A Kinder, Gentler Protest

The Temple Association of University Professionals recently protested winter graduation, chanting, “We want graduations, not stalled negotiations.” Hmm. It’s better than “One term Nutter” or “Burn, Nutter, Burn, but not by much.

But what I really enjoyed at the protest is the signage directed at Temple’s president, Ann Weaver Hart. “Hart: Anti-Union?” Usually you’d see an exclamation point, or maybe a :( there. But the TAUP isn’t really so sure of itself.

It’s refreshing to see such signs at protests here in 2009. I hope we all learned something from these professors.

Obama To Make All Gas Free

Hey, let’s post some more political ads. Look, it’s some union PAC (or whatever) sponsoring an ad where people tell you gas prices are high and that Barack Obama will magically make them lower. So it’s essentially the same thing as that other Barack Obama ad, except this one is from an independent group.

Yes, he doesn’t take money from oil companies! We know that already! Now will you people just tell us if he hates America or not?

N.J. Senator Tarred, Feathered

Stephen Sweeney, a New Jersey state senator from Gloucester County, thought he had a good plan to reduce the size of state government. And now, ha ha, everybody hates him for it.

National union leaders called the state senator to a meeting in Washington, D.C., where they told him that, as a union official himself, ” “it was disgraceful to talk this way,’ ” Sweeney recalled.

And Gov. Jon Corzine “basically was adamantly opposed to anything we talked about there,” he said. “I had thousands of people (at a rally) calling for my head; they had rats with my picture on it. It was really ridiculous.”

While his plan offended everyone, now people are reconsidering it because the state is hemorrhaging money. Everything works out in the end!

Sweeney makes unpopular proposal [Camden Courier-Post]

Union Resorting To Underhanded Tactics

The protesters you may have seen marching down 15th Street yesterday dressed entirely in purple — the color of the Minnesota Vikings! — were from the Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ. Ha ha, BJ.

The protest yesterday was for, uhm, fair wages. Seems like a good thing to protest for. The union’s contract with building owners and cleaning companies expires Oct. 16 and a strike will be authorized “if necessary.”

Still, I’m a little disgusted at SEIU’s underhanded, immoral tactics. Some of the union workers yesterday (like the ones in the photo) had Thunderstix, the ridiculously annoying noisemakers sometimes given out at baseball games and other various sporting events.

Those things should be illegal. They’re pretty much the most irritating things on the planet, and if the union wants to keep using them, then the public needs to turn on them. Drop the Thunderstix, get fair wages. Deal?

Phila. office cleaners authorize strike ‘if necessary’ [Philadelphia Business Journal]

Jim Kenney To Allow Us To Bounce To Work

Less than a week after Jim Kenney proposed to change the rules to make it easier for Bob Brady to win the mayor’s race, he’s already found his way back into our hearts and minds.

KYW 1060 reports Kenney is seriously interested in rubber sidewalks for our fair city.

(On a side note, the Wikipedia entry for sidewalk is fantastic due to this: “A sidewalk (chiefly North American English), pavement (British English and Philadelphia dialect)…” That there’s a whole entry on the Philly accent — thanks, Bill Labov! — is totally awesome too.)

But back to rubber sidewalks. Oh, man, how awesome would that be. I can only assume rubber sidewalks are sort of the pavement (pronounced ‘pay-ment’) equivalent of flubber, allowing us to hop 50 feet in the air and traverse large distances in a single bound. Forget you, Segway!

Okay, so maybe it doesn’t work like that. Let’s have Councilman Kenney explain:

“It’s a very solid material. Probably harder than a running track. Certainly not a trampoline. Not like the Bud Light commercial, where they’re banging the bottles off the ground.”

Yes, our City Councilman referenced an ad he probably saw during an Eagles game to explain rubber sidewalks to us. Nonetheless, rubber sidewalks last longer than cement, isn’t as slippery and is made from old tires. (Recycling!)

It’s a great idea. Which means as soon as Kenney’s bill ending campaign contribution limits passes, Local 592 would be able to spend as much money as it wants to tell Bob Brady about the so-called “benefits” of rubber sidewalks.

We’ll see ‘em in around 2047.

Councilman Suggests Rubber Sidewalks For Philadelphia [KYW 1060]
Archives: Jim Kenney

Brian Tierney Manages To Turn ‘I’m Going To Lay Off Some People At These Two Papers’ Into 940-Word Memo

If you’re wondering, the honeymoon lasted about four months:

Those loans require us to pay the banks’ interest quarterly, and to improve our performance annually to a level that assures the banks that we will be able to pay back the principal on our loans. Based on our current 2006 projections, we will meet our interest obligations for 2006, but will fall short of the performance expectation. Without immediate and dramatic changes to the business, in 2007 we will not only miss our performance requirement, but we will also not have enough cash to make our interest payments. [...]

If we are going to survive and grow, we need to significantly restructure our labor contracts and our workforce. We have been working with our labor unions to reach a deal by October 31. We have reached agreements and made significant headway with some unions, but are very far apart with some others. We need to reach agreements that allow us to achieve the savings to meet our loan obligations, and to reinvest in and to grow our business. However, even with those savings, some layoffs are unavoidable. We must reduce our workforce so that it is in line with our reduced revenue. To the extent we don’t get the savings, those layoffs will be larger.

If you’re wondering what that last sentence means, it’s sort of like this: If you union guys don’t let us do what we want, we’re gonna lay off even more people! Ha ha ha ha ha!

Full memo sent to employees after the jump.

More »

Leftovers: The Place That Loves You Back (Unless You Overdosed On Heroin)

• If you read PW regularly, you probably already know about the state of the city’s ambulances. (Hint: Not good.) But now, an Inquirer investigation has revealed that not only is the city failing to revive heroin victims with the drug Narcan, but the city’s chief paramedic didn’t know it worked as a treatment for fentanyl, which has been tainting heroin up and down the East Coast. Sigh. [Inquirer]

• The Divine Tracy Hotel in West Philly has been sold. But where will we go to dress modestly? The story doesn’t say who the buyer is, but I think we all know what’s being done with it: Condos. [KYW 1060]

• Dr. Dean Richardson, who last operated on Barbaro, is now going to perform surgery on a polar bear with a broken leg. But of course. [AP/CNN.com]

• Matt Ciotto, Chad B. Archer and Wilbert S. Kollie. Name three people not likely to win their fantasy football league this year. [Metro]

• Geeze. We need to get a union job. [Blinq]

Mariano Says ‘Union Yes!’

It’s been a while since Rick Mariano’s been mentioned in the news, but Dan Gross takes care of that for us today. Turns out that Mariano has returned to his old job as an electrician.

He even rides the EL to work, or at least he did the other day, when he got off at the Erie-Torresdale stop.

“Rick Mariano is currently working as a union electrician, which is his right as a card-carrying, dues-paying member of IBEW Local 98,” Frank Keel, a spokesman for the union, confirmed for us yesterday. “He has a right to make a living.”

Mariano, 50, has been working for Local 98 for about a month, sources say. He worked for many years as an electrician before being elected in 1995 to Council and has remained an active union member.

Now that’s the kind of moxie we like in a politician. In fact, we think this return to his roots could just help him get elected again once he gets out of prison.

Dan Gross | For Mariano, it’s electric [Daily News]
Archives: Rick Mariano