Over 150 front line medical caregivers rallied on Newport Avenue in Pawtucket yesterday afternoon to demand a minimum wage of $15. The timing and location of the event was carefully considered.
It was the 50th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid. The location, near Slater Park, is around the corner from two healthcare providers, ARC of Blackstone Valley, which provides services to adults with developmental disabilities and the Pawtucket Center, a Genesis Heath Care skilled nursing facility.
The rally was also just two miles from the Massachusetts border, where home care workers recently won a minimum wage of $15 to be phased in over the next few years. Rhode Island does not pay nearly as much.
SEIU 1199, representing the healthcare workers, released figures showing that at Pawtucket Skilled Nursing & Rehab, the starting rate is $11.75. 63 percent of workers make less than $15. At ARC of Blackstone Valley many direct care staffers earn $10.75 and 94 percent earn less than $15. Meanwhile, two miles up the street, a caregiver could find a job paying $15.
I spoke with two women whose adult, disabled children are cared for at ARC of Blackstone Valley. Both attested to the excellent care their families receive and to the need for paying better wages. The caregivers at ARC are like family, said Pat, whose daughter Rachel has many special care requirements.
Two women who work as personal care attendants in Massachusetts also addressed the rally. Deborah Hahn said, “…if Massachusetts PCAs can win $15, if New York fast food workers can win $15, you can too.”
This event is seen as part of the “expanding #fightfor15 movement” which has been defying expectations and scoring significant wins in recent weeks. The healthcare workers were joined at the rally by a host of labor and community groups, including the AFL-CIO, Unite Here! 217, Jobs with Justice, Fuerza Laboral, NEARI, Teamsters 251, UNAP, UFCW 328, and the RI Progressive Democrats. State Representatives David Bennett, Mary Duffy Messier and Scott Slater were also on hand.
Before the the student led march in support of the striking RISD Techs started, union president Tucker Houlihan was approached by RISD adminsitrators eager to negotiate a quick end to the strike that began Thursday.
“You sons of bitches are so powerful,” Houlihan said to the cheering crowd outside the RISD administrative offices downtown, “and there’s so many of you, that the administration wanted to talk, and not just talk this time, they wanted to negotiate.”
According to Houlihan, RISD signed a memorandum of agreement that maintains the tech union member’s 8 percent retirement contribution. “And they did this before you even arrived here. That is how powerful you are,” said Houlihan.
Hundreds of students and supporters marched down South Main St in support of the 44 unionized RISD Techs, members of NEARI Local 806. The crowd was so large that marchers completely encircled the administrative offices. Student Danica Mitchell was one of the organizers of the support march. Mitchell told the crowd that this effort was about more than the specifics of the demands of the striking workers.
“It’s more about promoting transparency in big institutions,” said Mitchell. She added that she hopes RISD will be more open in the future.
Today’s efforts mark a successful end to the strike. “When the technicians leave here,” said Houlihan, to the ecstatic crowd, “we’re going back to the studios that we love and they’re open!”
Over twenty members of NEARI local 806 carried picket signs on North Main St early this morning before separating to cover the various studios that are spread over the RISD campus. The art studio technicians are officially on strike until “the administration returns to the negotiating table.”
Rhode Island School of Design technicians – the school employees who facilitate and operate the various art studios on campus – are going on strike Thursday. Tucker Houlihan, president of NEARI local 806, said this will shutter the art studios to students.
“They are shutting down the kilns,” he said. “They won’t be laser cutting, they won’t be welding. Kids who had those classes, they won’t have it.”
RISD spokewoman Jaime Marland said, “Arrangements are being made to minimize the impact of such an action – in the event of a strike, some shops will be open.”
Houlihan says the 44 employees who run the various studios – there are about 16 different studios, he said, and listed as examples the glass studio, ceramics studio, metal studio and the woodworking studio – play a large role in RISD students’ education. “We’re the ones who have unlimited contact with students because we are in the studios all week,” he said.
Houlihan said the strike will last until the administration returns to the negotiating table.
The technicians and administration have been at odds over a new contract since May of 2014 and they have been working under the old contract since then. In October, the administration declared an impasse, Houlihan said. A mediator told the union to identify budget neutral contract changes.
