NK: Investing In Dog Park; Cutting Fire Budget
Something is seriously wrong in North Kingstown. Recall that the town is mired a bitter battle with its local fire fighters, trying to get them to work 24-hour shifts and take an average $5 an hour pay cut. And also remember that the school department fired every school custodians this summer only to hire them [...]
Is North Kingstown Going The Way Of Wisconsin?
Has sticking it to public sector workers become such popular politics in Rhode Island that the North Kingstown Town Council is willing to risk more than a million dollars to do so? That’s what NK fire union president Ray Furtado is beginning to think after the Council was again admonished by Judge Brian Stern; in [...]
Broken Promises in NK
Negotiations between the Town of North Kingstown and its firefighters union, IAFF Local 1651 on Wednesday ended in a mutually agreed tentative agreement. Right? After all, Wednesday’s ten hour session at the bargaining table resulted in a Tentative Agreement, dated and signed by Town Manager, Michael Embury and the union’s representative, President Raymond Furtado. Handshakes [...]
NK Support Staff Votes No Confidence in Supt., Comm.
North Kingstown Education Support Professionals (NKESP) – who have been battered over the last few months by the town’s school committee and Superintendent Phil Auger – took overwhelming votes of “no confidence” in the leadership both have provided for the school district. Our local union of teacher assistants, clerks, food service workers, mini-bus drivers, bus [...]
What’s Wrong with the NK School Committee?
If you are a close reader of this blog, you are likely aware of the controversy involving the North Kingstown School Committee and the termination of its school custodians. But maybe you are not aware of just how acrimonious the relationships are between the members of the school committee members are themselves. The video clip [...]
Progress Report: Brendan Doherty’s ‘Mostly False’ Grade; Higher Ed Access for Foster Kids; NK Firefighters
Yesterday we wrote that David Cicilline would try to make the CD1 campaign about policy issues while challenger Brendan Doherty would try to avoid any discussion of policy and instead smear his opponent by painting him as being untrustworthy. But on Brendan’s very first attempt at this the Projo Politifact team gives him a “mostly [...]
North Kingstown School Committee Silences Crowd
About 300 people packed the North Kingstown High School auditorium for the school committee meeting, many of whom planned to address committee members about their decision to outsource custodians’ jobs to an out-of-state company. And if you think they were upset at the beginning of the meeting when Dick Welch made a motion to move [...]
NK Evades Responsibility With Custodian Contract
I woke up today to an automated phone call from the school superintendent telling me that the first day of school in North Kingstown has been delayed by a strike. The Educational Support Personnel (ESP) union has walked out over the School Committee’s action to outsource the jobs of all 26 janitors, and so my [...]
VIDEO: Labor Strike Cancels School in North Kingstown
North Kingstown cancelled school today as a result of all school personnel striking in solidarity with the custodians whose jobs were outsourced to a private company earlier this summer. About 70 school employees marched and formed a picket line in front of North Kingstown High School this morning, and plan to rally again tonight at [...]
NK School Committeeman Cries Foul On Outsourcing
North Kingstown School Committee member Bill Mudge said the school committee and superintendent have not negotiated in good faith with the custodians and its union and said at “Tuesday night’s meeting I will request a vote of the entire S/C to hold a special/open meeting to consider the unions June 26, 2012 proposal” in an [...]
NK Teachers Won’t Cross Custodian Picket Line
North Kingstown public school teachers voted unanimously this afternoon to stand in solidarity with their fellow workers who plan a strike Tuesday for the first day of school to fight for fair wages for school custodians. Mary Barden, a middle school social studies teacher who is president of the local teachers’ union said the members [...]
NEA-RI President Purtill On NK Strike Possibility
Larry Purtill, president of the NEA-RI, issued a statement about the possibility of a labor strike at North Kingstown public schools if the School Committee there declines to nullify a contract with a private company that resulted in the 26 custodians being outsourced and getting an average salary cut of $13,000. Here’s his statement: The [...]
Labor Strike Could Delay School Start in NK
Summer break might be extended in North Kingstown as school staff is considering striking to fight for school custodians whose jobs were outsourced to a private corporation earlier this summer. “At this time it is unclear if school will open on time,” said Pat Crowley, an official with the National Education Association of Rhode Island, [...]
Union Grievance Filed Against NK Outsource Co.
The SEIU filed a grievance against the private sector custodial business hoping to ink a deal with the North Kingstown School Committee. The union says the company violated their New England-wide contract when it failed to apprise them of the deal it entered with the school district. According to the grievance, GSA, the outsource company, [...]
Why In-House Custodians Matter to Residents
It’s a growing trend among the anti-organized labor movement and those who worship at the church of small government: fire public school custodians and outsource their jobs to Corporate America. North Kingstown is the latest town to consider this very draconian move but other local municipalities have as well, such as East Greenwich and Portsmouth [...]
NK School Custodians Fight to Save Their Jobs
NORTH KINGSTOWN — Custodians, teachers and other union members from around Rhode Island rallied at the school department here in an attempt to save the jobs of the school custodians whose jobs are in imminent danger of being outsourced to a private company from Tennessee. The custodians and their union representatives say they have met [...]
Progress Report: Custodial Politics in NK, Cicilline Raises More Money, Voter ID Laws Hurt More than They Help
Nothing riles up the suburbs quite like when local leaders threaten to outsource the janitorial staff at the schools, and such seems the case in North Kingstown where 26 custodians are in danger of losing their jobs to privatization. Don’t believe me? Just check out the comments on North Kingstown Patch this morning: one side [...]
New Comments