turbinetree
turbinetree's JournalVirginia students learn in trailers while state offers Amazon huge tax breaks
The state’s teachers plan to strike over funding, low pay and tax breaks given to the tech firm
As freezing rain poured down on Virginia last week, a student dressed in only a light red sweater made a mad 40-yard dash from her modular trailer classroom across the parking lot into the warmth of McLean high school in Fairfax county.
Due to overcrowding, more than 22,000 students in Fairfax county receive their education in cheaply constructed plywood trailers, often with visible signs of green mold, like those parked next to the baseball fields next to McClean high school.
Those trailers, the poor state of school funding in general, low teacher pay and now the huge tax breaks the state is giving to lure in Amazon have led the teachers to strike on Monday, the start of the latest in a series of strikes by educators across the US.
In Fairfax county, the third richest county in America, there are over 800 trailers serving as temporary classrooms because the school district cannot afford to build new classrooms.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/27/virginia-teachers-strike-amazon-tax-breaks
The single most important pro-labor speech of the shutdown was not given by AOC
The country was convulsed by shutdown finger-wagging and one lone voice called for a general strike. it wasn't AOC
BOB HENNELLY
JANUARY 27, 2019 1:00PM (UTC)
The single most important speech given about labor in decades was easy to miss last week. It was given by a woman who, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is a leader evidently guided by an internal moral compass that transcends conventional politics. That consciousness is a real threat to a status quo almost entirely defined by men.
The Joe Bidens of the world — in politics and labor — just have to let go if the Republic is to endure and the planet is to survive.
The world built by male patriarchy is in convulsions. It took every bit of focus to keep up with the breaking news: the pre-dawn raid by armed (unpaid) FBI agents on the home of a sleeping Roger Stone; the near collapse of our air traffic control system; and the epic humiliation of President Trump by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
And that was just Friday.
Yet, the Jan. 20 impassioned speech given by Association of Flight Attendants CWA International President Sara Nelson deserves not to be lost in that blur because it grasped the potential power of organizing a national general strike in support of 800,000 Federal workers and their families that the male dominated labor movement largely missed.
https://www.salon.com/2019/01/27/the-single-most-important-pro-labor-speech-of-the-shutdown-was-not-given-by-aoc/
-snip-
American union participation fell to 10.5 percent last year. from 10.7 percent in 2017 and 2016 across all demographic categories. By contrast, in the early 1980s one in five American workers were unionized. And, it should come as no shock that there’s a direct historical connection between the decline in union enrollment, depressed wages and rising inequality, that no matter which party is in charge continues to get worse.
In the private sector just 6.4 percent of workers belonged to a union. In the public sector 37.2 percent of workers are unionized, down by half a percent due to a decline at the state level.
And yet, American public support for unions is at an all time high. And, as we saw in the West Virginia teachers strike, its totally possible for a grass roots shoestring budget movement to upend reactionary ‘right to work’ politics — even in a state where Trump beat Clinton by 42 points.
But without the kind of courage and big picture vision of a Sara Nelson, this crop of six-figure labor leaders will continue to preside over a shrinking movement.
Worries remain for U.S. government contractors as shutdown ends
POLITICS JANUARY 26, 2019 / 3:31 PM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
Katharine Jackson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Minutes after President Donald Trump announced an end to the longest U.S. government shutdown in history on Friday, Yvette Hicks’ phone started ringing.
“I had bill collectors calling me back-to-back-to-back wondering when I could start making a payment arrangement,” she said, recalling how her mood quickly changed from excitement back to worry.
Hicks, 40, a security guard at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, is one of thousands of federal government contractors who do not expect to be paid for the month of work they missed during the 35-day partial shutdown - and who remain at risk if Trump and lawmakers fail to reach a more lasting agreement beyond the current three-week deal to reopen the government.
