AFLCIO – RI Future

December 9, 2012December 9, 2012

Register for ‘Leadership For A Future’ Class of 2013

The 2013 Leadership for a Future class is now accepting applications. The premier organizer training program in the Rhode Island, Leadership for a Future is a great opportunity for people to learn how Rhode Island REALLY works and but also how to make it work better. You can register for the program ONLINE or download a brochure HERE.

Sponsored by the Rhode Island Institute for Labor Studies, Working Rhode Island, and the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, Leadership for a Future has trained hundreds of people over the last 12 years to work in their union, their community group, or their church, on how to use organizing and communication skills to further the cause of social and economic justice. You can register for the program ONLINE or download a brochure HERE. As one of the faculty members for the program, I am really excited for the next year. I think we are going to have a great year and would encourage you to sign up early. We have already seen an uptick in interest this year.

The program begins with a full-day retreat followed by an evening leadership orientation. Sessions are held every other Monday from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Throughout the program, participants examine the process and impact of social influence and leadership on the many issues facing Rhode Island’s communities while focusing on relationship building, institutional reflection, power analysis and initial studies on a variety of societal topics.

History of Communities and Labor in Rhode Island
Rhode Island’s Issues of the Day
Rhode Island Government
Grass Roots Organizing / Lobbying
Using the Media / On-line Organizing
Changes in Public Education in Rhode Island
Public Speaking for Organizers

August 31, 2012August 31, 2012

Remember the Battle of the Gravestones in Saylesville

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In 1934, during the height of the Depression and one of the largest national strikes in history, 4 unarmed Rhode Island workers were killed by State Police and Militia Men called out by Governor TF Green to protect the Saylesville Bleachery in Lincoln, Rhode Island. It wasn’t a “strike,” he declared, but a “communist insurrection.”

Militia attacking striking workers from behind gravestones in Saylesville, Rhode Island.

Whatever. Four workers were cut down in the street. You can still see the bullet holes in the gravestones from the high powered guns used against the strikers and each labor day some of us gather to remind the powers that be that we are not all dead and buried. This year Maureen Martin, Secretary-Treasurer of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO will deliver the address at the memorial to the martyrs created by the Rhode Island Labor History Society to memorialize what is known as The Battle of the Gravestones.

The monument is located in Moshassuck Cemetery, 978 Lonsdale Avenue in Central Falls.

All are invited to a ceremony honoring the event and those who lost their lives.

You can register for the event on Facebook.

If you like, you can see actual newsreel video of the street battle here.

CIVIL WAR AT SAYLESVILLE

June 3, 2012June 4, 2012

EP To SK: Law Firm Earns Big Money Creating Chaos

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Now that the House Finance Committee has released its proposed budget, it’s worth noting that most of Governor Chafee’s municipal relief package is not contained in the document. Readers familiar with my opinions will know what I think of that; so I wanted to use that fact to highlight another set of facts: that things at the municipal level, and particularly the school level, are crying out for change.

When I testified at the State House on the Governor’s proposal I pointed out how school committee attorneys use the current broken system of laws governing everything from contract negotiations to lay-offs to enrich themselves : to the detriment of teachers, students, and citizens. For example, between August 2008 and early 2011, the firm of Little, Mederios, Kinder, Bulman, & Whitney, PC, was paid $1,363,989.96 for their legal advice to the school committee in East Providence. This extraordinary amount of money was transferred from the public to private hands during (some would say caused) the worst labor strife the city has seen in years.

Why is this relevant now? Because it keeps on happening and no one in the main stream media seems to want to dig into the practice of how certain (not all) law firms bilk tax payers at the municipal level. For example, the same firm listed above was recently hired to represent the School Committee in South Kingston. According to an information request answered John Ritchotte, Chief Financial Officer of the South Kingstown School Department, since July 10, 2010, LMKBW has been paid $226,364.34 in legal expenses. The school committee has spent a total of $266,206.27 in legal expenses over that same period. The main lawyer from the firm assigned to South Kingston is named Sarah Rapport.

What has the town’s $226,364.34 paid to Sarah Rapport and LMKBW bought them? Chaos. Early this spring, after the terminations of three teachers, a series of protests erupted at school committee meetings. Local media like the South County Independent and The Narragansett Times have done a great job covering the discord, but state wide media has ignore the strife. It doesn’t seem to fit the story arc put forward by RIDE of collaboration and cooperation.

But that’s another story. Or maybe it’s not. Maybe that’s the point – maybe the whole point of this is to show that what is really happening at the municipal level and the school committee level has multiple perspectives. Too often we only get one side of the story shared by the media, especially the dominant media sources in this state. When you drill down and really start to look at root causes of problems at the local level and say “hey wait a minute…..” and see a high powered Providence law firm travelling from town to town, earing millions of dollars by creating discord and disharmony maybe then the story has to change a little bit. Maybe the problem isn’t the all-powerful unions. Maybe the problem isn’t overpaid public sector workers. Maybe there is a different problem we need to address.