We don’t know why?

In Houston a delegation [...]]]> New Orleans   Among other things Comcast provides internet service.  As we have discussed previously, they promised to provide internet access to lower income families for $9.95 and connect the same families to a computer for $150.  Comcast called the program Internet Essentials.  They claim to be proud of it.

We don’t know why?

In Houston a delegation of Local 100 United Labor Unions picketed Comcast’s offices demanding the company live up to its promises.  Most of these Local 100 members work at Head Start locations and in public schools in Houston.  They are in perfect position to know whether or not Comcast made any effort to live up to its promises to at least provide access to families with children in Head Start or who were eligible for free school lunches.  In a survey our union conducted of 75 families, we found 1 who knew about the Comcast program and had been able to access it.  One as is only one.

Yet, somehow Comcast was surprised that we did not call off the picket line when they agreed to a meeting on Monday afternoon.  Why would we?  In Little Rock they wanted to meet in two weeks, when they could kinda sorta get around to it.  In Shreveport we have not heard a peep.  The FCC has asked for our permission to forward our letters to them about the problems with the program to Comcast, but Comcast has not responded anywhere or at anytime except when they have learned that we planned a public protest.

Comcast’s troubles are deep and thus far their response to our pointing out the problem in cities where our coalition is active has been non-existent.  They seemed to have wanted a “pass” in the meeting in Philadelphia just for “saying” they would do something, rather than for actually making the program work.

In Houston, as well as other cities, we are also troubled by the fact that if you call the regular Comcast service number and ask for this program, Comcast believes they have “license” to do their damnedest to “up sell” you for a more expensive plan for service.  In the meeting in Philadelphia with our partners at Action United they took the preposterous position that all of that was fair game unless the family called specifically about their so-called “Internet Essentials” program.  We have now found examples of this with our members everywhere.

There is a name for this kind of sales tactic, and it is not called “lowering the digital divide,” but it is called “bait and switch.”

Add to that the millions of brochures that Comcast has printed for their public relations program about “internet essentials” and their virtually non-existent effort to really deliver the goods, and what do you have?  Well, there’s a name for that, too, and it’s called “deceptive advertising.”

Bizarrely, the FCC does not have a complaint form on their website for the inability to get access to internet or cable services, but they do have one for deceptive advertising.  Perhaps as the stack of those complaints rises higher and higher, both Comcast and the FCC will finally start taking seriously the need to finally walk the walk and talk the talk and begin to actually do what it takes to get internet to lower income families.

Workshops on subcontracting and nursing homes and community homes

Shreveport Local 100’s stewards and leaders organized themselves into three different workshops. One focused on schools and head start units, another looked at health care with nursing and community homes, and the last bit hard into contractors and subcontractors for sanitation and [...]]]>

Workshops on subcontracting and nursing homes and community homes

Shreveport Local 100’s stewards and leaders organized themselves into three different workshops. One focused on schools and head start units, another looked at health care with nursing and community homes, and the last bit hard into contractors and subcontractors for sanitation and janitorial workers. The results were inspiring and exciting. In the report backs one leader perhaps summed it up best by saying, “we have to think ‘outside the box.’”

The reason is simple enough to follow as well. Companies are “way out the box.” One problem stewards were unpacking focused on a unit where Local 100 had won an election in April 2009 for cleaners with a local, Dallas-based company at D/FW Airport Concourse D. After endless delays in bargaining including company delays around election objections, after six months of bargaining in which the company delayed and postponed one meeting after another, they walked away from the table in spring of 2010 with dueling NLRB charges. Another company won the bid in May 2010 and recognized the unions but within hours of coming to agreement with the union in August, they walked away from the contract. A third company is now bargaining with the union, and prospects are fair for a settlement, but the union has now had to also demand recognition with several additional companies that are subcontracting part of the work. The workers, those that have survived, are shell shocked. The giant public airport authority running one of the USA’s largest airports is involved in such a race to the bottom, that it is squeezing contractors and sweating workers without a moment’s hesitation. The Local 100 stewards understood that these problems require not just leadership, but virtually heroism!

The challenges in other areas where state reimbursement rates were critical in the new health care area or the impact of federal allocations for Head Start programs were also intense. One company where Local 100 has contracts in New Orleans and Lafayette and a new drive underway impacting 400 workers in Houston is in the middle of a takeover battle has units involving another 1000 or more workers in reach of the local, and is reducing all wages for its service workers to $7.25, the federal minimum, and eliminating benefits. Marshalling the resources and resolve to respond and meet both the existing and potential membership demand is huge.

One story led to another as conversation, laughter, and resolve seemed to echo across all parts of the Shreveport Central Trades and Labor building where we were meeting. No wonder, the call to “think outside box” was being taken up so enthusiastically. There seems to be no other way to move forward in these times.

The back story was straightforward.  A huge study under Project Star in Tennessee tracked 12,000 children in that state.  The study was trying to determine whether or not [...]]]> New Orleans I admit a hot headline on the front page of the New York Times about paying kindergarten teachers $320,000 per year absolutely caught my eye!

The back story was straightforward.  A huge study under Project Star in Tennessee tracked 12,000 children in that state.  The study was trying to determine whether or not class size effected a series of educational and life outcomes.  A bunch of Harvard economists analyzed the results and came up with some unexpected conclusions.  The main determining factor in significantly improving adult prospects for citizen wealth was whether or not the child had a good kindergarten experience.  If they did:  cha-ching!  By 27 years old they would be making another $100 per month, $1200 a year, and so forth.

The “money shot” in the article is below:

“Mr. Chetty and his colleagues — one of whom, Emmanuel Saez, recently won the prize for the top research economist under the age of 40 — estimate that a standout kindergarten teacher is worth about $320,000 a year. That’s the present value of the additional money that a full class of students can expect to earn over their careers. This estimate doesn’t take into account social gains, like better health and less crime.”

Since I’m obsessed (as we all should be!) with what it takes to create citizen wealth for lower income families, my first thought was simple.  If we now know what a kindergarten teacher might be worth, then what is a Head Start teacher worth for lower income families?!?

Admittedly, we have lots of horses in this race since Local 100 United Labor Unions represents Head Start teachers with several companies in Houston, Shreveport, and Little Rock, but if kindergarten teachers make that big a difference, logically it seems that early childhood education in programs like Head Start may be more powerful than we had imagined.

Study that, professors, and let’s see if we can’t make a difference for low-and-moderate income families!

And their beleaguered and underpaid teachers!!