In response, the union would like their contract to stipulate the pension contribution percentage technicians currently receive from the school. He said it is 8 percent and is spelled out in the faculty handbook but not the contract. The union feels it would be harder for RISD to cut that part of technicians salary if it was spelled out in the contract. Previously, technicians received a 10 percent pension contribution, but it had since been lowered to 8 percent.
Marland, the school spokeswoman, said “RISD has worked closely with the Technicians’ Association bargaining team since May 2014 to reach an agreement that provides the technicians with a competitive wage and benefits package while balancing the college’s critical need to keep the rate of tuition increases low. RISD’s offer to the technicians remains open and the college is hopeful that, if a strike occurs, it will conclude quickly.”
“We are not striking over monetary changes,” Houlihan said. “We’re simply trying to get them to come back to the table and negotiate in good faith.”
The Technicians Association has a Facebook page, a Twitter account and a website.
]]>
A large coalition to raise the tipped minimum wage was launched at the State House with a press conference and public testimony on House Bill 5364. Representative Aaron Regunberg introduced the bill that would gradually increase the the minimum wage from $2.89 to match the regular minimum wage by 2020. Senator Gayle Goldin introduced matching legislation on the Senate side. There has been no increase in the tipped minimum wage in nearly 20 years.
ROC United RI (Restaurant Opportunities Center) launched “One Fair Wage Rhode Island,” an impressive coalition of community, labor, faith business and women’s organizations that includes the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island, RI-NOW, NAACP-Providence Branch, Farm Fresh Rhode Island, the Economic Progress Institute, the Bell Street Chapel, Rhode Island AFL-CIO, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, Rhode Island Jobs with Justice, Fuerza Laboral, NEARI, United Service and Allied Workers of Rhode Island, Planned Parenthood of Southern New England and Unite Here Local 217.
Many restaurant patrons are unaware that their tip is not simply a “thank you” for great service, said Senator Goldin, “It’s paying your server’s base salary, and nobody’s base salary should entirely depend on a customer’s mood.”
More than just being an issue of fairness, this is an issue of impacting “women’s economic security,” says Women’s Fund Executive Director Jenn Steinfeld. “Nearly three in four Rhode Island tipped workers are women, one-third are mothers, and more than half of these are single mothers.” Steinfeld says that eliminating the tipped minimum wage will “help address the gender pay gap.”
Being dependent on tips for their salary makes servers more vulnerable to sexual harassment, since telling a customer that their advances or flirting is unwelcome puts the server at risk of losing a tip. A recent report from the national ROC United found that, “Women living off tips in states with a $2.13 an hour tipped minimum wage are twice as likely to experience sexually harassment than women in states that pay the full minimum wage to all workers. In fact, all workers in $2.13 states, including men, reported higher rates of sexual harassment, indicating that the sub-minimum wage perpetuates a culture of sexual harassment.” It’s in response to this atmosphere of sexual harassment that ROC United has launched its “Not on the Menu” campaign.
There is also good economic sense in raising the tipped minimum wage, maintains Mike Araujo, of ROC United RI. “”Raising the subminimum wage will have an important stimulative effect for Rhode Island. When tipped workers earn more, that money goes right back into the local economy.” ROC United estimates raising the wage will pump $64 million into the state’s economy. Further, tipped workers in Rhode Island currently receive $638,325 in food stamps every month, which means that taxpayers are effectively subsidizing the restaurant industry through social welfare programs.
After the press conference there was a heaing on Regunberg’s bill in the House Labor Committee. Though over 150 people signed up to testify, on both sides of the issue, in the end only 25 people could endure the four hour hearing waiting for their turn to speak. Those speaking against raising the tipped minimum wage were mostly members of the Rhode Island Hospitality Association (RIHA), a business lobbying group that routinely opposes any legislation that might raise the minimum wage or improve the ability of workers to collect money lost to wage theft. Many of the RIHA members wore small golden pineapple pins.
“The states that have eliminated completely their subminimum wage,” said Representative Regunberg describing the economic impact of his bill, “have as high or higher industry and job growth rates as subminimum wage states.”
Bill Kitsilis, of Angelo’s Palace Pizza sees no reason to raise the tipped minimum wage, and said, “My tipped employees… are some of the highest paid employees in my business.” He thinks $2.89 is fine, since that’s what he predicated his business model on. Comparisons with other states are not valid, Kitsilis maintains, because other states have much, much stronger economies.
