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Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Unions in the South
It's no secret that unions have faced especially difficult conditions in the South. That's why two recent stories showing signs of success for union efforts in the South caught my attention (or at least one story of success and one of hopefulness.
First is a new collective-bargaining agreement between Duke University and a unionized group of non-tenure-track faculty represented by SEUI. The faculty still need to vote on the agreement, but it looks to be very beneficial to them--significant pay increases and job security--and is expected to pass. Second is a recent election petition at a Mississippi Nissan plant. We've obviously been down this road before, but the demographics and conditions at the plant, particularly the large percentage of African-American workers, makes this a vote to watch. Of course, we've seen union support drop off significantly prior to elections, so we'll have to see what happens.
-Jeff Hirsch
July 12, 2017 in Labor and Employment News, Labor Law | Permalink | Comments (0)
Sunday, July 9, 2017
Macron's Plans for Labor
Many thanks to Dennis Nolan (South Carolina emeritus; NAA) for forwarding Sylvain Cypel, Macron's California Revolution, which has a detailed discussion of French President Emmanuel Macron's plans for French labor law. Here's an excerpt:
Continuing deindustrialization has shut millions of older employees out of the job market. And unemployment among the young is beating all records: at the end of April 2017, the number of officially registered jobseekers hit 5,836,000—the same number as in the United States, a country with five times France's population! For the past forty years, whether governed by the right or the left—or even during short periods of "cohabitation"—neither side has been able to curb unemployment.
[N]ew macroniste politicians closely follow their leader's core socioeconomic philosophy: that in today's world, the people who rise to the top, or at least stay afloat, are those who've succeeded in adapting to the relentless process of globalization and its technological disruptions. There will be less and less room for job security and more and more for people who have a capacity for innovation and adaptation. Gone are lifelong professional careers. Likewise gone are rigid job descriptions and fixed work schedules. In this, Macron once again embodies a very American way of thinking. And he believes that France has to catch up to the current reality of the labor force.
But the first real test of the new president's mandate will be the new labor law that he intends to issue as an executive order, before asking France's parliament to vote on it. Macron wants to move fast. He wants to take advantage of the "big bang" of his election and his opponents' stunned paralysis to abolish much of the existing French labor code, which, because of powerful labor unions, was designed to cater to the best-protected employees—especially those in heavy industry—and has long been skewed toward the interests of workers in general at the expense of greater flexibility and efficiency for private enterprise. Just how far does he mean to take this? Clearly, as far as he can.
The real question is whether Macron is ready to take on the unions or will seek to compromise with them. His approach to economic reform has been well known since his tenure as economics minister (2014–2016): a major deregulation of existing laws to allow employers to practice less "rigid" employment and hiring policies, including fewer restrictions on salaries and working conditions. These measures, he argues, are essential if there is to be a revival of the French job market. Employers, who are also asking for a freer hand in firing workers, claim these measures will bring a reduction in labor costs. The corollary to these ambitions, and the condition for their success, is a significant reduction of what remains of the unions' power, already enormously diminished. (Fifty years ago, 22 percent of all employees were union members, while that number is currently 7.7 percent, according to the OECD).
When Macron tried to put these reforms into effect as economics minister under François Hollande, he encountered very strong resistance from the unions and from the public itself. After a series of protest marches and demonstrations, the law had to be issued by Prime Minister Valls, through a procedure designed to avoid a parliamentary vote, which it seemed quite unlikely to pass. Today the basic problem is much the same. The unions are so hostile to reforming the labor market because, behind the apparent "change," it is possible to glimpse a policy that's been at work for a long time already. Ever since 1984, all governments, right and left, have worked tirelessly to shatter administrative and legal "rigidity" with respect to hiring and firing. And yet, France's steadily worsening joblessness has never been brought under control. Even worse, in France as in nearly all the rest of the Western world, inequality has become ever more deeply entrenched, in lockstep with the deterioration of middle-class purchasing power. It's not hard to imagine, therefore, that the unions might once again be the front line of resistance to still more radical measures to deregulate the labor market.
July 9, 2017 in International & Comparative L.E.L., Labor Law, Workplace Trends | Permalink | Comments (0)
Friday, June 23, 2017
The Conservative Case for Unions
Jonathan Rauch has written The Conservative Case for Unions in the Atlantic. Congratulations to Matt Dimick (Buffalo) for a prominent mention, and for Rauch's discussion of Dimick's work on the Ghent System. Here's an excerpt from the article:
All workers do not suffer equally from the decline of unions: In today's fragmented, hypercompetitive, and globalized workplace, high-powered professionals enjoy more autonomy and respect than ever. Less educated workers, by contrast, have lost agency and, in many cases, dignity. Edward Luce of the Financial Times puts the problem well in his new book, The Retreat of Western Liberalism: "In survey after survey, the biggest employee complaint is being treated with a lack of respect. Whether they work in an Amazon warehouse, serve fast food, or sit in a … customer-service cubicle, they feel diminished by how they are treated." That has implications not just for the well-being of workers, but for the health of capitalism and even of democracy.
In America, the modern conservative movement was founded on anticommunism and antiunionism. Senator Barry Goldwater ("Mr. Conservative") built his career bashing unions. President Ronald Reagan, although a former union leader himself, made his bones by breaking the air-traffic controllers' union. Just this past February, Republicans succeeded in their long push for a right-to-work law in Missouri. But the conservative war on unions is beginning to look like a Faustian bargain. If 2016 taught us anything, it was that miserable workers are angry voters, and angry voters are more than capable of lashing out against trade, immigration, free markets, and for that matter liberal democracy itself.
June 23, 2017 in Labor Law, Labor/Employment History, Workplace Trends | Permalink | Comments (0)
Saturday, June 17, 2017
Ware & Levinson on Arbitration Law
Congratulations to Steve Ware (Kansas) and Ariana Levinson (Louisville) on the publication of their new book Principles of Arbitration Law (Concise Hornbook Series, available July 2017). Here's the publisher's description:
The Concise Hornbook Principles of Arbitration Law is an authoritative and extensively cited treatise on arbitration. It thoroughly discusses general arbitration law―from federal preemption of state law to the formation, performance, and enforcement of arbitration agreements―and provides in-depth coverage of specialized law governing international arbitration and labor arbitration. The last few decades have witnessed the growth of a large body of legal doctrine―from statutes, judicial decisions, and other sources―focused on arbitration. This Concise Hornbook summarizes that body of law, so should be useful to lawyers and scholars researching arbitration law and to students learning about arbitration.
I haven't yet received a copy of the book, but know from reviewing the draft of the labor law chapter that it will be top-flight.
June 17, 2017 in Arbitration, Books, Labor Law, Scholarship | Permalink | Comments (0)
Sunday, June 11, 2017
New Center for Contemporary Labour Law (CCLL) Established in Tbilisi
The Center for Contemporary Labour Law (CCLL) is a new labor-focused Center directed by Professor Giorgi Amiranashvili of Tbilisi State University in Tbilisi, Georgia. The goals of CCLL include (1) educational and scientific research activities, (2) dialogue & collaboration with all actors in the labor field, (3) consultative activities, and (4) collaboration with foreign experts and institutions.
