Blog Smith is inspired by the myth of Hephaestus in the creation of blacksmith-like, forged materials: ideas. This blog analyzes topics that interest me: IT, politics, technology, history, education, music, and the history of religions.
The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals intriguing trends.
In 2010, the BLS said union membership fell by 617,000, to 14.7 million. A decade ago, 16.3 million people were in unions.
Union members now make up 11.9 percent of the workforce. A decade ago, that figure stood at 13.4 percent.
The BLS offers an interesting tidbit about union members.
* The occupations with the highest union membership rate included education, training and library jobs.
The state's Assembly passed a bill that would limit the bulk of Union collective-bargaining rights. The measure would require workers -- with the exception of police and firefighters -- to cover more of their health care premiums and pension contributions.
Collective bargaining would be limited to wages, though any pay increases beyond the inflation rate would be subject to voter approval.
An interesting note on the current public union battles was written by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in an Aug. 16, 1937 letter to Luther Steward, the president of the National Federation of Public Employees
[M]eticulous attention should be paid to the special relationships and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the Government.
All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations. The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress. Accordingly, administrative officials and employees alike are governed and guided, and in many instances restricted, by laws which establish policies, procedures, or rules in personnel matters.
Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of government employees.
Upon employees in the Federal service rests the obligation to serve the whole people, whose interests and welfare require orderliness and continuity in the conduct of Government activities. This obligation is paramount. Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the Government, a strike of pubic employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable.
Europe is most dependent on the oil exported from Libya and yet the U.S., again, is considering military action?
On Thursday, Obama spoke with the leaders of France, Italy and the United Kingdom on coordinating an international response to the crisis in Libya, the White House said.
There are no geographical boundaries. There are soft demographic, cultural and tribal boundaries. To get enmeshed in that without understanding the local culture is foolhardy but the most significant factor is our overstretched military.
Europe needs to step up to the plate and handle their own security affairs. The Muslims in the region seem likely to support intervention and if this is the case then they should handle their own internal affairs.
A recent Economic Report with Greg Gumbel featured a spotlight on Mr. Clean Car Wash. With 15 locations (and counting) in Georgia and Ohio, this concept from the Procter & Gamble family of companies is now franchising across the country. Visit MrCleanCarWash.com/franchising for more information.
A Tulsa, OK police captain has filed a lawsuit against a superior after he was transferred following his refusal to attend a Muslim event. According to him, ordering him to attend the event was a violation of his religious convictions, and transferring him was religious retaliation.
Capt. Paul Fields is currently under internal investigation for refusing an order to send officers to the Islamic Society of Tulsa’s Law Enforcement Appreciation Day held at a local mosque:
“It is my opinion and that of my legal counsel that forcing me to enter a Mosque when it is not directly related to a police call for service is a violation of my Civil Rights,” Fields wrote in an internal police department memo obtained by Fox News.
“I have no problem with officers attending on a voluntary basis; however, I take exception to requiring officers to attend this event,” Fields wrote in an e-mail to his superior officer again obtained by Fox News. “I believe this directive to be an unlawful order, as it is in direct conflict with my personal religious convictions.”
KOKI-TV in Tulsa obtained a memo from Deputy Chief Daryl Webster to Captain Paul Fields explaining that the order to send officers had nothing to do with religion.
“Since you are not required to participate or assist in any religious observance, make any expression of belief, or adopt any belief system, this meeting is a secular law enforcement function that happens to take place at a venue associated with a religious belief,” Webster writes.
“Were we to pick and choose which belief systems we would associate ourselves with as an agency or which religious venues we would enter for secular or ceremonial purposes and which we would not, then I believe there would be an issue of disparate treatment that would reflect dishonor upon us all and possibly subject the Police Department to liability,” he adds.
An Islamic Society of Tulsa spokesperson told KOKI that the event was meant to say “thank you” to the police for investigating a threat made to the establishment.
“We wanted to have this opportunity to simply say thank you. I know its’ at the mosque but that was the address given as the target as the threat and it only made sense to have it at the mosque,” spokesperson Sheryl Siddiqui.
But complicating Webster’s claims that the event was non-religious is a promotional flyer saying the event would include “presentations” on “beliefs, human rights, and women.” Attendees would also be able to watch a Muslim prayer service and take a tour of the mosque.
Still, the flyer did note such elements were voluntary: “It’s up to you.”
“This was not religious,” Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan told KOKI. “I would never assign a police officer to participate in religious service.”
He went on to compare the event to any other community gathering: “Its just like a neighborhood association, Alert Neighbor meetings, there are lots of concerned groups that are concerned about crime. The fact that it is in a religious facility is not that significant we go to churches all the time. We don’t go to the sanctuary and we are not going to the sanctuary this time.”
The guy getting knocked down in the video is Marty Lamb, an attorney, Tea Party activist, former candidate for Congress (Massachusetts 3rd district).
Carney: It Is "Routine" For The White House To Meet With Lobbyists
Carney: It Is "Routine" For The White House To Meet With Lobbyists
During a pro-union rally at Colorado’s State Capitol yesterday, some alleged SEIU union supporters got into a shouting match with a black Tea Partier. But the conversation wasn’t just a loud, heated exchange. It got very personal when two union supporters ganged up on the conservative, one of them calling him “uneducated” and another asking him if he has any children “that he claims”:
According to RedWhiteBlueNews.com, the woman in red was later asked what she meant by her comments about the man’s children. “She said the black conservative was such a ‘free spirit’ that she assumed he would possibly not own up to the responsibility of being a father,” the site says.
Just so you know, the man admitted on camera he was gay.
SEIU’s involvement in the protest is supported by a schedule on the union’s website that names Denver, CO as a rally site.
Hale was not seriously injured in the altercation.
A member of the Communication Workers of America (CWA) union was harassing an employee about his religion at a protest outside FreedomWorks’ Washington, D.C. offices.
As employees engaged with the lively group of protesters, one stepped forward out of the crowd to point her finger, calling the male employee a “bad Jew.”
The Congressman was endorsing violent behavior and criticism of his statements was followed by a formal statement that basically allowed him to re-state his position in a less offensive manner:
“I strongly believe in standing up for worker rights and my passion for preserving those rights may have gotten the best of me yesterday in an unscripted speech,” he said in a statement. “I wish I had used different language to express my passion and I regret my choice of words.”
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CIO and Strategy & Business magazines
Nature: International Weekly Journal of Science
SD Times: Software Development News
SC Magazine for Security Professionals
Government Technology: Solutions for State and Local Government in the Information Age
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