News & Opinion

In Wisconsin, the real struggle is over power

Ezra Klein — February 22, 2011 — Washington Post

This is a crucial fact about the economy: power matters. It's worth more, in many cases, than money. And that's what's really at issue in Wisconsin. It's why Gov. Scott Walker (R) is uninterested in taking concessions from the unions on wages and benefits if they don't come alongside concessions on collective bargaining. What he wants isn't a change in the balance of payments. It's a change in the balance of power.

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Star Tribune: earnings up, debt down, employee profit-sharing

David Brauer — February 22, 2011 — minnpost

Can you handle this much upbeat financial news about the Star Tribune? In a staff meeting last week, Star Tribune publisher Mike Klingensmith announced a $1,163-per-full-timer profit-sharing payment based on 2010 results. He'd predicted such payments since summer, bumping the number up in December. But union contracts are up for renegotiation this summer -- and 2009's staff concessions were significantly responsible for 2010's cash flow.

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Comcast Seeking to 'Destroy' Writers Guild, Members Say

Dominic Patten — February 21, 2011 — The Wrap

Comcast want “to destroy" the Writers Guild of America, say WGAW board members Chip Johannessen and Patric M. Verrone. Johannessen and Verrone, in a statement posted on the Guild’s website Sunday, said that the writers working for the new owners of NBC Universal need the support of the WGA in their effort to join the union. Writers for E!, Style and G4 voted Dec. 14 to join the WGA but Comcast dismissed the action, calling the results an "invalid poll."

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Steve Jobs Doesn’t Want to Kill Publishers, But Apple’s Subscription Strategy Will

Tien Tzuo — February 21, 2011 — TechCrunch

This week, Apple announced what the publishing industry has been clamoring for -- subscriptions -- but something very dangerous is happening. Apple is now calling the shots for the entire publishing industry’s digital strategy. Think about that for a minute. While Apple is prescient and makes great products, it’s hardly a publishing expert. Yet, Apple is setting up new rules that could bring the publishing industry to its knees. As if it weren’t already in that position.

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The Republican Strategy

— February 20, 2011 — Robert Reich's blog

The Republican strategy is to split the vast middle and working class -- pitting unionized workers against non-unionized, public-sector workers against non-public, older workers within sight of Medicare and Social Security against younger workers who don't believe these programs will be there for them, and the poor against the working middle class. By splitting working America along these lines, Republicans want us to believe we can no longer afford what we need as a nation.

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NLRB finds Hawaii Tribune-Herald violated federal law

— February 20, 2011 — Pacific Media Workers Guild

The Hawaii Tribune-Herald illegally attempted to suppress union activity in Hilo, the National Labor Relations Board ruled this past week, upholding the findings of an administrative law judge issued three years ago. The Tribune-Herald unlawfully interrogated employees about union activity, suspended employees Hunter Bishop, Peter Sur and David Smith -- and then fired Bishop and Smith -- and withheld information the union had requested.

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Time for Democrats to Turn up the Volume

Loraine Boyle — February 20, 2011 — Huffington Post

I woke up this morning from a dream of teachers on strike in a large group of protesters that resembled in size those in the Middle East. I didn’t realize how much the Wisconsin protests against the Republican governor’s plan to take away collective bargaining rights from unions had invaded my subconscious. Maybe it’s because many years ago I was a proud member of the Newspaper Guild when I worked for the Detroit Free Press.

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Top NLRB officials respond to House budget proposal

Wilma B. Liebman and Lafe Solomon — February 18, 2011 — National Labor Relations Board

As Congress ponders a continuing resolution to fund the federal government for the rest of this fiscal year, the NLRB warns that the proposal includes such steep cuts that it would be forced to furlough all of its 1,665 employees for 55 workdays -- nearly three months -- between now and the end of September. "The great majority of these employees work far from Washington D.C., in 51 local offices, where every NLRB case begins," it noted.

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