It's your turn to weigh in on the battles over public-sector unions raging across the country that are pitting teachers and other government workers against regular taxpayers. And are protesters protected even when they disrupt speeches by officials, as one man did at a speech by Hillary Clinton? We'd like to hear from you on protests, or anything else on your mind.
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The Kojo Nnamdi Show airs Monday-Thursday Noon - 2p.m. (ET)
Kojo also hosts The Politics Hour Fridays Noon-1 p.m. (ET)
Comments
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I have heard completely different versions of what happened during Sec'y Clinton's talk. Supporters of the protester say he had silently turned his back on her and for that was manhandled by the police or security guards. Someone on the Department of State's staff who was there said the man was not being silent at all and was disrupting her talk. Do we know what happened?
In the Civil Rights era a model for protesting was set: avoid violence, and not resist arrest. You didn't have to to cooperate with your arrest, but neither did you resist it.
Does that still hold true?
Private sector employees are usually in an unequal bargaining position compared to their employers. Public employees are in an even worse bargaining position as their bosses are the government.
Why shouldn't there be unions for public employees? Areas like the military & traffic controllers are prohibited from unionizing.
Public employees do not make more than their private sector counterparts once you look at education and job requirements even though overall public sector employees do better than private sector; that's because there aren't many minimum wage retail jobs in the government.
In the case of Wisconsin there is nothing more for the union to concede that would help the Wisconsin budget. It's clear that they are trying to bust the unions and they won't be stopping with public empoyees. Private employee unions are next.
If unions are abolished, things won't get better for the private sector, or the country as a whole. Things will be better for those already at the high end of the income scale because they will be able to squeeze more profits out.
It was a nice effort, Kojo, on trying to get someone in charge to acknowledge the seriousness of the lack of cooperation among regional governments to better manage our traffic and congestion issues particularly when we need to move about a densely populated, high employment area such as ours.
Workplaces with shelters- in- place--enough provisions for workers to spend the night if needed--could alleviate spontaneous massive gridlock. Simply leaving work after the roads have been treated is another way. But some of us need to get home because we are "essential" to our families. If schools don't set up shelter in place provisions, too, this plan will not work as parents scramble to rescue stranded children.
In the case of Jan. 26, and the early release by the OPM, has anyone taken a head count of how many workers are being released onto the roads all at once? Government contractors also follow this early release plan. It possible that the same kind of congestion would result even if the roads were clear just due to the sheer volume of vehicles.
If we were to leave work early, where was the early treatment of the roads? I traveled 495 from Maryland to Virginia that day and was doing ok on making headway around stuck vehicles, including an oil tanker on the American Legion bridge, but could not exit 495 as exits began closing. If the OPM knew the situation warranted early release, why was there not early treatment of roads? How about treating those tricky areas such as exits first? They are high risk area with the lanes narrowing down to one or two, curves, ravines, and less traffic to make tracks through snow.
What if it was an emergency where time was of the essence? One bridge between two major metro areas? With an unreliable underground mass transportation system to boot. Allowing the current state of affairs to exist is absolutely unforgivable for regional planners. For a catastrophic event, nature or man-made, there is absolutely no way to escape this area.
Declare an official radio station or emergency alert system that is well advertised on the highways with signage that resists snow cling. Relying on local radio stations to do their own reporting is counterproductive. Why have dozens of media outlets clamoring with local officials for the same information. Even NPR reads off road closures so fast, you cannot discern where statements are separated. Even if you researched road conditions and closures before you leave your point of departure, within a lengthy commute, conditions can change.
Develop a telecommute policy. There are 180 school days in the year, and 2,080 work hours. The school districts find a way to make kids get in the 180 days. Give workers an assigned number of inclement weather days to work from home, and a way to make up the hours if needed under the AWS plan, alternate work days. I'd happily come in on a Saturday to avoid extending my commute by six hours because of a snow storm, just so I could show up and be counted at the office.
Comparatively speaking, these are all low cost, and easy to implement remedies under an interstate and intrastate agency compact: Shouldn't the greater Washington area be a role model for this very kind of thing? As Washington goes, so goes the nation.