Representative Antonio Giarrusso asked about employee turnover. Kitsilis feels that turnover only happens when people aren’t making money, and he also says that there are a lot of people hiring right now, making it difficult to find workers. An odd statement, considering Rhode Island’s unemployment rate.
The issue of “side work” came up, that is, the work servers do for a restaurant, at $2.89 an hour, that doesn’t earn the server tips. Side work is an old way of getting work done in a restaurant on the cheap, and is completely legal. Raising the subminimum would eliminate this disparity. Kitsilis said that such work “tends to be… a small percentage of what they do, most of the time…”
Representative Teresa Tanzi has worked in the restaurant industry for 14 years. “In those 14 years I have worked at dozens of restaurants, somewhere around 45 restaurants, I would say. And in all those restaurants, one has paid me according to the law.” For fear of retaliation, she could never confront management about this. “I’m well aware that they are breaking the law, but there is nothing I can do. I am relying on my manager and the owner of that restaurant for my employment.”
The Department of Labor surveyed 9000 restaurants over two years and found that 84 percent of them violate the law.
When Chairperson Joseph Shekarchi pushed back against Tanzi’s experience, saying that he doesn’t see the connection between low wages and harassment and abuse of servers, drawing on his experience as a bartender, Tanzi stuck to her guns and pointed out that the experience of women working as servers and men working as bartenders are very different. “It does happen and it’s a daily occurrence. If someone touches you, or if you’re waiting on a table and it’s a party of ten and that’s all the money you’re going to make tonight, and they want to be fresh with you in some way shape or form… I refer to it as a ‘golf clap’ in my vernacular. Whenever someone says something that’s ‘funny,’ you’re waiting on someone and they something that isn’t funny, you have to laugh. If someone touches you inappropriately, what are you going to say? There’s very little recourse as a server that you have.”
Rep Giarrusso’s solution for “any woman or anybody getting sexually harassed” is that “they should hit somebody with a nine iron.” Maybe he’ll introduce legislation to that effect.
“The truth is, 60 percent of restaurant workers in Rhode Island are over the age of 24 and 32 percent of all of Rhode Island’s restaurant workers are parents.”
“I feel that the current wage devalues me as an employee,” says Daniel Burke. Burke explained how the days and hours he is making good money from tips are averaged with the days and hours he’s performing other tasks at the restaurant. As long as he averages minimum wage with the money provided by customers, the restaurant can get away with paying him $2.89 an hour. Of course, Representative Giarusso thinks that Burke should take this issue up with his employer because, “I would, that’s for sure.”
As a 31 year old mother explains that her bartender job requires her to perform duties that are not directly related to serving customers. Therefore no tips can be expected and the restaurant gets away with paying employees $2.89 an hour for work that any other business in the state would have to pay at least minimum wage to accomplish. Again, Representative Giarrusso misses the point, thinking that the issue of side work isn’t related to this. As long as there is a two-tiered wage system, restaurant managers and owners will have an incentive to make workers do untipped work at the lower wage, rather than pay the server properly.
ROC United RI’s Mike Araujo finally explains that “those extra tasks,” that is side work, are “built into the job.” Side work, prep and cleaning averages out to about 3 or 4 hours a day, which is “effectively unpaid labor.” This profitable industry is built on the backs of primarily underpaid women.
Araujo may have summed up the night best when he said, “This issue speaks to how we believe society should be shaped. Do we believe that our citizens deserve equal treatment and deserve full equality, or do we believe that there is a second tier that women, increasingly, belong to?”
“Moving into a restaurant that paid over the minimum wage had such a tangible benefit…”
“When we talk about this issue we can’t escape the fact that this is a women’s issue… forcing a worker to rely on tips for any portion of their base wage significantly increases their chances of experiencing sexual harassment.”
Once again, Representative Giarrausso claims that “I don’t really understand the connection to sexual harassment… If someone’s a jackass, for lack of a better word… I mean, I don’t promote sexual harassment. I think those people should be tied up and jailed and never come out.” Giarrusso claims he “can’t draw the parallel” between low pay and sexual harassment.
But Giarrusso tips his hand as he grins and asks, “Is there an acceptable level of sexual harassment depending on how much you’re getting paid?” This is simply a variation of the line, variously ascribed to George Bernard Shaw or Winston Churchill, “We know what you are, we’re just haggling over the price.”
