On Apr 7, 2009, at 12:57 AM, SA wrote:
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/weekinreview/05greenhouse.htm
>
> Where we find:
>
>> “I actually believe that Americans believe in their political
>> system more than workers do in other parts of the world,” Mr.
>> Gerard said. He said large labor demonstrations are often warranted
>> in Canada and European countries to pressure parliamentary leaders.
>> Demonstrations are less needed in the United States, he said,
>> because often all that is needed is some expert lobbying in
>> Washington to line up the support of a half-dozen senators.
>
> This is tragic and embarrassing.
Innit? Cf. this from Steve Early's report on an evening with Andy Stern at Harvard:
<http://counterpunch.org/early04032009.html>
> Several questions later, a Harvard worker, employed at the law
> school, hits the jackpot with a question about Stern’s stance on
> salary cuts for Harvard bosses, including its new president Drew
> Gilpin Faust. Like her predecessor Larry Summers, Faust earns nearly
> $600,000 a year—not as much as Raynor and Wilhelm combined, but
> close. Rather than laying off SEIU janitors, as Harvard is doing
> now, shouldn’t the university cut costs by paying its top brass
> less, the worker wants to know. Thinking perhaps of future Harvard
> invitations—or maybe just a longer stint, someday, at the Kennedy
> School-- Stern refuses to play populist with the president’s pay. “I
> really don’t like pitting people against each other, “ he asserts
> demurely, a statement that John Wilhelm and others may find hard to
> believe.