Founding members include Prof. Amiranashvili, Prof. Dr. Andrea Borroni (Italy); Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vakhtang Zaalishvili (Georgia); Ph.D. Candidate Tornike Kapanadze (Georgia). Other members include Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elena Sychenko (Russian Federation); Prof. Dr. Francesco Bacchini (Italy); Prof. Dr. Roberta Caragnano (Italy); Dr. Marco Seghesio (Italy); Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nicos Trimikliniotis (Cyprus); Prof. Rick Bales (U.S.).
CCLL has hosted several lectures at Tbilisi State, including:
- Prof. Dr. Andrea Borroni & Prof. Dr. Francesco Bacchini on "The position of Labour law in the private law system".
- Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elena Sychenko was held at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University on "The European Convention on Human Rights as a Source of Labour Law".
- Mr. Kari Tapiola, Special Advisor to the Director General of the International Labour Organization, on "The Role of International Labour Standards in strengthening Social Justice and Economic Efficiency".
June 11, 2017 in International & Comparative L.E.L., Labor Law | Permalink | Comments (1)
Sunday, May 21, 2017
Michael Green: Sleepless in Fort Worth
Michael Green has been burning the midnight scholarship oil recently. He has posted two articles to SSRN in the last month: The Audacity of Protecting Racist Speech under the National Labor Relations Act, forthcoming 2017 U. Chicago Legal Forum, and Can NFL Players Obtain Judicial Review of Arbitration Decisions on the Merits When a Typical Hourly Union Worker Cannot Obtain This Unusual Court Access?, forthcoming NYU J. Legislation and Public Policy. He also has a forthcoming paper in SMU Law Review on Racial Prejudice in ADR in the Workplace (SSRN post coming soon). Congrats, Michael!
May 21, 2017 in Arbitration, Employment Discrimination, Labor Law, Scholarship | Permalink | Comments (0)
Thursday, May 11, 2017
New NLRB Nominees?
Reports are out today of two probable nominees to the NLRB. According to Politico's Morning Report report, the president intends to nominate William Emanuel and Marvin Kaplan, and both are currently undergoing FBI background checks. Emanuel is an attorney at Littler Mendelson's L.A. office, while Kaplan has been working in the federal government, currently at the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission and earlier as Republican counsel for the House Education and the Workforce Committee. An interesting note is that Bill Seaton had been rumored to be on the shortlist and it's possible that having worked as a "union buster" may have worked against him (or not, no one's saying at this point).
-Jeff Hirsch
May 11, 2017 in Labor and Employment News, Labor Law | Permalink | Comments (0)
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Lofaso on Workers Rights and Natural Human Rights
Anne-Marie Lofaso (West Virginia) has just posted on SSRN her article, Workers Rights as Natural Human Rights, which is to be published in the University of Miami Law Review. The abstract:
We live in an increasingly polarized world: one summed up by President Clinton, "we're all in this together;" the other summed up by then-presidential candidate Trump, "I alone can fix it." These world views have implications for workers and how the future workplace is ordered. In this Article, I explore the idea that a natural human rights approach to workplace regulations will tend to favor the we'reall-in-this-together view, whereas the Lochnerian or neoliberal view tends to favor an individualistic world view.
The Article's six-step analytical approach starts with a historical analysis of labor law jurisprudence, concluding that U.S. labor laws must be filtered through a law-and-economic lens of U.S.-styled capitalism to predict the outcomes of legal disputes and to expose human rights infirmities inherent to that approach. In step two, I explore T.H. Marshall's account of citizenship, concluding that Marshall's rights-based rubric is too limited to fully explain workers' rights, which tend to cut across the full gamut of human rights. In step three, I expand upon Marshall's work to build a framework for evaluating workplace laws based on the worker as a citizen of the labor force who has human rights. I do this using two methodologies: (1) comparative legal analysis between U.S. law and international human rights standards; and (2) jurisprudential analysis of fundamental values within a rights-based framework. In step four, I modify John Rawls's famous thought experiment to include a veil of empathy. In that modified experiment, I conclude that participants in the original position behind a veil of empathy would generate values underlying human rights, namely autonomy (to become part author of one's work life) and dignity (to be treated as a person always as an end and never merely as a means). In step five, I apply this human rights approach to show that workers' and employers' interests conflict at the interests-level and, more fundamentally, at the values-level. I conclude that these conflicts are primarily over the distribution of that which labor and capital create. This distributional question is fundamental a question of moral and political justice, which will and does have real political consequences. In step six, I set forth a path along which this research project should explore.
Check it out!
-Jeff Hirsch
April 27, 2017 in Labor and Employment News, Labor Law, Scholarship | Permalink | Comments (0)
Friday, April 7, 2017
Doorey's New Book: The Law of Work
Congratulations to David Doorey (York-Osgoode) on the publication of his new book The Law of Work: Complete Edition (Emond Publishing 2017). Here's a brief description from David:
The book is the first Canadian text to explore in depth all three regimes of work law, including Common Law, Regulatory Law, and Collective Bargaining Law and it emphasizes the interaction between the three regimes. For those interested in understanding Canadian work law, this is the book. Also, you might be interested in knowing that the book was written to be accessible to non-lawyers, including the thousands of business, HRM, industrial relations, labour studies students learning work law in Canada. I wrote it because I frequently teach business students and there was no book in Canada that explained the law of work in a sophisticated, contextual manner but that doesn't also assume the readers have already studied law for a year or two. Finally, the book also extends the subject matter beyond most labor law texts, by including chapters on subjects such as work and intellectual property law, work and privacy law, trade law, immigration law, and bankruptcy law.
April 7, 2017 in Book Club, Employment Common Law, International & Comparative L.E.L., Labor Law, Scholarship | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
Herbert on the History of Higher Ed Collective Bargaining
Bill Herbert (Hunter College) recently did an interview with Radio Higher Ed: "A Primer on Unionization and Collective Bargaining in U.S. higher Education Institutions." According to the summary:
This primer on collective bargaining in higher education traces historical developments of unionization in public and private institutions as well as among tenure track, non-tenure-track faulty and graduate students. In the last five years, unionization activity has increased over 25% in the private sector, mostly in adjunct faculty units. While institutions can participate in voluntary collective bargaining activities, agreements in a formal collective bargaining context include clear rules applicable to the entire bargaining unit and enforcement mechanisms. The emergence of micro bargaining units (department level activity), and specifics of the unionization process are discussed. Specific unions that work with higher education institutions are named. Mandatory subjects in the collective bargaining process include salary, hours, healthcare, pension, professional development grievance, antidiscrimination, academic freedom, tenure, use of facilities, appointment and reappointment details, leaves, holidays, evaluations, personnel files, disciplinary actions, research and fellowship monies. Institutions may resist unionization due to flexibility limitations, institutional concept of shared governance and fiscal implications that may result from compensation negotiations. It is likely that unionization will continue to increase for non-tenure track faculty in the private sector. Regularity of access to faculty by students may be aided by collective bargaining.
Check it out!
-Jeff Hirsch
March 28, 2017 in Labor and Employment News, Labor Law, Public Employment Law, Union News | Permalink | Comments (0)
Monday, March 27, 2017
Bales on Resurrecting Labor
Our own Rick Bales (Ohio Northern) has just posted on SSRN his new article, Resurrecting Labor, which will be published int he Maryland Law Review. The abstract:
Participation in American labor unions have changed radically, albeit incrementally, over the last fifty years. Private-sector union density has declined five-fold, whereas public-sector density has increased almost as significantly. Today, unions rarely strike and in much of the country they are politically impotent. As traditional manufacturing declines and is replaced by on-demand work, unions risk becoming a historical footnote.