In response to testimony quoting FDR, Rep. Giarrusso maintains that “there is data that shows that every time minimum wage goes up, so does unemployment.” The US Department of Labor dispels that myth at the top of its page on the minimum wage. Giarrusso also brings up the specter of automation, as is done now whenever minimum wage increases are discussed. I deal with the automation argument here.
Joe Fortune, speaking below, wrote about his experience speaking before the committee on his own blog here.
Notice the pineapple pin. RIHA is in the house. This man is a CPA who specializes in hospitality. I am willing to bet he makes more than $2.89 an hour plus tips.
John Elkhay owns Ten Prime Steak & Sushi, Rick’s Roadhouse, XO Café, Luxe Burger Bar, and Harry’s Bar & Burger, as well as Veritas Catering. “Unlike the people who testified before me,” says Elkhay, “I actually live and work in Rhode Island.” I guess he wasn’t listening to the experiences of the four speakers who do live and work in Rhode Island. After telling the committee about how many employees he has and how much money they all make, he throws them under the bus, saying, “They don’t claim all their tips, by the way. That’s a sneaky little secret.”
“Don’t say that in this building,” says Representative Giarrusso, trying to make light of the comment.
Elkhay doesn’t blink. “Yeah, well, it’s the truth.”
“Who is here, in the industry, saying there is a problem?” asks Chris Tarro, owner of Siena Restaurant Group, answering “I don’t think there is a problem.”
“Don’t take my word for it,” he continues. Rather, he recommends going out to dinner and asking a server. But, “don’t ask if they want a raise, everyone would like one.”
Tarro thinks that the kind of retaliation employees face for stepping up to complain about their working conditions is somehow equivalent to the reaction of potential customers when they hear about the ways restaurants pay their employees and the ways in which many restaurants exploit their employees. “When I testified last time here,” says Tarro, “I got emails, I was on progressive blogs… there’s a penalty to us coming here.”
“I would like to give a nice big golf clap to Representative Tanzi and to anyone else who is trying to distract you from the issue at hand…” is as much as this sarcastic restaurant owner could say before being stopped by Chairperson Shekarchi, who advised not going after those who previously testified.
“I don’t want character assassination,” said Shekarchi, “It doesn’t help your cause.”
“I would suggest to you that twenty years… twenty years without a raise… I don’t think there’s anybody in this room that’s going to work for anybody for twenty years without a raise.”
Kristin Dart, speaking for Planned Parenthood, said that when women are paid more, they are better able to pay for essential medical care.”If I have to choose between food on my table and my annual health exam, I’m going to put food on the table.”
Speaking of her own experience as a server, she said that she was regularly told by her bosses that sexual harassment was “part of the job. If you want to make tips, then you have to be ‘nice’ to customers.”
Amy Barclay owns Simpatico in Jamestown. She’s worked her way up from being a server, pregnant with twins making $4500 a week to owning her own place. She says, “This isn’t a gender issue. This isn’t a Planned Parenthood issue, this is a performance issue.” Barclay says, “I was great staff. I still am.”
Barclay has 15 core employees and 60 in season. “They beg for their jobs back,” she says, “and they should.”
Having worked in California, where there is no tipped minimum wage, and now working in Providence, Avi maintains that in California the restaurant industry is booming and that people in the restaurants out there have a greater feeling of teamwork. “It should be the employers responsibility to pay their employees, and not to pass that on to the customers.”
Ray Desmarais, of 99 Restaurants, sounded like he was blaming victims for for their harassment when he said, “For anyone to be harassed in the restaurant business, shame on them for allowing it. Leave and come work for me. Cause I’m a good guy and I’ll treat you well.”
Senator Joshua Miller says, “…there hasn’t been a minimum wage bill I didn’t love, until today, until this bill.” Miller feels this bill takes “important revenue away from some of my most valued staff.” He owns three restaurants with over 80 servers. Senator Miller, like Representative Giarrusso, sees no relationship between low wages and sexual harassment.
Justin Kelley said that “it’s time to raise the wage” in Rhode Island. Business models change, says Kelley, citing out the end of slavery, child labor and the eight hour day as examples. Compared to those changes, raising the subminimum wage should be easy.
