Archive for the ‘Labour issues’ Category
Thursday, February 7th, 2019
We had the memorial service for my mother today - she died Monday, and the Irish tradition is to have a short few days of funereal rituals prior to the burial. In Mom's case - always the non-conformist - she asked for a non-religious service and a cremation, so the ...
Posted in Education, Electoral politics, Flirt FM, Labour issues, Meta, Personal, Political activism, Radio, Rowing, Society and culture | No Comments »
Saturday, January 28th, 2012
This to me is the key section from George Lakey's piece in the Indypendent's blog:
The Depression hit bottom in 1931. More people were jobless there than in any other Nordic country. Unlike in the U.S., the Norwegian union movement kept the people thrown out of work as members, even though ...
Posted in Income and poverty, International Affairs, Labour issues | No Comments »
Thursday, June 16th, 2011
Two different suggestions today from Labour politicians about appropriate ways to mark Bloomsday. Joe Costello notes that Ireland has one of the lowest numbers of public holidays in Europe (9 per year, only exceeding the 8 of England and Wales) and suggests that making the day a holiday could provide ...
Posted in Education, Income and poverty, Labour issues, Society and culture | 1 Comment »
Friday, November 26th, 2010
The Irish educational system has some strange features. One is that while school staff have their wages and conditions set - and paid for - by the Department of Education - they are not viewed, in law, as employees of the Department. Historically this has been used as a fudge ...
Posted in Education, Income and poverty, Labour issues | No Comments »
Sunday, November 21st, 2010
When I talk with my students about PR I explain that the first rule of crisis communication is to 'fess up - get out in front of the rumours and claims, admitting the truth (in order that you can have a say in framing that truth).
This week the Irish government ...
Posted in Citizenship, migration, race, and ethnicity, Electoral politics, Income and poverty, International Affairs, Labour issues, Political activism, Society and culture | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010
Posted on the BBC's live coverage of the miners' rescue effort in Chile:
Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, a former Ghanian miner and head of a miners' rights lobby group, tells BBC Focus on Africa that African mining could learn valuable lessons from Chile's experience. "It is a wake up call for all of ...
Posted in International Affairs, Labour issues, Online communication, Public Service Media | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
In a successful 2-day strike - the first by a union local at the University of Illinois in 10-years, and one of the largest in the history of graduate unions in the US - the GEO has secured a commitment to retain tuition waivers for graduate employees. The University had ...
Posted in Education, Income and poverty, Labour issues, Political activism | No Comments »
Monday, November 9th, 2009
This Thursday, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees will meet in Springfield. Members of the GEO will be there to remind them of the urgency of reaching agreement on a fair contract. You may not be able to be in Springfield, but you can play your part in persuading ...
Posted in Education, Labour issues, Political activism | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
There's something strange in the latest live register figures released today by the CSO. Not the increase of 87.1% in a single year - that, unfortunately, could be predicted. RTÉ's report mentioned that 71% of the increase was among men.
[I should note that I'm using two sets of data here ...
Posted in Income and poverty, Labour issues | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
It's not wholly surprising, but it seems possible that the meteoric rise of the Celtic Tiger could very soon be eclipsed by the current free-fall of the Irish economy.
Following on from news that the economy fell into recession in the second quarter of 2008 (with two consecutive quarters of declining ...
Posted in Income and poverty, Labour issues | 1 Comment »