This article ties the decline in union density and power to macroeconomic trends that are highly troubling in an advanced democracy, such as rising income inequality and the failure of wage growth to keep pace with GDP growth. It next reviews the traditional prescriptions that labor scholars have advocated to reverse labor's decline. Finally, it proposes three new radical fixes: authorizing criminal prosecution for willful violations of labor law, expanding labor protections to on-demand workers, and reversing the legal presumption that workers are not represented by a union unless they affirmatively opt in.
Rick has some interesting recommendations in the article, so definitely worth checking out.
-Jeff Hirsch
March 27, 2017 in Labor and Employment News, Labor Law, Scholarship | Permalink | Comments (0)
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Supreme Court Rules Against NLRB in Vacancies Act Case
Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled (6-2) in NLRB v. SW General. The Court held that once President Obama nominated Lafe Solomon to be the NLRB's General Counsel, he could no longer serve in his current capacity as Acting General Counsel. This is because of a provision in the Federal Vacancies Act which says that someone can only serve in an acting capacity for a covered position if they served as first assistant to that position for at least 90 days in the previous year. Because Solomon was the Acting GC--not its first assistant--when nominated, he could not continue as Acting GC.
The two dissenters (Sotomayor & Ginsburg) would have held that this provision applies only to individuals who are first appointed as acting officials--not, as was the case with Solomon, those who were already acting once nominated. In addition to a textualist argument, they stressed historical examples similar to what happened with Solomon as well as the history of the Federal Vacancies Act, which was prompted by President Clinton's nomination of Bill Lan Lee to the DOJ's Department of Civil Rights. Scotusblog has a an informative description of the case.
Under the decision, once the President nominated Solomon, he became ineligible to serve as Acting GC. This begs the larger question: what to do about all of his actions during that time (Jan. 5, 2011-Nov. 4, 2013)? Unless I missed it in the decision, the Court doesn't say anything about the practical consequences of its decision. As a result, its probably best to consult the D.C. Circuit decision, which the Court affirmed. That case vacated an unfair labor practice charge. But what of all of the other functions of the GC's office? For instance the certification of elections? Theoretically, this could be an issue for a host of other actions. The D.C. Circuit noted that the NLRB could have, but didn't, argue that the ULP in SW General was made by a regional director acting upon a delegation of authority from Solomon. If challenged, I would expect the NLRB to raise that argument, at least with regard to non-ULP cases, and maybe those too. But the NLRB may not have to rely solely on this argument. At the end of the D.C. Circuit's decision, it emphasized what it saw as an important limiting feature of its decision:
Finally, we emphasize the narrowness of our decision. We hold that the former Acting General Counsel of the NLRB, Lafe Solomon, served in violation of the FVRA from January 5, 2011 to November 4, 2013. But this case is not Son of Noel Canning and we do not expect it to retroactively undermine a host of NLRB decisions. We address the FVRA objection in this case because the petitioner raised the issue in its exceptions to the ALJ decision as a defense to an ongoing enforcement proceeding. We doubt that an employer that failed to timely raise an FVRA objection—regardless whether enforcement proceedings are ongoing or concluded—will enjoy the same success. See 29 U.S.C. § 160(e); Andrade, 729 F.2d at 1499.
This caveat notwithstanding, I do expect parties to raise SW General to try to vacate orders. I think the D.C. Circuit is right that those arguments should not prevail, but I anticipate some extra work for the NLRB to litigate this issue for a while. Also, I'm curious how many parties raised an FVRA argument--any readers have any insight on this?
-Jeff Hirsch
March 22, 2017 in Labor and Employment News, Labor Law | Permalink | Comments (1)
Friday, March 17, 2017
Hirsch & Seiner: Unions Deserve a Place in the Uber Economy
Jeff Hirsch (North Carolina) and Joe Seiner (South Carolina) have just posted on SSRN their extraordinarily timely article A Modern Union for the Modern Economy, ___ Fordham Law Review ___(forthcoming 2018) Here's the abstract:
Membership in traditional unions has steeply declined over the past two decades. As the White House and Congress are now completely Republican controlled, there promises to be no reversal of this trend in the near future. In the face of this rejection of traditional bargaining efforts, several attempts have been made to create alternative "quasi-union" or "alt-labor" relationships between workers and employers. These arrangements represent a creative approach by workers to have their voices heard in a collective manner, though still falling far short of the traditional protections afforded by employment and labor law statutes.
This Article critiques one such high-profile, quasi-union effort in the technology sector—the Uber Guild. While the Guild does not provide any of the traditional bargaining protections found in the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), it offers Uber drivers some input over the terms and conditions under which they work. Falling somewhere between employment-at-will and unionization protected under the NLRA, the Uber Guild is a creative attempt to help both workers and the company to better understand how they can improve the working relationship.
This Article navigates the Uber Guild and other nontraditional efforts that promise a collective voice for workers in the face of a precipitous decline in union membership. Closely examining the implications of these existing quasi-union relationships, this Article explores how workers in the technology sector face unique challenges under workplace laws. We argue that these workers are particularly well situated to benefit from a nontraditional union model and explain what that model should look like. While there can be no doubt that a traditional union protected by the NLRA is the optimal bargaining arrangement, we must consider the enormous challenges workers in the technology sector face in obtaining these protections. A modern union is needed for the modern economy.
March 17, 2017 in Labor Law, Scholarship, Workplace Trends | Permalink | Comments (0)
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Garden in The Atlantic on Trump and Unions
Charlotte Garden (Seattle U.) has just published in The Atlantic Unions Are Wondering: Resist or Assist? Congrats to Charlotte for taking this topic -- which we all know is important -- to a wider audience (or, as she said in a Facebook post: "in which I convinced The Atlantic to let me write about NLRA Section 8(b)(4) for them"). Here's an excerpt:
The first month of the Trump administration was mostly a discouraging one for labor unions. Since taking office, the president has frozen federal hiring (though he did pledge to hire 15,000 border patrol agents) and restated his support for a national "right to work" law that would disrupt unions' funding mechanisms. He also sought the confirmation of Andy Puzder, a fast-food CEO who's not fond of minimum-wage or overtime rules, to head the Department of Labor, only to see him withdraw amid public outcry.
Still, some within the labor movement have cheered Trump's use of the presidential bully pulpit to harangue employers who send jobs overseas, and voiced optimism about Trump's stated desire to "buy American and hire American."
This has left many labor unions with a decision about how best to serve their members going forward: Should they try to get along with Trump, in the hope that they will be able to help guide his efforts to court working-class voters? Or should they take to the streets alongside progressives calling for workplace-based actions, like the recent nationwide strikes by women and by immigrants?
March 15, 2017 in Labor Law, Workplace Trends | Permalink | Comments (1)
Sunday, February 26, 2017
Stone: Unions in the Gig Economy
Kathy Stone (UCLA) has just published Unions in the Precarious Economy:
How collective bargaining can help gig and on-demand workers (American Prospect, 2/21/17). In it, she discusses various types of precarious workers, including workers in the retail, restaurant, and hospitality industries, as well as workers who perform "gigs" as independent contractors for internet platform companies. She gives examples to show how various types of precarious workers can benefit from forming unions and bargaining collectively. Here's an excerpt:
The various forms of on-demand work tend to defeat the protections of our system of labor regulation, which assumes that employees have regular payroll employment. Seemingly, unions are also not much help, since they, too, are based on the assumption of regular jobs. But if we dig a little deeper, there is a long history of unions protecting their members from employers' efforts to force workers to bear all the risks and costs of fluctuating demand. This is true in industries as varied as construction, airlines, hotels, and entertainment.
