Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog » saints http://chieforganizer.org Founder of ACORN, Chief Organizer at ACORN International, Author of Citizen Wealth, Global Grassroots and The Battle for the 9th Ward. Thu, 24 May 2012 15:27:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Just Cause: Saints Players and Union Should Challenge Penalties http://chieforganizer.org/2012/05/08/just-cause-saints-players-and-union-should-challenge-penalties/ http://chieforganizer.org/2012/05/08/just-cause-saints-players-and-union-should-challenge-penalties/#comments Tue, 08 May 2012 18:23:56 +0000 Mariehurt http://chieforganizer.org/?p=7014 Saints Player Jonathan Vilma

New Orleans    Ok, yes, I live in New Orleans, and by law, I’m a Saints fan, so it will be hard for some readers not to think I might be biased, but the Saints players who have been suspended for different periods from captain and linebacker Jonathan Vilma for the whole [...]]]>

Saints Player Jonathan Vilma

New Orleans    Ok, yes, I live in New Orleans, and by law, I’m a Saints fan, so it will be hard for some readers not to think I might be biased, but the Saints players who have been suspended for different periods from captain and linebacker Jonathan Vilma for the whole season to lesser penalties for others, are right to join with their union and challenge the NFL and these penalties.  Simply put, the heart of any collective bargaining agreement such as the one between the owners and the players and their union, the NFL Players Association when it comes to discipline has to be “just cause.”

Just cause means that no worker covered by the agreement can be disciplined for any reason other than just cause.  Furthermore, the final burden of proof in determining just cause always rests with the employer, not the union.  Published reports indicate that the NLF bosses investigated the “bounty” program where allegedly players and coaches put money in a pool to encourage opposing players to be hurt and taken out of the game.  When the NFLPA filed grievances on behalf of the players, the NLR refused to share the facts of the investigation or the so-called evidence justifying these suspensions with the players or their union.  In labor law that’s not only a contract violation worthy of arbitration, but also an unfair labor practice before the National Labor Relations Board.  The union always has the right to receive all available information and the files involving any disciplinary action which would take away a worker’s livelihood.  Any union steward at any organized workplace would immediately tell you that when the boss refuses to share any information that justifies a decision, they are going to be wrong on those grounds alone.

Why are the sports pages missing the boat on these grievances?

Simple answer:  sports writers are no longer cigar chewing, beer swilling working guys themselves represented by the Newspaper Guild, but folks who buy the management and owners’ story, hook, line, and sinker, so they don’t know the simplest truths about labor relations in sports.

Coach Sean Peyton and the other management types didn’t have a real choice.  When the head of the NFL said they were dirty, that was the end of the discussion.  They were management and agents of the owners, so end of story.  They could hire lawyers, but it was easier to buckle down and bear up.

With union workers it’s a different story.  Scott Fujita, now with another team, was categorical in his denial that he every participated in any action designed to hurt another player.  Others have also been clear.

The head of the NFL only cares about the how the whole mess looks, not whether or not he made the right call on the participation of individual workers and their involvement.  That’s why these running, tackling, football players have a union so they can fight for and force fairness, and make the employer, no matter how rich and powerful, prove their case based on “just cause,” not advertising dollars.

In fact it’s why all workers need a union, so people shouldn’t begrudge NFL players for having one and demanding a fair shake.

]]> http://chieforganizer.org/2012/05/08/just-cause-saints-players-and-union-should-challenge-penalties/feed/ 0 Dancing in the Streets of New Orleans http://chieforganizer.org/2010/02/08/dancing-in-the-streets-of-new-orleans/ http://chieforganizer.org/2010/02/08/dancing-in-the-streets-of-new-orleans/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:44:31 +0000 jstuart http://chieforganizer.org/?p=2757 New Orleans The fireworks starting going off during the last minute of play.  It was clear.  The impossible was now possible.  Hell had frozen over.  Snow was certain for July.  The Saints had won the Super Bowl!

