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DPE NewsLine, June 2012

In This Issue:


SPECIAL TONY FOR ACTORS’ EQUITY: WATCH THIS SUNDAY, JUNE 10– On May 26, 1913, 112 actors at the Pabst Grand Circle Hotel in New York founded Actors’ Equity Association (AEA). Almost a century later, the Tony Awards® will recognize the AEA Centennial Celebration with a Special Tony.

Telecast live on Sunday, June 10, 2012, the 66th Annual Tony Awards® ceremony begins at 8 pm Eastern Time (7 pm Central) on CBS. A recorded broadcast repeats the show on the West Coast at 8 pm Pacific Time.

In a joint statement thanking the Tony Administration Committee, AEA President Nick Wyman and Executive Director Mary McColl said, “This award recognizes the innumerable contributions our members have made to the theatre and the theatre has made to the country these 100 years. Theatre is a tremendous asset to the cultural fabric of America and we are proud to be at the forefront of making plays and musicals come alive for audiences across the country.”

For more information about AEA, click here. For details about the Tony Awards®, go here.
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ADVERTISERS COUNTER ONLINE PIRACY AND COUNTERFEITING– On May 3, 2012, at the International Anti-Counterfeiting Conference in Washington, DC, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) released a Statement of Best Practices encouraging marketers to counter online piracy and counterfeiting.

DPE President Paul E. Almeida commended the advertisers’ action:

“This is an important announcement for job protection and job creation; we should all be looking for ways to support online businesses that do the right thing. No one should be doing business with rogue sites that deal in stolen goods that undermine the ability of hardworking middle-class people to make a living. On behalf of the 4 million members of the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO, I thank the members of the Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies, and ask that everyone in the advertising community follow their lead.”

U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel commented, “This Administration strongly supports voluntary efforts by the private sector to reduce infringement. We believe this is a positive step and that such efforts can have a significant impact on reducing online piracy and counterfeiting.”

To see the ANA and 4A’s press release, go here. To read the Statement of Best Practices, click here
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RESEARCH REPORT URGES BETTER EVALUATION FOR SCHOOL PRINCIPALS– A new report urges education reformers to go beyond student achievement gains in evaluating school principals.

Released on May 1, 2012 by the American Institutes for Research (AIR), “The Ripple Effect: A Synthesis of Research on Principal Influence to Inform Performance Evaluation Design” notes the far-reaching impact of school leaders: “Although the nearly 90,000 public school principals constitute a relatively small percentage of the public education sector, their work can have a ‘ripple effect’ on the 3.4 million teachers and 55 million PK–12 students in the United States.”

The report contrasts existing models for evaluating principals’ performance and concludes they are inadequate. It recommends that policymakers instead adopt a “research-based framework” that includes “principals’ practice, direct effects on schools and teachers, and indirect effects on instruction and learning.” The report also underscores that policymakers need to bring principals into discussions of reform: “Principals’ voices, at times, have been lost in efforts to create better performance evaluation systems. In many ways, principals are best positioned to construct a realistic and nuanced definition of effective leadership that accurately reflects the context of schooling.” In response to the report, American Federation of School Administrators (AFSA) President Diann Woodard observed:

“The research … only confirms what school leaders have experienced first-hand for years. When principal evaluations are based solely on student achievement, namely test scores, our leadership abilities and years of classroom experience are suddenly diminished to a number that reflects what a student faces each day at school and at home; a number that lacks the integrity to define what our jobs truly demand of us.

“Principals are an integral part of a school and its community, and just as a school cannot be defined by one child, neither can a principal be defined by one single job task. The relation between a principal and the overall health of a school is complex at the least, and to base a principal’s effectiveness chiefly off the test scores of students is a poor and misguided approach.”

For more information about AFSA, go here. To read the AIR press release, click here. For the complete report, go here.
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RABIN CENTER HONORS J. DAVID COX – On May 9, 2012, the American Friends of the Yitzhak Rabin Center honored J. David Cox (left, speaking at the event), with the Yitzhak Rabin Public Service Award. Cox is National Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and DPE Chair. Photo © AFGE, all rights reserved.

Speakers included political and labor leaders, among many others Dalia Rabin, Yitzhak Rabin’s daughter and Chair of the Rabin Center; Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD), AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler (by video), AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker, and AFGE President John Gage. Representing DPE among the hundreds of celebrants were President Paul E. Almeida and Executive Director David Cohen.

The Rabin Center is an archives, educational center, and museum in Tel Aviv, Israel that commemorates the assassinated Israeli prime minister. Its Executive Conference Room will be named in Cox’s honor.  For AFGE photos from the event, go here. For a Federal Times account, click here.
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LIBRARY WORKERS, UNITE! AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, JUNE 21-26 – Join DPE to promote the benefits of organizing unions at the 2012 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Meeting and Exposition, June 21-26, 2012 in Anaheim, CA.

As co-chair of the AFL-CIO/ALA Joint Committee on Library Service to Labor Groups (Joint Committee), DPE Researcher and Representative Jennifer Dorning has worked with Joint Committee members to craft “Keep the Fight Going: Libraries Fight Back!” Scheduled for Monday, June 25 from 10:30 am to 12 pm, Room 210D, Anaheim Convention Center, the session will feature Connie Williams, teacher librarian at Petaluma High School and union representative for the Petaluma Federation of Teachers, Local 1881; Nicole Williams, reference librarian at the Englewood Public Library and shop steward for the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), Local 108; and Anne Cisney, President of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 2083, Seattle Public Library.