If the Trump administration changes rules and laws to weaken traditional unions—which it is almost certain to do—these new strategies become that much more important. Some of these are unions that organize and collectively bargain under the terms of the National Labor Relations Board. But others, in the world of so-called alt-labor, use worker centers, associations, and other worker-empowerment strategies that are not technically unions. If the Trump administration changes rules and laws to weaken traditional unions—which it is almost certain to do—these new strategies become that much more important.
February 26, 2017 in Labor Law, Workplace Trends | Permalink | Comments (0)
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Dimick on Other Avenues Unions Can Serve their Members (and Encourage Membership)
Many thanks to Matthew Dimick for contributing this guest post:
A few weeks ago, OnLabor.org featured a post I wrote about the Ghent system and progressive federalism. At the end of that post, I referred to "other avenues for Ghent-type experiments" beyond the main one discussed in the article, which would require changes in the current federal-state cooperative system of unemployment insurance. Mentioning these "other avenues" prompted several queries from readers, and I will use this opportunity here at the Workplace Prof Blog to talk about those.
First, some background. To remind readers, the Ghent system is a form of union-administered (but government paid-for) unemployment insurance that has a substantial, positive impact on the rate of union membership in the countries that have it. What makes the Ghent system a prospect for union revitalization in the US is the system of unemployment insurance we have here, which basically incentivizes states to adopt, finance, and administer their own unemployment-insurance systems subject to federal guidelines and oversight by the Secretary of Labor. It also helps that states are given more latitude under federal labor law preemption when it comes to the design and administration of unemployment insurance.
I originally wrote about the Ghent system for a law review article in 2012, after Democrats had lost control of Congress, which had effectively ended any prospect of passage for the Employee Free Choice Act. Yet as long as a Democrat remained in the White House, a reform like the Ghent system at the state level didn't need approval from a Republican Congress. I doubt Obama's tenure is the last we will see of divided government, so I still think it is worth thinking about a progressive-federalist reform like the Ghent system. Yet since a Trump administration probably forestalls that avenue for now, it is also worth dwelling on "other avenues," as I suggested in my other post.
One alternative is take a purely private route to a Ghent system. Despite its weakness in terms of union density, the US labor movement still has vast resources and expertise gained through administering health and pension funds. Can these resources be leveraged to create a subsidized and supplemental system of unemployment insurance for workers? Without the government subsidy and because it wouldn't be a worker's exclusive source of unemployment insurance, this proposal certainly wouldn't have the impact of a full-blooded Ghent system. Yet historically, unions have filled this function, and it played an important part in the origins of the Ghent system, which was created when a municipal government came to the rescue of a union unemployment insurance fund depleted by an economic downturn.
A private option need not supply unemployment insurance. The Freelancers Union has had notable success in providing health, dental, life, and disability insurance to workers who join the union. The main difference between the Freelancers Union and a traditional labor union is that the former does not collectively bargain. It is understandable why the Freelancers Union has made this choice. At the same time, a labor organization that combined both mutual aid and bargaining functions is a powerful ideal.
Moving even further from the insurance realm, union-administered and employer- or government-funded job training also seems like a possibility. Workforce development is a goal the business community can get behind. And unions already have a template in the highly successful Culinary Academy of Las Vegas, a consortium of local hotel casinos and unions that provides job training to union members. Working closely with the union's hiring hall, the CHA does many things the Ghent system does in terms of cultivating union membership.
In short, there are indeed many other avenues available for experimenting with Ghent-type institutions that worker advocates should consider—even with a Trump in the White House.
February 23, 2017 in Labor Law | Permalink | Comments (0)
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Getman: Let's Fix Linn
Jack Getman (Texas) wrote a guest post yesterday over at PrawfsBlawg on The Continuing Mischief of the Linn Case. I am re-posting it here with Jack's permission:
In September of last year, a Texas jury, on the basis of erroneous instructions from the judge, ordered an SEIU local union of janitorial workers to pay $5.3 million in damages to a cleaning company called Professional Janitorial Services ("PJS"). This union-destroying order was based on statements made years ago as part of the Houston Justice for Janitors campaign, a campaign that succeeded, against enormous odds, in winning contracts for building cleaners in a notably hostile jurisdiction.
The implications of the verdict are devastating. Local unions of low-wage employees cannot pay multi-million dollar jury verdicts and continue to function (as evidenced by the recent bankruptcy filing of the union defendant in the PJS case), If permitted to stand the Houston verdict will inevitably have a chilling effect on labor speech during organizing campaigns. And unions must be able to organize effectively' during these trying times, if the labor movement is to survive.
Defamation verdicts in state courts like that against the Houston janitors call for a long-overdue reexamination of the Supreme Court's unfortunate decision in Linn v. Plant Guard Workers, 383 US 53 (1966). The Court in Linn upheld by a five to four vote the exercise of state jurisdiction in a libel suit arising from a union organizing drive. Justice Clark, who wrote the majority opinion, insisted that such jurisdiction would not pose a threat to a union's right of speech so long as state jurisdiction was "limited to redressing libel issued with knowledge of its falsity, or with reckless disregard of whether it was true of false." Although he recognized the importance of a broad right of speech generally in labor disputes, Justice Clark concluded that where malice was found 'the exercise of state jurisdiction … would be a 'merely peripheral concern of the Labor Management Relations Act.'"
Four justices dissented. They pointed out that the Courts standard was vague and could easily be interpreted to cover actions intended to be protected by the National Labor Relations Act by simply pleading that the offending statements were made with malice. And they predicted accurately that the majority opinion 'both underestimates the damage libel suits may inflict on the equilibrium, and overestimates the effectiveness of the restraint which will result from superimposed requirements of malice and special damages.'
The recent PJS verdict illustrates the wisdom of the dissenting justices and the danger to unions implicit in state court defamation suits arising from union organizing efforts. The statements (circulated in fliers and other campaign materials were directed at the legal rights of workers . They described allegations of actual PJS employees in a then-pending Fair Labor Standards Act case and in unfair labor practice proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board. The ultimate goal of the union's statements and actions was not to inflict economic harm on PJS but to establish a collective bargaining relationship with it – a goal promoted by Section 2 of the NLRA. Far from being evidence of malice were the very sort of speech protected by the US Constitution and Section 7 of the NLRA. The trial judge failed to analyze the contested speech in terms of the language or policy of either the NLRA or the US Constitution and instead encouraged the jury to find defamation on the basis of irrelevant material. For example:
- The trial court allowed the company's lawyers (over union objection) to rest the bulk of their case on two completely irrelevant and prejudicial pieces of evidence that should never have been admitted—an outdated SEIU "campaign manual" that was not in effect during the Houston campaign and that no one involved in the Houston campaign had ever seen, and an unrelated lawsuit by a different employer in a different jurisdiction alleging different claims against SEIU arising out of a different campaign that had not even begun as of 2006.