Trump, who had demanded Democrats agree to fund construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border before he would agree to reopen the government, has signed legislation guaranteeing back pay for 800,000 federal employees affected by the shutdown.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-shutdown-contractors/worries-remain-for-u-s-government-contractors-as-shutdown-ends-idUSKCN1PK0QN
Put this into perspective, as soon as the bill was signed by the jerk that created this mess, the phone calls started to come in on the harassment from people wanting there money, from the people that did nothing wrong.
Yvette Hicks, should not have to go through the harassment...............this is just wrong
44 GOP senators vote to keep government shut to make Trump happy
By Dan Desai Martin - January 24, 2019
Republicans showed yet again that they care more about their allegiance to Trump than the good of the American people.
Senate Republicans voted Thursday to continue Trump’s shutdown unless he gets billions of dollars to build a wall. In a series of votes, Republicans proved once again that they are more loyal to the racist whims of Trump than to the American people.
For the first time since Trump initiated the current government shutdown, the Senate held votes to reopen the government.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) first scheduled a vote on a virulently anti-immigrant proposal cooked up by the White House. The bill would give Trump $5.7 billion for his unpopular border wall, and would also add horrendous, draconian restrictions to current asylum laws. As expected, that vote failed 50-47, needing 60 votes to move forward.
Next, McConnell finally relented and allowed a vote on a clean funding bill that had already passed the House of Representatives. Given that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said time and again that the House will not support funding for an unpopular and unnecessary border wall, this was the only bill that could end the Trump shutdown.
https://shareblue.com/shutdown-republican-senators-trump-cowards/
This is just amazing..................and these 44 have power to just screw with people for 2/6 years, and the ones that voted with the Democratic caucus,ihas a hedge fund asshole that guts jobs, that didn't get a job in the traitors administration.................and the other one from the state of Utah did, or just doesn't give a shit.....................
Airline workers 'cannot even calculate' risk from Trump shutdown
By Dan Desai Martin - January 24, 2019
Unions representing 131,000 airline workers send a stark warning about airline safety as the Trump shutdown shows no signs of ending.
Airline safety is “deteriorating by the day” because of the Trump shutdown, warns a terrifying statement from unions representing 131,000 airline workers. As the government shutdown drags into its second month, workers in the airline industry can’t even imagine the amount of risk Trump’s actions are causing.
“In our risk averse industry, we cannot even calculate the level of risk currently at play,” presidents of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) said in a statement. The situation is so dire that the group said it can’t “predict the point at which the entire system will break.”
“It is unprecedented,” they added.
This letter follows upon an early January letter from the ALPA to Trump warning the shutdown was “adversely affecting the safety, security and efficiency of our national airspace system.”
The new statement picks up on the same theme, expressing a “growing concern for the safety and security of our members, our airlines, and the traveling public due to the government shutdown.”
https://shareblue.com/airline-workers-trump-shutdown-risk/
We are warning you, the paying public, we know how this works it's time to call your senators in our local district since the phones are probably packed at the senate, this is not some game of chicken........................to see who blinks first..................for those of us that have worked or been apart of this field, we are trying to tell you something......................
And this BS that they just tried to pass the bill that they voted on last December and it failed...................say's that they were full of right wing shit..................they wanted to gut spending in February............because now they have a debt ceiling debate coming up.................and this BS will effect the bond market and our credit rating..............
Plane maker Bombardier calls for 'orderly Brexit'
Source: BCC News
By Julian O'Neill
BBC News NI Business Correspondent
4 hours ago
Bombardier - one of Northern Ireland's biggest manufacturing employers - has called for an "orderly Brexit."
The Canadian transportation giant employs about 4,000 people in plane-making activities at a number of sites in and around Belfast.
The company adopted a pro-remain position ahead of the EU referendum.
In a statement it said: "Continued uncertainty, and the real prospect of leaving the EU with no deal, does not help with business planning.
"It is imperative that Parliament finds a resolution that works for UK business."
The company issued the statement after Airbus warned it could move its UK operations in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-46989142
amazing.................
NASA's storm-silenced rover marks 15th anniversary on Mars
Source: Associated Press
By MARCIA DUNN an hour ago
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s Opportunity rover is silently marking the 15th anniversary of its touchdown on Mars.