“I think it’s a human rights issue,” says this restaurant worker from Olneyville, “I don’t care if your male or female, that minimum wage needs to come up.”
Bob Bacon is the owner of Gregg’s Restaurants and the president of the Rhode Island Hospitality Association. He frequently visits the State House to testify against bills that might increase a worker’s wage or strengthen a worker’s ability to not have their wages stolen. Bacon feels that the Department of Labor is doing a terrific job enforcing labor laws, and no new laws are needed. Servers make a “self-reported” average of $12.12 an hour, says Bacon.
Sam Bell, president of the Rhode Island Progressive Democrats, explained President Obama‘s support for increasing the minimum wage and for increasing the tipped minimum wage. “Raising the full minimum wage and the tipped minimum wage will help reduce poverty among women and families as well as make progress towards closing the gender pay gap.”
“Considering a tipped minimum wage increase… would cost ten percent of our current sales.” This begs the question: Is the entire profitability of the restaurant industry dependent on paying servers subminimum wage? Do restaurant profits come solely from underpaying staff? How do restaurants remain profitable in California, where there is no tipped minimum wage?
She finishes the evening’s testimony with, “we’re seeing servers being replaced right now with technology all over the world.”
As I’ve said before: technology like that is coming no matter what we pay our employees. The questions we need to be asking in the face of new technologies are bigger than minimum wage increases, such questions go to the heart of our economic system, and whether it’s sustainable in the long term.
Larry Purtill, elected president of NEARI, the state’s largest teachers’ union, says Gina Raimondo would have won a two-way race, but he isn’t ready to throw his support behind her just yet.
“First, the Treasurer probably would have won if there was only one other candidate so except for a few in the media who like to beat up on us, it is a moot point,” Purtill told me.
He made clear he would not support Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, who won the GOP primary for governor. “Obviously, Allan’s position on right to work pretty much eliminates him,” he said.
But said that doesn’t mean he will support Raimondo. “The pension issue aside, Gina’s positions on mayoral academies and funding, teacher evaluation, high stakes testing, how she handles a Dept. Of Ed that teachers remain very skeptical of, her support for collective bargaining need to be out there for us. As of now, we certainly are very non committal.”
He added, “This is where I am and believe NEARI members are. I would hope that anyone who has followed the pension issue or the primary would know we would not just jump in because someone is a Democrat.”
Mark Gray, president of the Young Democrats, posted yesterday pointing out Raimondo’s progressive credentials.
He wrote: “For Rhode Island liberals, it’s taken as an article of faith that Raimondo is a conservative wolf in Democratic sheep’s clothing, based only on her (successful? we’ll see) attempt to stop the state’s runaway public employees’ pension train. The fact that this notion is so pervasive among progressives is a testament to how much unions—especially public sector unions—dominate the Liberal/Progressive scene here in Rhody Land.”
]]>
Providence Rep. Maria Cimini has some formidable adversaries to overcome if she’s to win reelection. Her opponent Dan McKiernan, is a business-friendly attorney being backed by House Speaker Nick Mattiello and NEARI, the state’s largest teachers’ union.
But you can help Cimini keep her seat and the progressive State House caucus keep one of its most loyal members by attending a fundraiser for Cimini Monday, 5 p.m. at the Elmhurst Pub (670 Smith St, PVD). See Facebook event here.
Cimini has fought hard for progressive causes during her tenure as a legislator – including leading the charge in the House for the NEARI-backed tax-equity bill that would increase income taxes on the richest Rhode Islanders. She’s also been adamantly against using the NECAP test as a high stakes graduation requirement. She drew the ire of Speaker Mattiello when she challenged an amendment in the budget bill that prevented Providence from passing a hotel industry minimum wage. NEARI said it believes McKiernan can be a more effective legislator.
]]>
Liberal legislator Maria Cimini, who represents the Mt. Pleasant and Elmhurst areas of Providence, is being opposed in her bid for reelection not only by House Speaker Nick Mattiello but also by NEARI, the state’s largest teachers’ union.
“Our PAC committee determined her opponent, who strongly supports our issues, would have a greater impact on those issues in the legislature,” said NEARI President Larry Purtill. “Difficult decision but one we felt was in best interest of our members which is how I believe we should be making decisions.”
In the Democratic primary for House District 7, NEARI is backing Dan McKiernan, a lawyer in private practice.