- The trial court presented the jury not the actual union flyers and statements at issue in the case but, instead, abbreviated and inaccurate summaries of those materials written by the court itself. Thus, an accurate union statements that "A new lawsuit filed on behalf of current and former employees of [PJS] charges that the company engaged in unlawful business practices and violated federal law" was reformulated in the judge's question to the jury "Did the SEIU Local 5 disparage the business of PJS by publishing that PJS systematically failed to pay its employees for all hours worked?"
Similar errors abound. It is difficult to imagine a verdict that more blatantly overrides basic employee rights and traditional Constitutional policies. The wisdom of the dissenting Linn Justices was once more illustrated. It is time to either overrule the Linn decision or to provide for more careful regulation of state court defamation in cases arising from union organizing campaigns.
Fortunately, the union has indicated it will appeal and raise many of the issues identified above. One hopes that an appellate court will stand up for free speech and the long recognized and well-established rights of workers.
February 22, 2017 in Labor Law | Permalink | Comments (0)
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Herbert on Higher Education Unionization
Bill Herbert (Hunter College) has posted on SSRN his article, The Winds of Changes Shift: An Analysis of Recent Growth in Bargaining Units and Representation Efforts in Higher Education, which is being published in the Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy. The abstract:
This article analyzes data accumulated during the first three quarters of 2016 regarding completed and pending questions of representation involving faculty and student employees in higher education. It is part of a larger and continuing National Center research project that tracks faculty and graduate student employee unionization growth and representation efforts at private and public institutions of higher learning since January 1, 2013.
The data presented in this article demonstrates that the rate of newly certified units at private colleges and universities since January 1, 2016 far outpaces new units in the public sector. There has been a 25.9% increase in certified private sector faculty units over the number of private sector units identified by the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions in 2012, while the increase in the public sector has been 2.1%. The largest number of newly certified units involves non-tenure track faculty at private non-profit institutions. The second largest group of new units in higher education involves tenured and tenure-track faculty at public institutions. The average final election tallies demonstrate strong support for unionization among higher education faculty: 72.8% among private sector tenured/tenure-track and contingent faculty, and 73.3% among public sector tenure-track and contingent faculty.
The article demonstrates that unionization efforts by private sector tenured and tenure-track faculty and faculty continue to be adversely impacted by two judicially-created doctrines, despite modifications made to the applicable standards in a 2014 National Labor Relations Board decision. It also examines pending and completed unionization efforts by graduate and research assistants in light of the recent NLRB decision finding that private sector graduate student employees are entitled to the associational rights guaranteed under federal labor law.
Among other things, the article highlights some of the unique characteristics of collective-bargaining in higher education. Of course, a new Board may shift some of these trends by, for example, flipping again on the question of graduate students' status as employees.
-Jeff Hirsch
January 28, 2017 in Labor Law, Scholarship | Permalink | Comments (0)
Friday, January 27, 2017
A Pro-Labor Trump Board?
Unlikely, but Charlie Morris (SMU emeritus) engages in some thoughtful, self-described wishful thinking. His essay over at onlabor is How President Trump Could Surprise with Improvement for the NLRB and a Boost for the Middle Class. Here's an excerpt:
Considering that [President Trump] won his election with the critical votes of many union men in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, what position will he likely take toward organized labor? Probably no one, including Trump himself, knows the precise answer to that question, or whether he will continue or worsen the GOP's endemic negative attitude toward unions. My own view of what he might do—which is colored by my hope as to what I think he should do—stems from his previous labor-relations experience and public statements..., plus my tentative consideration and appraisal of his basic nature—which seems to be the same as President Obama's, who said "I don't think he is ideological. Ultimately he is pragmatic." .... I would therefore like to believe that he will apply [such pragmatism] to matters involving labor-relations, especially since he claims to "have great relationships with unions" and has expressed his disdain for so many major policies of the Republican establishment—but in truth I will be totally surprised if that happens. If, however, Trump should prove to be a non-ideological President who will oppose[] key elements of the establishment—though his announcements of major appointments to date suggest otherwise—he should be amenable to allowing the NLRB to function according to its true statutory policy rather than treating it in the manner of his Republican predecessors, all of whom appointed critical numbers of Board Members and NLRB General Counsels who were opposed to the NLRA's basic policy of favoring collective bargaining, a practice that contributed substantially to the Board's failure to adequately enforce the Act.
January 27, 2017 in Beltway Developments, Labor Law | Permalink | Comments (0)
Miscimarra New NLRB Chair
Yesterday, the NLRB announced that the president has appointed NLRB Member Philip Miscimarra as chairman. According to the announcement:
"It is an honor to be named NLRB Acting Chairman by the President," Miscimarra said. "I remain committed to the task that Congress has assigned to the Board, which is to foster stability and to apply the National Labor Relations Act in an even-handed manner that serves the interests of employees, employers and unions throughout the country."
Miscimarra also recognized former Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce for his service on the Board. Pearce will continue as a Board Member in a term expiring on August 27, 2018 and has served as a Board Member since 2010 including Chairman since 2011. The Board also currently includes Board Member Lauren McFerran, whose term expires on December 16, 2019. Two Board Member seats are currently vacant.
Miscimarra has served as a Board Member since August 7, 2013. He was nominated by President Obama on April 9, 2013, and he was approved unanimously by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on May 22, 2013. He was confirmed by the Senate on July 30, 2013, and his current term expires on December 16, 2017.
Before joining the Board, Acting Chairman Miscimarra was a Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School in the Wharton Center for Human Resources, and a labor and employment law partner with Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP in Chicago. He also previously worked as a labor and employment attorney with Seyfarth Shaw LLP, Murphy Smith & Polk PC (now the Chicago office of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, PC), and Reed Smith Shaw & McClay (now Reed Smith LLP).
Miscimarra received his Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School; a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School; and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Duquesne University.
I got a chance to meet Chairman Miscimarra at a conference a couple of years ago. Although we don't always agree on the issues, I thought he was very thoughtful and had some useful insights from his time in practice.
-Jeff Hirsch
January 27, 2017 in Labor and Employment News, Labor Law | Permalink | Comments (0)


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Yesterday I:
a) finished incorporating Kate R's suggestions
b) read over my cp's comments on my hero and let them start percolating
sooo, today, I have to work on the opening again. Funny how I think all it's going to take is to add a couple of little things - but little things are so important. Ya know?
We also went for a walk yesterday - it was cool, but the brisk air does make you walk faster!!
And thanks, everyone, for the continued support. Having a cheering section is great :-)
Currently Reading: Last Chance Saloon
Link of the Day: FDin30D FAQ - Page 3
Currently coming from my speakers : All My Life - Aaron Neville; Linda Ronstadt - Cry Like a Rainstorm - Howl Like the Wind

subset: commoncrawl


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Sela Anamarija stool, 2017-06-20 15:05:15.
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text: I'm renewing my 6-pac license again and have a question about the Small Vessel Sea service form. The last time I renewed it the C.G did not believe my sea time.(Too much time) I did prove it with gas records and other things. But what a hassle that was. If you have dealt with this form please drop me a P.M if you have a few minutes I have a few questions about working hours.


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She is dragged down to the basement and her master tears her clothes off as she struggles. He pulls her over to the bathtub and dunks her head under water. She coughs and spits up water each time he lets her up for a little bit of air.