Driving down the streets in the neighborhoods was hard.  There was too much dancing in the streets.  Second [...]]]> new-orleans-saints1New Orleans The fireworks starting going off during the last minute of play.  It was clear.  The impossible was now possible.  Hell had frozen over.  Snow was certain for July.  The Saints had won the Super Bowl!

Driving down the streets in the neighborhoods was hard.  There was too much dancing in the streets.  Second lines had broken out on Franklin Avenue, on St. Claude, and god knows what was happening in the Quarters.

Horns were honking everywhere.  Who dats were in the air.  Beer cans raised in salutes.

This was better than Mardi Gras.  Too many tourists then.

This was a down home celebration for a broken back city that was ready to cheer and say, “We’re back at ya!”

Who dat gonna beat da Saints?  Nobody in 2010!

We’re marching in!

]]> http://chieforganizer.org/2010/02/08/dancing-in-the-streets-of-new-orleans/feed/ 0 Who Dat, My Way, and John Denver http://chieforganizer.org/2010/02/07/who-dat-my-way-and-john-denver/ http://chieforganizer.org/2010/02/07/who-dat-my-way-and-john-denver/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:07:02 +0000 jstuart http://chieforganizer.org/?p=2754 New Orleans The first year of the Saints I was on one of my listless tours of college life.  I was on a streak with a couple of buddies in which the daily highlights were playing pool and watching the 8 PM movie of the night, and of course arguing about the Vietnam War.  [...]]]> somber_john_denverNew Orleans The first year of the Saints I was on one of my listless tours of college life.  I was on a streak with a couple of buddies in which the daily highlights were playing pool and watching the 8 PM movie of the night, and of course arguing about the Vietnam War.  Rooting for the hapless Saints in their first year was a painful, but pleasant diversion.  I was so proud of the fact that my newly claimed “hometown” of New Orleans had a big league, NFL team, that I carried the weight and scorn with pride.  Finally on the last game of the season to shut them all up, I made my first and only lifetime bet on a football game, plopping a buck down for the Saints against all comers.  Luckily for my broke ass there weren’t many willing to even bother and in one of life’s miracles, the Saints actually won their first game in the very twilight of that season, and I retained and replenished my lone soldier and retired that army.

There is something sweetly irrational about being a fan, even for something as meaningless in the “real” world as football.  I played football in schoolyards all my life and in high school until a clipping penalty on a block against me by an Archbishop Rummel tore out my knee, changing my life, and making me 4F in frequent draft physicals when I refused to do deep knee bends and thrust forward a dog eared letter from Ocshner Hospital saying I simply must have an operation, which I have steadfastly refused throughout all of these decades.  I’m the kind of ex-player, forced fan who has trouble living through the experience of watching the game.  With the Saints that has saved me from a lot of deadening pain over the years.  I will be as delirious as anyone if somehow the New Orleans team beats New Orleans native Peyton Manning and wins the Super Bowl.  I will also be shocked and surprised.  I have to live through a longer cultural shift.  The Saints, my Saints, are fighters, but they are not blessed by fate to be winners.  Somehow we usually find a way to lose.  This season has been the exception, but has it changed our genetic code?  Hmmm.  If the day comes when the Saints make winning routine and actually win a Super Bowl, then maybe I’ll be like my son, and be mad when they lose, rather than still surprised to see them win.

Have to keep perspective.  That’s the key.

Reading about “My Way” killings in the Philippines makes me think about all of this as well.  A great story in the Times by Norimitus Onishi talked about how dangerous it is for Sinatra’s standard to be sung in Philippine karaoke bars.  Falling out of tune can be a death warrant.

We grimace.  How could this be possible that so many would care so much about a song?

Then Onishi told the story of “a Thai man” who “killed eight of his neighbors in a rage after they sang John Denver’s ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads.’”

And, to tell the truth how many of us stopped as we read that with the sudden shock of recognition that there but by the grace of god go I.  How many times has the same thought crossed our mind?  In my case I would have to confess to a goodly number.

Who dat?

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