Categories

Pink Sheeting One on Ones

New Orleans Obviously an article in the Times by Steven Greenhouse entitled, “Some Organizers Protest Their Union’s Tactics,” would catch my eye.  One reads it with some peril given the bricks still being thrown from one glass window or another between SEIU and UNITE HERE, but despite that caveat, it’s worth serious attention.  The [...]

Tubing on the Moei River

Chiang Mai One of the more interesting, and surprising, things we found ourselves watching with interest was the porous border crossing on the Moei River between Thailand and Burma.  The bridge was lightly trafficked above us as we saw an occasional foreign couple or straggler walking over, but beneath the bridge in the fast moving [...]

Organizers Burden

Bangkok The Organizers’ Forum delegation had two great meetings with organizers and the job before them was stunning and prodigious.  We had the opportunity to meet for several hours with five union organizers working to organize industrial plants along the eastern shore of Thailand.  We also got lucky and our trip coincided with a training [...]

A Fish in the Sea of People

Washington Pulling last minute pieces together as the Organizers’ Forum delegation moves from their homes and offices in the United States and Canada towards airports heading for Bangkok, the site of this year’s international dialogue with labor and community organizations in Thailand and along the Burmese border, I find myself bouncing back and forth with [...]

Health Care Fire Storm

Niagara Falls Waking up after a long and productive training dialogue with Judy Duncan, ACORN Canada’s head organizer, for their talented lead organizers, I was reading The Globe and Mail. The comment page included a column by David Shribman, the executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette trying to explain the messy health care fireworks [...]

Learning the Suburbs

Silver Springs An interesting byproduct of providing some support on capacity building to organizations in the DC/Baltimore areas has involved my being sent to re-education camp to learn more about the vast, sprawling suburbs that dominate this area of the country.  For the life of me I have to learn how to distinguish one row [...]