The spacecraft hasn’t been heard from since a global dust storm last June. The six wheeler — about the size of a golf cart — logged more than 28 miles (45 kilometers) on the red planet before falling silent. There was so much dust in the Martian atmosphere that sunlight could not reach Opportunity’s solar panels to generate power.md
Flight controllers are still sending commands to the rover in hopes of a response. But project manager John Callas says the longer the blackout lasts, the less likely contact will be made. He calls Thursday’s anniversary bittersweet.
Opportunity landed on Mars on Jan. 24, 2004. It already had long outlived its design lifetime before contact was lost.
Read more: https://apnews.com/182a17d7f5d84dafbb11efa3dffc0731
Airbus CEO warns it could move in event of no-deal Brexit
Source: The Associated Press
By DANICA KIRKA and JILL LAWLESS
2 hours ago
LONDON (AP) — The chief executive of Airbus warned Thursday that the aviation giant could move its U.K. operations out of Britain if the country leaves the European Union without a deal on trade relations, in one of the starkest assessments yet of the economic impact of a “no-deal” Brexit.
CEO Tom Enders said Brexit threatened to destroy a century of development in the Britain’s world-leading aviation industry.
Business leaders have expressed growing frustration at the lack of progress in securing a Brexit deal before Britain’s scheduled March 29 exit from the bloc. Last week British lawmakers threw out the divorce deal Prime Minister Theresa May had struck with the EU, and attempts to find a replacement are gridlocked.
U.K. firms are bracing for disruption amid fears that a “no-deal” Brexit will cause economic chaos by eliminating trade agreements and imposing tariffs, customs checks and other barriers between the U.K. and the EU, its biggest trading partner.
Read more: https://apnews.com/3f7e3c8d5e4d4385b0b4e1227bdb07fd
Hey, May, there are 14,000 jobs tied to this one company in your country.................do you and your "Tory" fascist party get it yet.....................this is one of the industries that make's your country strong......................not making clothes in some rural countryside town.......................
Voters in one English town warn London: 'Do not betray our Brexit'
Source: Reuters
WORLD NEWS JANUARY 24, 2019 / 1:21 AM / UPDATED 3 HOURS AGO
Alex Fraser
CHESTERFIELD, England (Reuters) - As Britain grapples with whether to leave the European Union, some voters in an ancient English town have a message for the politicians in London: Do not betray Brexit.
The United Kingdom’s labyrinthine crisis over EU membership is approaching its finale with an extraordinary array of options including no-deal Brexit, a last-minute deal, a snap election, or a delay and new referendum.
In Chesterfield, a leave-supporting northern town which could take an economic hit if Britain dropped out of the EU, some voters were clear they would prefer to leave without a deal and would turn away from politics if Brexit was thwarted.
“It’s got to be no deal - and we are not all going to die and crumble. We are Great Britain remember!” said Valerie Quigley, 70, a leave supporter who traditionally votes for the Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Theresa May.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-voters/voters-in-one-english-town-warn-london-do-not-betray-our-brexit-idUSKCN1PI0GL
amazing....................
S&P, Dow dip on Commerce chief Ross's trade comment; chips buoy Nasdaq
Source: Reuters
BUSINESS NEWS JANUARY 24, 2019 / 7:53 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Shreyashi Sanya
(Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped on Thursday after U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the United States and China were a long way from resolving their trade dispute, while a rally in chipmakers lifted the Nasdaq.
Ross told CNBC it was too early to judge where U.S.-china trade talks are headed, but added there is a fair chance the two countries will get to a trade deal. The world’s two largest economies are trying to meet a March 1 deadline to resolve their trade dispute.
“If you watch the political news coming out of Washington, that can mean all the difference in the world. So things can start out on a positive note and we get news about the shutdown, tariff battle with China, that can change the market 180 degrees,” said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas.
Six of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were in the red, with the healthcare weighing the most on the benchmark index.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/sp-dow-dip-on-commerce-chief-rosss-trade-comment-chips-buoy-nasdaq-idUSKCN1PI1O4
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