed for student registration. Either a secretary who has been called back from layoff or a temp worker is at each school. Hours are 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on all weekdays but Wednesday, when the hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The bad news: Principals have been confronted with difficult personnel decisions, and it is becoming increasingly apparent that the $50 million accepted from the city last week with such fanfare is not going very far.

Schools received details about their additional staff allotments last Thursday. The District has so far declined to provide those details, but some facts are clear from information that principals have shared with staff and parents.

For instance, it is clear that not all schools will have full-time counselors. That is true even of high schools with college-bound students — what Superintendent William Hite said was a priority for him.

District spokesman Fernando Gallard confirmed that not every high school would have a counselor, but said that there were no “hard and fast numbers” that determined whether a school was allocated one or not. “It’s going to be a mix of looking at the size of the school, the need of the students, and using principals’ input,” he said.

Based on interviews and communications that the Notebook has been receiving from school staff, only Promise Academies and schools with enrollments above 600-700 (there were differing reports) have so far been been allotted a counselor. Only schools with enrollments above 850 were allotted an assistant principal, according to information shared by principals.

It seems that the only consistency in the restoration is that all schools were allocated at least two noontime aides. Among the eight schools that the Notebook obtained staff allotment and resource information on, every school said they got two or more noontime aides; schools with multiple campuses received additional aides.

In addition to the aides and an allotted assistant principal or counselor for larger schools, schools got a pot of money (it’s not clear whether it was on the basis of enrollment or on enrollment and a combination of other factors) from which they could purchase addditional staff — counselor, assistant principal, aides — or use for books and supplies. But small schools did not get nearly enough to purchase an additional full-time professional, and they were not permitted to purchase part-time teaching positions. Most used the extra money for additional aides or supplies.

Gallard reiterated Tuesday that all schools would have “counseling services,” but said that how that will work has not yet been finalized.

The current PFT contract, which expires Aug. 31, requires that each school have a counselor. But in June, that went out the window when 283 counselors were laid off.

“In terms of counseling resources, District guidelines determined that only schools with greater than 600 students would receive a counselor,” wrote one principal of a small elementary school in an email to her staff last week. “As additional funding is released, this may change. I am hopeful that we will eventually be able to secure the services of [name withheld by the Notebook], who worked so closely with administration, teachers, parents, students.”

One high school with fewer than 300 students received two noontime aides and $76,000, which the principal originally wanted to use to keep an innovative program, buy books and supplies, and get a part-time physical education teacher. However, the principal was told she couldn’t use the money for a part-time slot, so she decided to put it into books and equipment.

“Absolutely, the $50 million was not enough to get a counselor in every school,” Gallard said. “I’ve said it, [Hite] said it. … Not every school that needs it will get a counselor or an assistant principal. That’s why we’re counting on $133 million in labor savings to put resources back in the schools.

“We want to bring everyone back, but we don’t have the money.”

Robert McGrogan, president of the bargaining unit that represents principals and assistant principals, said that none of his laid-off members had yet been restored.

He said among the 127 laid off, about 100 have not retired or gotten other jobs and are still actively looking to return to District jobs.

“They still don’t know if they’ll be restored, when or how they’ll be notified, when they would start working, or where,” he said.

He estimates that by what he’s seen so far in terms of allocations, perhaps 60 assistant principals will be rehired.

He warned that people should not think that the $50 million has solved many problems.

“If anybody feels we’re over the hump, they have an artificial sense of security,” he said.

Gallard acknowledged that “even if we get the entire $304 million, schools won’t even be close to looking like what they looked like last year.” One reason is that the figure doesn’t include $134 million in lost federal aid that won’t be replaced. To date, the District has been able to restore barely $80 million in cuts.

He said that the District would provide a detailed breakdown of how the $50 million is being spent by the end of the week.

Source: http://thenotebook.org/blog/136324/countdown-day-20-schools-bring-back-staff-but-many-can-only-afford-aides

By Todd Farally

– In the City of Philadelphia there is a picket line up by Sheet Metal Workers Local 19 at a jobsite located at 19 & Fairmount Streets. On Thursday 08/15/13 the day on the line started out like any other, until an unnamed worker that is said to have been doing woodwork at this site decided to cross the line and get in the demonstrators faces…with his VAN.

This type of violence against workers who choose to protest unfair and exploitative employers is unacceptable. Union members and supporters of economic and social justice that stand their ground every day are being marginalized and assaulted by people that don’t even know how bad they’re being taken advantage of by their bosses. Why would anyone want to place their own family’s future in jeopardy by attacking peaceful demonstrators and going to jail? Because guess what, the only person who will continue to make more money is your employer, not you or your coworkers. Working against those that want to help raise you up won’t change anything for you or your family, but joining with them will.

Click Here For a Video that was posted on Local 19 Facebook Page: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/17/1231957/-Man-Arrested-for-Attempting-to-Drive-Over-Union-Demonstrators-on-a-Picket-Line – In the video a Police Officer explains to the Union Members that the person in question is being arrested on five counts of Aggravated Assault for trying to back his work vehicle into the demonstrators.

This message was posted as the status that accompanied the video:

“This video is from a Local 19 picket line at 19th & Fairmount St in Philadelphia. A police officer is explaining to those on the picket line that the driver of the van in the video is being arrested on 5 counts of aggravated assault for attempting to back over the Local 19 members on the line with his work van.

THIS is what happens when you commit violence against workers who were well within their rights to peaceably assemble and protest the breaking down of Philadelphia wages and standards for construction workers!”

Source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/17/1231957/-Man-Arrested-for-Attempting-to-Drive-Over-Union-Demonstrators-on-a-Picket-Line