From John McNesby – President, FOP Lodge #5

Due to large participation and coordination efforts between the Red Cross, Temple Hospital and the Police Department, please note the following information pertaining to the blood drive for Officer Davies;

Citizens and the Police Force are being encouraged to donate blood on Thurs and Friday. All blood types are being requested.

– POLICE OFFICERS ONLY: Go to: Temple Admin Services Building, 2450 W. Hunting Park Ave. Training ROOM 8. Thursday 12-5, and Friday 7-5. Please bring police identification and expected duration should be about one hour.

– Members of the General Public can participate at the Red Cross’ Philadelphia Donation Center, located at 700 Spring Garden St., or its Northeast Philadelphia Donor Center at 1401 Rhawn St. TO prevent long lines and inconvenience for donors please call 1-800-RedCross (733-2767)

The hours of operation are as follows:

– 700 Spring Garden Street: Thurs through Sun: 7AM-2PM

– Smiley Times Building, 1401 Rhawn Street T-TH 12:30PM-7:30PM, Friday 8AM-3PM and Sat. and Sun. 7AM-2PM.

Thanks for your support and participation!

Source: From https://www.facebook.com/Team.McNesby

On August 8th, Superintendent Hite released a statement in which he announced that the School District of Philadelphia “will be forced to consider alternatives to starting the 2013-14 school year”.

To Dr. Hite and all of the unelected decision-makers at 440, we have been warning you of this potential outcome.

• When we told you that we need strong support networks in our schools, you fired our counselors.
• When we told you that all students need access to arts, sports, and music, you eliminated those programs.
• When we told you that we need resources for our schools to succeed, you handed out pink slips to nearly 4,000 school district employees.

And now you feel “deeply dismayed that we are here today”? Dr. Hite, Mayor Nutter, and Governor Corbett, you brought us here. The statement Dr. Hite released repeats back to us all the losses that we told you, months ago, we could not afford.

The statement from Dr. Hite goes on to re-visit the idea of “shared sacrifices”, a not-so-subtle jab at the teachers union. We know that teachers pay out-of-pocket for many of their supplies and that they are not the reason we have been led into this crisis.

Who has not been asked to “share the sacrifice”? Comcast, a beneficiary of massive corporate tax-breaks, and large non-profits, such as the University of Pennsylvania, have not been asked to give back to the city in which they have put their roots. These groups are sitting on billions of dollars that need to be appropriated to our school district.

And yet, where are the brave public officials who will spearhead that request? They remain silenced by a system that puts corporate profit and greed over the needs of young people in Philadelphia. Mayor Nutter refuses to pass any legislation that would tax these groups.

We need to be investigating and understanding the deep links between corporations and politicians that makes this a reality. The funding problem does not stop here. We call for a statewide funding formula that gives all schools the resources they need to provide a high-quality education to all students.

As shocking as some of us may have found Dr. Hite’s statement, there have been countless other superintendents who have released similar statements throughout the nation. Our city has been the recipient of four Broad Academy superintendents in what can only be described as a national coordinated attack on public education.

The Broad Academy is a billionaire-funded venture that closely resembles Teach for America, but it trains aspiring school district superintendents instead of teachers, including our very own Dr. Hite (their full list of graduates has been pulled from their website).

The Broad Academy is an initiative of the Broad Foundation, which literally wrote the book on closing public schools, School Closure Guide: Closing Schools as a Means for Addressing Budgetary Challenges.

The Chicago Teacher’s Union writes, “One of the more telling sections provides tips for effective public relations, offering detailed instructions on how to make the public feel like they are part of the process without actually listening to them.”

For example, the guide offers instructions for messaging to the media, offering a table of ‘ineffective statements’ and offering ‘possible alternatives’ for each. Instead of saying that ‘the district is operating in the red and this cannot continue,’ the book suggests a more effective alternative: “The fact that the district is operating in the red prevents us from providing the best possible educational opportunities to the children in this community in a sustained way.’”

These statements and rhetoric are reflected in Dr. Hite’s most recent statement. Let us be clear, this most recent statement is part of a national plan.

At the end of Dr. Hite’s statement, he claims to have spoken with “stakeholders” about our “predicament”.

We challenge Dr. Hite to speak with the true stakeholders in this manufactured crisis: the students. There has been no real attempt by the school district to engage communities in decision-making processes.

We would like Dr. Hite to address every high school senior who is entering their final year of high school with no counselor who would have guided them through their college-application process in a building that can hardly be called a school.

We would like Dr. Hite to address every incoming ninth grader, who must find their footing in a building staffed by only cops and teachers.

We would like Dr. Hite to address every student in the city of Philadelphia who are all stakeholders.

And finally, Dr. Hite, if you will not address us, and we do not expect you to since you have not done so in the past, you will be hearing from us. The nation-wide assault on public education will end in Philadelphia, because the injustices that the school district continues to push forth cannot, and will not, be tolerated any longer

Source: https://www.facebook.com/notes/philadelphia-federation-of-teachers/the-philadelphia-student-union-responds-to-superintendent-hites-statement/664448530251894

By The PA. AFL-CIO

Today it was announced that the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) have re-affiliated with the AFL-CIO. The UFCW’s executive board voted unanimously on the move earlier this week. One of the largest private-sector unions in the Country, the UFCW represents 1.3 million workers.

UFCW President Joe Hansen cited the current legislative attacks on workers since the 2010 elections as one of the compelling reasons for the move. “The attacks on workers brought the UFCW into direct strategic partnership with the AFL-CIO and the entire labor movement,” he said. “Our shared campaign revealed a dynamic and revitalized AFL-CIO and made it clear that it was time for the UFCW to redouble our efforts to build a more robust and unified labor movement.”