- amadeus
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Luxadm -e Offline Generates Error: Can't Acquire "/devices/scsi_vhci/ssd@...:c,raw": Bad File Number
Last updated on DECEMBER 06, 2015
Applies to:SPARC T4-1 - Version All Versions to All Versions [Release All Releases]
Information in this document applies to any platform.
luxadm -e offline fails with Bad file number message:
# luxadm -e offline /dev/rdsk/c0t6006016074E0280079CF804C3609E511d0s2
Error: can't acquire "/devices/scsi_vhci/ssd@g6006016074e0280079cf804c3609e511:c,raw": Bad file number
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What do you get for being a part? Every month Nielsen Digital Voice members can win up to $1,000. Every month, more than 400 people win, so it's a pretty good chance you could get paid, just for already browsing the Internet! What an awesome deal!
Neilsen has said that the signup period won't last long so go here to get registered today!


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ps: we hold the identical recipe box! find it irresistible… and congrats on your numerous followers! that's so amazing!
You need to do know they have thousands and A huge number of college students to take care of?? They're not going to do sh!t Because some random dude tells that some dude on an internet based forum says he pays Other people to complete his assignment lol.
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Create your personal enthusiasm. When you're much more determined, you will find you have got A better time keeping concentrated. Of course, if your Trainer and your class cannot or will not make you much more enthusiastic, you'll need to work to generate that determination for yourself. This can be annoying nevertheless it'll be worthwhile: you will get the many benefits of schooling, no matter whether individuals want to help you together or not. There are numerous approaches to create yourself motivated and considering Understanding and what you do will rely upon who you happen to be.
He is also on Omega 3's, B-12, b-6, melatonin (for rest) and attentive youngster. We had to change to your Omega 3 capsule for the bit so I'm assuming that's in which this dip is coming from but we must take care of it. He hasnt begun ABA therapy still but we meet up with together with her up coming 7 days. What others issues am i able to do to assist him get himself back in Check out? Non-medication......
• Nameless said… He's not gonna want to do improved if All people is constantly damaging with him.Its like staying thrown in a very snake pit working day in and day out.Need to be concentrating on the good building him up as an alternative to tearing him down with prolonged homework which is to Substantially and far too extended and punishment.
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Would you try another book from Theodore Roosevelt Malloch and/or Jeff Cummings?
Theo no way. Jeff Cummings is the only reason I made it half way through.
What was most disappointing about Theodore Roosevelt Malloch's story?
The lack of case studies or application of the 4 P's to real business
Any additional comments?
I was expecting some real insight to the behemoth story behind Cargil. What I got was was a lecture from my pasture on ethics and how business has changed with the newer generations. To me this was a book resistant to change.


text: A week ago I picked up a swarm. Today the property owner called and said that there was still group of bees about the size of your fist hangin on the spot from which the swarm was picked up last week...straglers that were out when I took the swarm...only to return to find their sister gone! Being a week later, I didn't want to just dump them into the hive with the other bee's. So...I took out a couple of frames from the hive...shook them off onto a sheet in front of the hive...them shook the little swarm from today on the sheet with them. They all walked in together...slick as a whistle! Last year I tried this, but forgot to shake a few frames first...disasterous result...fighting...and lots of dead bees. What a different a few shakes makes when combining a swarm with a hive! Great way to boost a week hive, in my opinion.


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Your Local DIY Band Probably Isn't Ready To Tour (Yet)
Bryne Yancey
Posted on July 9, 2014
July 9, 2014
by Brandon Gepfer
Being in a band costs money but honestly, who other than people in bands really care? Do you ever go to a show that has a draw of maybe ten people and really just feel bad for the band? Here these musicians are, up on the stage (or floor) expressing themselves in front of a handful of folks that really don't give a shit. Most of the crowd attended because their friend, the promoter guilted them into it after a series of desperate Facebook posts. The show ends, the poor band pack up their gear and the promoter hands them $20 from the door. Some weird street punk gives them cigarettes and some buttons to soften the blow. Then it's over, time to drive five hours for the next show.
No problem, dude. We just wanted to play a show!
This has happened to me. I've played shows that just sucked, I get handed a couple of bucks and I fake a smile and say thanks. The promoter shrugs and says, "You're a DIY band, you understand," and as much as I want to speak the truth, I say, "No problem, dude. We just wanted to play a show!" I was angry and I thought how ridiculous some promoters are for not promoting their shows but, is it really entirely the fault of the promoter? Does the band bear any responsibility? I think so. My band wasn't ready to tour straight off a demo. We weren't ready to crisscross the country in a tin can. I find that to be true of most bands that send me an email to play my town.
Tour less. Grow more.
It's a rite of passage to play a bunch of terrible shows and then gradually get better. Trust me, there are plenty of terrible shows to be had. Some of the 'hype' bands you think 'blew up' still play shows to 20 unimpressed teens. I think bands should try something new: Tour less and let your local scene grow. Be selective about hosting shows with out of town bands; try not to drain your local spot of interest. As cool as it might sound, a show every night isn't *that* cool. No one can keep up with the next random group coming through; who honestly has $5-$10 to spend every night on going to a show. The more you have, the less invested people become. It isn't special anymore.
I don't want to stop people from living their dreams; I just want to give a little dose of reality. If you only have a demo and it isn't pressed on a physical format (CD-R doesn't count), I really don't want to book your band. I have no interest in wasting my time if you can't even take the time to invest in your own band. Seriously, you are detracting from bands who are actually ready to tour. There is no shame in simply playing local shows and honing your skills, and there is certainly no shame in building a positive scene and show environment in your town or city. Book bands that are growing. Promote the shows, get your band to play and make friends ("network" for the industry types). When the time is right and your band has played out locally and regionally (and hopefully there's been some demand out of your area that warrants this) then try your hand at booking a tour! No one likes making a couple dollars at a show. Bands can't put 'I tried my best' in a gas tank. The promoter feels bad because no one came, and anyone that did come to the show is embarrassed that 'you drove all the way from (insert your city here) to play this?' No one likes failing. So, try something new and actually try! Being in a DIY band or any band isn't just about touring, it's about creating and supporting a community. So, start with your own first.
Brandon Gepfer fronts Placeholder, whose most recent LP I Don't Need Forgiveness was released in Sept. 2013 by Black Numbers. Gepfer also books DIY punk shows in and around Lancaster, Pa., and swears he isn't a pessimist.


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My country, tis of thee . . .
It's that time again! This is the day when I listen to NPR's reading of the Declaration of Independence and get all misty-eyed. Then I go fight some English. Only I might skip that part this year, since I'm decidedly outnumbered and would probably not do well. But everyone should take a listen to this. It's only the middle that's all about how King George is mean. And that was just for the purpose of rhetoric--it was easier to pick King George as the target than, say, Parliament. Because then all the American hayseeds would have been all, "Parla-what? Where's mah gun?" The beginning and the end are fabulous.
I've been invited to a 4th of July BBQ! It's with the family of the American guy I mentioned in the Father's Day post. Also the American missionaries in the ward are invited. His sister shipped this year's Old Navy flag shirts to England and the little girls have been waiting for weeks to wear them. I'll have to get some pictures. If I had been smart I would have found a copy of National Treasure to watch as well--but I'm not always thinking ahead. I'm sure at home TNT is probably airing another 24-hour marathon of The Patriot, so that's probably what my family will be doing--that and eating amazing grilled foods.
