From the Building Bridges Blog:
250 UPS Workers Received Pink Slips; The Newark Schools Crisis
Two Hundred Fifty UPS Workers Received Pink Slips
featuring
Jairo Reyes, fired UPS worker
Letitia James, NYC Public Advocate
Tim Sylvester, President Local 802, IBT
United Parcel Services (“UPS”) workers, numerous elected officials and Teamsters Local 804 members in Queens delivered 100,000 petition signatures in support of the 250 drivers whose jobs are on the line. UPS has issued termination notices to the Teamster drivers for participating in a walkout and protest after the company fired a union activist in violation of a signed agreement. What began as a routine disciplinary matter has become a flashpoint for workers’ rights in New York City.
*************************
The Current Crisis in Newark Schools
featuring
Larry Hamm, Chairman, People's Organization for Progress, Newark, NJ
Newark is in the throes of a broadening community based resistance of parents, teachers and longtime city residents to draconian efforts to privatize Newark schools without the communities consent by the state imposed superintendent Cami Anderson. Anderson has proposed public school closings and job cuts, while advancing Charter schools. She wants charter chains in five troubled district schools that serve K-8 students. She has proposed charters take over management of the schools entirely. She is also establishing nine more “renew” schools, in which she will give principals the right to select their own teaching staffs. Larry Hamm analyzes the Anderson plan and what is needed to help preserve and fix Newark’s troubled public school system.