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka released the following statement this afternoon on their web site:

“Today’s decision by the UFCW to unite with the broader labor movement is great news for workers living in the ‘new normal’ of the low wage economy—working women, young part time workers, retail workers, immigrant workers and so many more. A stronger, more unified grassroots movement of working men and women is exactly what’s needed to raise wages for workers and rebuild an American middle class. Together we are stronger—it’s as simple as that. Together working people have a stronger voice and the power to defend their rights on the job. Together we have a stronger voice in the global economy—the power to counter the excesses of CEOs and the ravages of inequality.

What’s exciting is that many workers are already speaking out and taking action to build power together, so UFCW’s affiliation to build a stronger movement couldn’t be more timely.

This is a bold, important step by the UFCW. I have great respect for the members and leaders of UFCW— and especially for the innovative, courageous leadership of Joe Hansen. I look forward to a strong partnership that can make a real and growing difference for today’s workers.”

Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Rick Bloomingdale and Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder welcomed today’s announcement.

“A stronger more unified national labor movement is what is needed to help raise the living standards of all workers and to rebuild the middle class. Together we have a stronger voice and the power to defend our rights on the job, counter the excesses of CEO’s, and the ravages of inequality,” Bloomingdale said.

“The UFCW never formally left the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO and have always been partners with the State Federation,” Snyder said. “Regardless of that, as Dr. King once said, there’s never a wrong time to do the right thing. Regardless of a union’s affiliation, when we are faced with attacks on the core issues of our membership, we will always stand side by side with workers. Privatization of any kind is just one of those issues we will oppose.”

Source: http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=2413

By The PA. AFL-CIO

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) took effect 20 years ago yesterday, requiring employers to provide unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons with the promise that the employee can return to work. The law allows eligible employees to take up to 12 work weeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period to attend to serious health conditions of the employee, parent, spouse, or child, or for pregnancy or care of a newborn child. Eligibility requirements include at least one year of work for that company and at least 1,250 of work during that year.

While the enactment of FMLA was progress in the improvement of worker protection and worker benefits, there are still employees who are not eligible for FMLA and employees who do not have the means to use it.

Millions of workers are earning less than a living wage while trying to raise a family. While many of these workers are eligible for FMLA, a majority of them do not use it because a loss in hours would mean a loss in pay that too many workers could not financially afford. According to Department of Labor estimates, 78% of workers who needed to take FMLA-covered leave did not exercise that right because they said they could not afford to use it.

Over 40 million American workers do not have any paid sick days. All workers deserve time to take care of themselves and their family members in need. FMLA has benefited workers for 20 years, but it is time to take the next step and ensure that all workers are covered by the law and are compensated for their time off.

Source: http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=2396

By Lee Fang – The Nation

– The Commonwealth Foundation, a right-wing think tank in Harrisburg, is plotting to go after public sector employee unions. In a letter from Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) on behalf of the Foundation, the think tank announced “Project Goliath,” a new effort to make Pennsylvania the next Wisconsin or Michigan. The Commonwealth Foundation is one of a fifty-nine-state network of similar think tanks that have vastly expanded since 2009. The letter makes clear that conservatives believe that right-wing political infrastructure—the organizing institutes, the partisan media outlets, the rapid response efforts—has helped turn the tide against labor unions. Toomey writes (emphasis added):

I firmly believe the future is in our hands—it’s up to you and me—and it all depends on the level of urgency we give this great new campaign of ours, Project Goliath: Conquering Pennsylvania’s Political Giant. Now is the time to fight back. Like David of the Bible, now is the time to come forward and slay Pennsylvania’s Big Labor Goliath! […] To surprise and discredit Goliath, we will employ two key tactics. First, we are forming an alliance with other successful free-market groups to actively discredit the Big Government Party (a tactic borrowed directly from Wisconsin). Like our friends in Wisconsin and Michigan, many elements of our plan involve a cooperative effort among our allied, but still independent, organizations. […] But the overriding key to our whole plan will be our ability to starve the giant.

After the 2008 election, conservative donors began pumping tens of millions of dollars into organizations like the Commonwealth Foundation to reverse what many expected to be a new era of progressive politics. My new book, The Machine: A Field Guide to the Resurgent Right, explores this dynamic in detail—from the Tea Party to these state-based infrastructure-building efforts.

In Michigan, the Commonwealth Foundation’s sister organizations, the Mackinac Center and Americans for Prosperity Michigan, increased their budget to nearly $6 million dollars, easily outspending their left-wing counterparts. This money went to polling, advertising, and outreach efforts to push Governor Rick Snyder to severely undercut labor unions in the state in December by enacting so-called Right to Work.

These groups are centrally coordinated by the State Policy Network, so there’s a familiar playbook that the Commonwealth Foundation seems to be deploying.

As I noted for The Nation: “State Policy Network’s organizations have also operated as fronts for corporations seeking to cloak their business interests under an ideological veneer. The Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy, a Pennsylvania-based affiliate of SPN that is pushing to pass right-to-work legislation, is financed in part by the Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association, a lobbying group that represents US Steel, Hershey Foods, Sun Oil and many smaller firms. The lobbying group even provides office space for the Commonwealth Foundation and its media outlet, Pennsylvania Independent. The foundation has surged in size, with its budget climbing from $890,000 in 2008 to $1.95 million in 2011, the last available figure. The head of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association, Frederick Anton, has pushed right-to-work legislation for years. But this time, he’s being aided by grassroots organizers from Americans for Prosperity, as well as the media work of Pennsylvania Independent.”

Why haven’t the Democrats been able to pass a climate bill? One reason may be that they employed a PR firm that was close to the coal industry, Lee Fang reports.

Source: http://www.thenation.com/blog/173999/pennsylvania-think-tank-plans-slay-unions-wisconsin#axzz2bCt3jPyS