Oh! And this is Coolboy's last 4th of July for the next little bit, since he's leaving in less that 24 hours for his mission to the Dominican Republic. This is funny to me, because in my mind he's just barely made the jump from being 8 to being 16, so this whole being-19-and-going-on-a-mission thing has taken me by surprise. I'm going to miss that kid.
One last thing: Michael Turback wrote a book called More Than a Month of Sundaes, and NPR has published the list he made of the some of the best sundaes in all 50 states. And yes, Coney's is in there! You can see the list here (it's a PDF file). If anyone's ever had any of these, you should comment and tell me what you thought!
[Editor's note: So it turns out that Coolboy is leaving right now for the airport so I had to call fast and say goodbye. I hate it when I get my times wrong. Now I'm predicting that Dad will spend the day watching The Patriot and grilling animal flesh and Mom will spend the day crying about her baby leaving.]


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i just ordered $100 worth of crafts supplies!
1 guillotine (for cutting paper)
2 sets of colored pencils
and 2 books by Neil Postman (incl. Amusing Ourselves To Death)
how does the last relate to crafting, you ask? b/c i associate creating things with my hands with being a radical member of society and being an activist and being in college, and reading any critique of our teevee-saturated culture will, without fail, make me feel like all of those things again, and so, is rocket fuel for radical crafting!
on my projects list:
embossed bird mobiles, pictures of animals with hipster accoutrements, and shirt pocket-sized sketch books (handbound, of course!)
but in other, sad grad-school related news, i have yet to start my lit review that is due in 2 hours. ah well. hoping it flows smooth and sweet like melted buttah. (i'm reviewing the literature on no child left behind. should be plenty to pull from, should be easy to mind meld.)
YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO. (i'd be happy to make something by request, just drop me a line!)
"Fire is motion / Work is repetition / This is my document / We are all all we've done / We are all all we've done / We are all all we've done / We are all all defenses."
- Cap'N Jazz, "Oh Messy Life," Analphabetapolothology
Thursday, March 18, 2010
topix: activism, crafts, grad school, ideas, radical, television
yours truly, stephan!e lee @ 5:38 PM
2 comments:
- Rae Jin Devine said...
Was chatting with PJ the other day and we both remarked about how much we miss your happy face.
- stephan!e lee said...
aw, Rae. you have no idea how happy this comment made me this morning.
i miss you guys too. i was just thinking about you the other day, actually. wondering what you are up to. and PJ too! when are all the Western kids gonna get together again?
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Ford unveils Focus Electric with tech from INRIX, Airbiquity
Ford has announced the release of its Ford Focus Electric. And like other Ford models, the company's first fully electric car uses technology from Seattle companies.
The company (NYSE: F) debuted the car at CenturyLink Field during the Seattle International Auto Show. Reservations began this morning in 19 markets, including Seattle.
A few weeks ago, we told you about the connections Northwest companies had with developing myFord Touch. Now, myFord Touch will be a standard option in the new Focus EV, with improvements from Inrix and Airbiquity.
Some of the additions include a "best route" option on the navigation pane that shows routes using the lowest amount of battery power, with data provided by Inrix. Ford also has mobile apps for iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices so drivers can check the charge status of the car from anywhere, with technology by Airbiquity.
Mike Tinskey, Ford's director of global vehicle electrification and infrastructure, said Seattle and the other launch markets were chosen based on factors that included hybrid vehicle sales, low electricity rates and infrastructure in place. The majority of the U.S. will be able to purchase a Focus EV by the end of 2012, he said.
Tinskey also said the cars use Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) technology that charges the car only when electric rates are lowest in areas with variable electric rates during the day. A full charge at 240 volts takes about three hours and will cost about $1.20 with Seattle's electricity rates.
After a $7,500 federal tax rebate, the Focus EV will sell for $32,495. Washington residents are also exempt from vehicle sales taxes when they buy this car. A portable charger, after rebates, will run about $1,000.
FOLLOW the Puget Sound Business Journal on Twitter @PSBJ and on Facebook | Click here to sign up for the PSBJ Daily Update.


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August 5. KANSAS CITY, MO. Jacoby Ellsbury entered last night's game against the Royals having gone 34 days without a stolen base. Even with the extended drought, he began the day tied with Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki for the American League lead in steals with 35, and he picked the perfect time to add to his total. Ellsbury was 2-for-4 with two stolen bases in the Sox' 8-2 rout. He swiped second base twice, once after a leadoff single in the fifth inning and again after an RBI single in the sixth.
"He got in a situation where he could use his legs," manager Terry Francona said.
With 37 swipes, Ellsbury is in sole possession of ninth place on the club's single-season steals list. It was his 23rd multihit game of the season and first since July 27 against the Yankees.
Lowell returns
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Ellsbury back on track
Posted by Hayward Dave at 1:31 PM
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You are here
Premature Ovarian Failure
a blog by Pamela Tsigdinos
I remember the first time I heard about the term Premature Ovarian Failure (POF). My first thought: what a downright cruel disease diagnosis for a woman who wants to have children. I'm in the endometriosis category myself but I've always felt a kinship with those combating POF.
That's why I was happy to make the acquaintance of Catherine Corp, president of the International Premature Ovarian Failure Association (IPOFA). She was kind enough to answer a few questions leading up to the organization's eighth conference in Houston on October 2-4.
Q. How prevalent is Premature Ovarian Failure?
- It affects about 1% of the female population under the age of 40.
Q. At what age is POF typically manifested?
- The average age of onset is about 27 years old! Often before women even think about having children. The dream is taken away before women really even start thinking about it. Even today with all we know it still takes about two years for a woman to get a proper diagnosis. She may go to three to seven health care providers before she finds out what is wrong. That is down from the seven to ten years it used to take.
Q. What are the symptoms?
- There are a range of symptoms and each woman is different. The most common symptom is irregular or absent menstrual cycles. Women also have hot flashes, night sweats, loss of sexual desire, vaginal dryness that can make intercourse painful, dry eyes, lack of sleep, and irritability. Wouldn't you be irritable if you were having night sweats that caused you to be up on and off all night and couldn't sleep?
Q. Is there a way to prevent it?
- No, and frequently the cause of POF is unknown.
Q. What are the biggest myths and challenges associated with Premature Ovarian Failure?
- The myths among some health care providers include these gems: "You can't be experiencing menopause. You're too young. You are just under a lot of stress. Relax and in another month or two your period will return. Stop exercising so much. I've never seen a young woman with premature menopause and you don't have it either."
There are also myths from both health care providers and family/friends that would have a woman believe that POF is only a fertility issue, that it has no impact on overall health or that ongoing health care related to POF for reasons other than family-building is unnecessary. Not true!
Then there are the challenges from those who deny there are losses involved with POF. This denies women the opportunity to talk about the perceived loss of youth and minimizes the infertility aspect. The reactions typically include: "What's the matter? You know what you have now. Be grateful they came up with a diagnosis. Count your blessings, you're not going to die. So what, you can't have kids, you can always adopt."
That last one always seems so dismissive and exhibits a total lack of understanding.
Q. What can family and friends do to help women diagnosed with this condition?
- Listen to her! She needs to be able to talk openly about how the diagnosis is affecting her. Please don't minimize or dismiss her feelings. Ask what you can do for her. Maybe she'd like someone to make the phone calls to set up an appointment with a new doctor or she's overwhelmed with insurance questions and could use some help filling out forms. Be sensitive but don't cut her out of important information in your life.
