Archive for the ‘Labour issues’ Category
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 »
Monday, August 11th, 2008
I'm battling yet another software melt-down - just after fixing the wifi (by reinstalling everything), my MacBook has copied my Mini in refusing to open applications like Word, and showing a blank desktop (though the files are actually still on the system, the icons just aren't showing on screen). Time ...
Posted in Income and poverty, Labour issues | No Comments »
Thursday, August 7th, 2008
A follow-up to my recent posting on the break-down of national pay talks in Ireland. The unions have now developed guidelines for local bargaining platforms:
Under the guidelines, unions are to seek flat-rate increases of €30 per week for low-paid workers and rises that match inflation - about 5 per cent ...
Posted in Labour issues, Society and culture | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
Talks on a new national social partnership agreement - which includes agreement on pay in public and private workplaces - have broken down in Ireland. Ireland has had centralized agreements covering pay and other issues since the late 1980s. These have ensured a voice for unions (and employers) in setting ...
Posted in Income and poverty, Labour issues | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
A number of items today, from a range of sources.
First, the picture to the left is of Labour TD Joe Costello, who for the last 5 years has run a weekly protest outside the Mater hospital, calling for better healthcare.
Second, potentially good news for grad employees in private universities in ...
Posted in Citizenship, migration, race, and ethnicity, Education, Income and poverty, International Affairs, Labour issues, Political activism, Society and culture | No Comments »
Monday, November 26th, 2007
One of the many healthcare issues we've found ourself addressing in GEO this semester has been the huge increase in costs of the contraceptive pill from the campus healthcare centre. A New York Times story explains the tortured legislative changes that led drug companies to end their discounts to student ...
Posted in Education, Labour issues, Society and culture | No Comments »
Saturday, November 24th, 2007
The Writers' strike has garnered quite a bit of support, both from other entertainment workers and from the wider public. One idea for support that originated with fans, before being picked up by the union, is to send pencils to the media moguls that run 6 of the major companies ...
Posted in Corporate media, Intellectual property issues, Labour issues, Political activism, Society and culture | No Comments »