Cimini administers the state SNAP program as a research associate at the University of Rhode Island, and as such she is dues-paying member of the NEA. More importantly, she says, she worked towards teacher-friendly education reforms as a legislator.
“I’ve been extraordinarily proud to support and champion issues related to supporting educators, administrators and students,” she said. “I’ve been proactive in researching issues of high stakes testing and teacher evaluations, I’ve been vocal in my opposition to some policies as well as supportive of reforms promoted by the NEA.”
She added, “I’m disappointed that as an ardent union supporter in my personal life and my professional and political career that the NEA has chosen to support my opponent.”
Mark Gray, president of the Young Democrats of Rhode Island, took issue with the endorsement.
“We have great respect for the members of NEA and their continued advocacy for children in our state, but we disagree with the NEA endorsement in House District 7,” he said. “Representative Cimini is a champion for Rhode Island workers—NEA members included. Last year, she successfully argued for over $12 million to be returned to the state budget to ensure we met our commitment to the pension fund for workers. She has consistently advocated for fully funding school districts and for ending the malpractice of high-stakes testing. Finally, she’s been a fearless advocate of our state’s most disadvantaged people: those who can’t afford child care, housing, or food for their own families. We feel that the interests of teachers, students, and young Rhode Islanders have been well represented by real Democrats like Maria Cimini.”
McKiernan could not be reached for comment. (I’ll update this post if I hear from him)
Both candidates address education on their campaign websites.
McKiernan says on his website:
“I will focus on the economy because it impacts ALL of us. A down economy makes it hard for those in private enterprise to make a living. It reduces tax revenues, stressing those who work for the government. This makes it harder for the government to fund other activities, including educational and social welfare programs. A down economy hurts all of us.”
]]>All young people are deserving of a high quality education that prepares them to be successful in the workforce, in the community, and in life. Schools have a responsibility to develop the next generation of leaders, not test takers. Rhode Island needs a statewide school funding formula to ensure that all children have equitable access to high quality education. Schools must support young people not only academically but also by being safe places for social emotional growth both during the school day and after school time.
Legislative Impact
- Increased higher education funding by $4 million
- Serves on the Commission to Study the Affordability and Accessibility of Public Higher Education in Rhode Island
- Co-sponsored the Safe Schools Act to direct RIDE to create and implement statewide policy on cyberbullying prevention
- Passed legislation to create the RI Family Engagement Advisory Council. The Council, composed of teachers, parents and administrators, will make recommendations on developing policies to make families more active in the life of their children’s schools
Angel Taveras and Clay Pell have managed to do at least one thing Gina Raimondo couldn’t: pit public sector unions against one another.
While NEARI, the state’s suburban teachers’ union, is vociferously backing Pell, a diverse group of public and private sector unions launched today calling itself “Working Families for Angel.”
In a press release the group said: “Angel Taveras is the only Democratic candidate in this race who knows the stresses working families are under. Angel was raised by a single mother; his first job was a unionized bagger and cashier at a grocery store; worked his way through law school; and as Mayor has collaboratively solved problems with his employees to move Providence forward. We will convey this message to our members and their families, utilizing every communication avenue possible and look forward to the Democratic Primary Election on September 9th. We are confident that come Election Day our members’ voices will be heard.”
The group plans on making contact with 16,000 union households, it said in the press release. “A coalition this size could represent more than 30% of this year’s Democratic gubernatorial primary voters, and provide a massive boost to Angel Taveras’ campaign,” it said.
The group includes, according to the press statement:
]]>…the Rhode Island State Association of Firefighters, International Association of Firefighters, AFL-CIO; RI Council 94, American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO; United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 328; United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 791; International Brotherhood of Police Officers, National Association of Government Employees, SEIU, AFL-CIO; Service Employees International Union, Local 580, AFL-CIO; Brotherhood of Utility Workers Council, Local 310, United Utility Workers of America, AFL-CIO; and International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Local 400, AFL-CIO.
Charges were dropped last week against John Leidecker, but a Providence Journal editorial still wants NEARI official fired for sending crass – but not criminal – emails to then Bristol Rep. Doug Gablinske.
Ed Achorn, editor of the paper’s op/ed page, and Bob Walsh, executive director of NEARI, debated the merits of the piece this morning on Twitter.
]]>