When Unions Rule the Schools

By Carol Gerwin 0 Comments Apr 1, 1999

In Medford they derailed a community service program for high school students. In Concord they watered down a rigorous training program for new teachers. And in countless other districts across the state, they have blocked innovative ideas at the proposal stage, forced administrators to fill vacancies with unqualified staff, and refused to allow the extension(...)

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Labor Unions and Labor Law

By CommonWealth Staff 0 Comments Apr 1, 1999

Massachusetts is more heavily unionized than the national average, with 15.9 percent of those employed belonging to a union. Yet despite the state’s pro-labor reputation, it ranks behind 17 other states–including New York, Rhode Island, and Connecticut–in union membership. In every state, there are more employees represented by unions – 17.4 percent in Massachusetts–than there(...)

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Remembering Wessagussett

By Dave Denison 0 Comments Apr 1, 1999

WEYMOUTH — The land isn’t much to look at, as even Jodi Purdy-Quinlan, the most ardent champion of these overgrown woodsy acres, will admit. “All this brush would have to come out,” she says with a sweep of her hand, as we slowly drive down Sea Street in her metallic-green Ford pickup truck. Surrounded by(...)

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The Roots of Prosperity Visions of a New Labor Movement

By Christopher B. Daly 0 Comments Apr 1, 1999

American Work: Four Centuries of Black and White Labor By Jacqueline Jones W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1998, 543 pages. For most of the past two decades, America has been having one of its periodic love affairs with Wall Street. Like the early 1890s or the late 1920s, this is a time when plenty(...)

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Labor Stories

By Dave Denison 0 Comments Apr 1, 1999

When it comes to work, everyone’s got a story. Or, more likely, many stories. If you want to hear a tale, all you have to do is ask, “What was the first job you ever had?” “What was the worst job you ever had?” “How do you like your job now?” Usually, the worst experiences(...)

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Our Frame Work

By Dave Denison 0 Comments Apr 1, 1999

Every once in a while, I wonder whether CommonWealth magazine is one of the most backward-looking publications produced today. They say it’s possible to be so square you become hip, so maybe a magazine can be so retro in perspective it becomes cutting edge. Or maybe we just like history. It seems to me the(...)

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A Case Study In Court Reform

By Robert Preer 0 Comments Apr 1, 1999

For sheer diversity of activities, New York’s Midtown Community Court, located off Eighth Avenue on the edge of the Manhattan theater district, is unique in the halls of American justice. In one room, a pot of soup often can be seen simmering for the homeless or other hungry visitors. In another room, acupuncture treatments are(...)

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A Guide to Local News OnLine

By Neal Weinberg 0 Comments Apr 1, 1999

The Internet’s gale-force hype caused quite a bit of anxiety when it first blew through the newsrooms of the region’s dailies a few years ago. Editors fretted that they would lose their most demographically prized readers to online media that promised instant access to news and information. Debates raged over how to treat breaking news:(...)

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The Senator From Southie

By Peter Lucas 0 Comments Apr 1, 1999

Sister Pauline Ross greets state Senator Stephen F. Lynch at the door of the Marian Manor nursing home on Dorchester Street in South Boston. It’s a Friday afternoon and Sen. Lynch is making the rounds, as he does most Friday afternoons. Marian Manor is a long-term care facility run by the Carmelite nuns. It once(...)

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Fried

By Ralph Lombreglia 0 Comments Apr 1, 1999

Michael opened his front door and stepped into the pre-dawn light, not to check the weather or get the papers but merely to express his stupefaction at standing upright at this hour of the day. It was 4:30 a.m. He’d had four hours of bad sleep featuring a dream of global Network collapse, but that(...)

Spring 1999