It's not helpful to find out that your good friend is five months pregnant and she never told you because she was afraid of how you'd take it. It would be helpful to plan how to tell and where you tell her. In a crowded room with lots of other people rejoicing about the news isn't the way to go. Instead, plan a quiet time to talk. Most likely she'll tell you she's happy for you but sad for herself.
Also, please encourage her to put her health first. Women with POF require on-going medical care, including hormone replacement, in order to maintain a normal quality of life. Frequently, women get diagnosed with POF when trying to conceive. The quest for a child can become so consuming that women may end up minimizing their own health needs, or ignoring them completely. This can end up putting the woman at risk for several serious health issues, including osteoporosis.
One of my favorite things written about this is from the IPOFA book, Faces of POF. In the postscript we quote a woman who'd been asked, "What do you know now that you wish someone had told you when you were first diagnosed with POF?"
- "[Ask] me: What does it mean? How do you feel? Here is my shoulder if you need to cry, and here are my ears if you need to talk."
The IPOFA's mission is to provide community, support, and information to women with Premature Ovarian Failure (POF) and their loved ones; to increase public awareness and understanding of POF; and to work with health care professionals to better understand this condition.


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Comcast ramps up coverage of Mexican presidential election and aftermath
Gabriel Miramar-Garcia ©RapidTVNews | 02-07-2012
Cable MSO Comcast is offering Xfinity MultiLatino customers ongoing Spanish-language coverage of Mexico's 2012 presidential election.
As voters in Mexico flowed to the polls on 1 July to weigh in on who would replace outgoing president Felipe Calderon, Comcast has ramped up coverage across three news channels and nine dedicated cable and broadcasting Spanish networks, including for the first time for cable or satellite, 72 hours of Milenio TV coverage. The full-court press will continue well past the election, covering its results and aftermath with in-depth analysis for three days.
MultiLatino customers will be able to see three days of election polls, candidate statements and appearances, live transmission of debates, post analysis and complete continuous election results.
"Comcast is committed to bring the best content in Spanish to our customers," said Ruben Mendiola, Comcast's vice president and GM of Multicultural Video Services. "We are excited to offer unprecedented minute-by-minute coverage of these historical presidential elections in Mexico."
The United States is watching with interest as the election unfolds, especially in border states with high numbers of Latinos, of course.
"There is a burgeoning Mexican community in the U.S. -- 63% of U.S. Hispanics are of Mexican origin -- that is keenly interested and invested in what happens back home, so we're excited that our MultiLatino packages are able to bring customers the kind of relevant and impactful programming they are looking for," added Mendiola.


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Federal Trade Commission to take Securities and Exchange Commission space in Southwest Washington
The federal government's real estate arm is planning to relocate parts of the Federal Trade Commission from downtown D.C. to Constitution Center in Southwest Washington in a move that could set the stage for that building's multimillion-dollar sale to outside investors — but could see opposition from at least one federal lawmaker.
The General Services Administration recently agreed to assume control of about 358,000 square feet at Constitution Center that the Securities and Exchange Commission had leased in 2010 but never used. The GSA proposes to move roughly 1,100 FTC workers to Constitution Center at 400 Seventh St. SW from two buildings at 601 New Jersey Ave. NW and 1800 M St. NW. The FTC would remain in its federally owned headquarters building at 601 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, known as the Apex building.
The GSA, which handles most of the federal government's leasing needs, has already given unofficial notification to the FTC's New Jersey Avenue and M Street landlords that the FTC will relocate, possibly as soon as early 2014, according to sources familiar with the GSA's plans.
The real estate agency's decision seems to strike a compromise. While the GSA needed to fill the Constitution Center space, the FTC has often said it does not want to move from the Apex building and thinks that would be an inefficient use of taxpayer dollars. FTC spokeswoman Cecelia Prewett declined to comment on the GSA's plans for her agency.
Meanwhile, Constitution Center owner David Nassif Associates has been trying to sell the building for more than a year but has been unable to do so with the SEC's long-running space issue and lease still unresolved. Nassif has reportedly been seeking $800 million for the building. Managing General Partner Tim Jaroch said GSA representatives have not yet reached out to him about the FTC move.
The FTC's proposed relocation could draw criticism, if not a full intervention, from Florida Rep. John Mica, a powerful House Republican who has said he would not approve the move unless it involves freeing up the FTC's Apex building. Mica, who heads the House's Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has long sought to uproot the FTC from its headquarters to give or sell the Apex building to the publicly supported National Gallery of Art. In March, his committee asked the GSA to come up with a space plan for moving the FTC from the Apex building to Constitution Center. Representatives from his office could not be reached for comment.
Whether Mica has a chance to weigh in on the proposal remains to be seen. Congress must approve what's known as prospectus-level leases, or those obligating the federal government to pay annual rent above a set threshold, now set at $2.79 million. That applies to new leases, however, and in this case the SEC has already committed to leasing the space at Constitution Center. Real estate experts say it is unclear whether congressional oversight is required.
GSA Acting Administrator Dan Tangherlini said in June that it does not make sense to move the FTC from space it already owns in the Apex building to leased space elsewhere. But he conceded that it would make sense to move the FTC from its New Jersey Avenue and M Street locations, and it's that conclusion the GSA is acting upon, the agency spokesman said.
The GSA hopes this proposal resolves the SEC's botched moves in 2010, when it leased about 900,000 square feet at the 1.4 million-square-foot Constitution Center. At the time, the SEC was one of a small number of federal agencies with independent leasing authority, meaning it did not need to use the GSA as an intermediary. But the commission later decided it did not need any of that space and, in summer 2011, agreed to cede its overall leasing authority to the GSA.
Since then, the Office of the Comptroller of Currency and the Federal Housing Finance Agency have leased about two-thirds of that SEC space at Constitution Center under negotiations with Nassif. The GSA, however, could not seek new occupants for the remaining space until the SEC officially declared it as excess and ceded responsibility for that particular space to the GSA. That happened in early July, according to a GSA spokesman.


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I needed a haircut and perm so I got myself back in the car and drove an hour and a half (about 70 miles) to my friend, Patty, who has been doing my hair for about 20 years. Yeah, it's a long way for a hair cut, but she is so good. I just couldn't believe I put myself back in any vehicle for that amount of time after all the time I've spent on the road the past three weeks! But, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do! :)
I got back home around 2pm after getting my 'do fixed. I was beat! Randy is the one who enjoys driving – I just do it 'cause I have to.
Randy had been busy while I was gone. He mowed our lawn, washed dishes, put out the awning and generally straightened up. He is such a great guy.
We spent a couple of hours with Lins & Reagan this evening. Jason was working late, so Lins asked if we wanted to grab some dinner together. Well, never one to pass up an opportunity to spend time with her, I quickly said yes.
We went to Michael's so I could pick up some clasps to mend a necklace and a frame for the cross stitch project I've been working on. Then, we went to Isaac's, a restaurant w/a deck that you can sit on and watch the ducks and geese swim by in a pond. Reagan loves to go there to watch the ducks. We enjoyed our meal and the wildlife. :)
While I was getting my hair done, Reagan called to ask if she could spend the night with us. The answer was yes, of course! :) So, as I write this, she has finally settled down after three or four calls. This is just one of many sleepovers, I hope! Have I mentioned how thrilled I am to be home!
Until the next time . . .


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