When budget crises occur, libraries always seem to be the first offered for sacrifice. This program will examine the essential services that libraries – public and academic – provide to communities locally and globally. The program will highlight how unions serve as advocates for librarians and teacher librarians; how RWDSU was able to fight back against drastic proposed budget cuts in Englewood, NJ; and how the creation of labor-management partnerships can improve the relationship between labor and management and the operation of libraries.

The Joint Committee will have a table at the annual conference staffed by Jennifer Dorning and other Joint Committee members. Please stop by. Learn about the union difference and union advocacy, and pick up a “friend of labor” ribbon for your badge.

“Keep the Fight Going: Libraries Fight Back” will be open only to ALA Annual Meeting attendees. For information about day passes, the ALA Annual Meeting, or the work of DPE with ALA, please contact Researcher and Representative Jennifer Dorning, jdorning@dpeaflcio.org, (202) 638-0320 extension 114.
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DPE RESPONDS TO CALL FOR AUCTIONING GUEST WORKER VISAS – DPE responded to a May 2012 report, Rationalizing U.S. Immigration Policy: Reforms for Simplicity, Fairness, and Economic Growth, by Giovanni Peri of the Hamilton Project. Peri proposes that employers be permitted to purchase work permits for guest workers at auction. The work permit would be used by the employer to hire a temporary guest worker for up to five years after the worker obtains a visa to enter the country. Employers would be free to pay the guest worker any wage. The goal of the auction system is to create a market-based immigration system.

The response from DPE made clear that a virtually unfettered free-market immigration system is an extremely poor substitute for sensible immigration policy that balances the needs of employers and workers. The auction scheme includes no protections for wages or workers, but instead grants employers extensive access to the global labor pool. Free markets tend to lower worker wages, which is accomplished by flooding the market with low-cost labor.

DPE reiterated its support for the immigration reform proposal crafted by former U.S. Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall and supported by the AFL-CIO. This proposal would de-politicize our immigration system by creating an independent commission that would assess labor market needs on an ongoing basis. The commission would be required to examine the impact of immigration on the economy, wages, workforce, and business. The full DPE response, DPE Responds to the Hamilton Project Proposal to Auction Guest Worker Visas, can be found here.

For more information, contact DPE Researcher and Representative Jennifer Dorning by phone at (202) 638-0320 extension 114, or email, jdorning@dpeaflcio.org.
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DPE LATEST: LIBRARY WORKERS, LABOR MARKET, AND STEM WORKFORCE– DPE has updated three of its Fact Sheets:

• Library Workers: Facts and Figures
• The World of Work: A Labor Market Overview
• The STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math] Workforce: An Occupational Overview

To view a complete list of DPE Fact Sheets, visit our website. For more information, contact DPE Researcher and Representative Jennifer Dorning, (202) 638-0320 extension 114, jdorning@dpeaflcio.org.
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DO THE ARTS SPUR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT? – Advocates for government subsidies to the arts regularly argue that the arts spur economic development. Do they? The short answer from researchers: Maybe.

On May 10, 2012, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Brookings Institution co-sponsored “The Arts, New Growth Theory, and Economic Development.” Papers jointly commissioned by the NEA Office of Research and Analysis and Michael Rushton, the co-editor of the Journal of Cultural Economics, examined the impact of art and culture on the U.S. economy, including the role of cities in facilitating growth. New growth theory argues that, in advanced economies, economic growth stems less from additional capital and more from new ideas.

Keynote speaker Edward Glaeser, Harvard professor and Director of the Taubman Center for State and Local Government, called most work on the arts and economics “very non-conclusive.” “The real reason to subsidize art,” he said, “is because art makes life worthwhile.”

A number of the research papers found a correlation between the arts and economic activity. As Williams College economist Stephen C. Sheppard noted, proving causation is trickier. How many new car dealerships locate in a metropolitan area also correlates with economic activity.

A provocative presentation by Michigan State University professor Robert Root-Bernstein showed that the more productive and distinguished a scientist is, the more likely that he or she has engaged in active arts or crafts since childhood. Root-Bernstein noted that even a year of arts or crafts education may improve a student’s performance in science, technology, engineering, and math courses.

The presenters’ slides, abstracts of the papers, and video including the discussions after each panel, are online here. For the slides from Root-Bernstein, go here. Representing DPE at the symposium was Executive Director David Cohen.
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END THIS DEPRESSION NOW! – So reads the title of the latest book from Paul Krugman, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics, columnist for The New York Times, and professor at Princeton. In a book event at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) on May 2, 2012, Krugman explained how. One key: rehiring teachers and renewing highway construction.

For three years, Krugman declared, federal policy has moved in the wrong direction: “One party has gone completely off the deep end.” Bad economics that appeals to a few very rich people has become mainstream because they bought control of a major part of the political process: “People like me are actually saying, ‘Take your textbooks seriously.’”

“The magnitude of the disaster tends to get forgotten,” Krugman said. He highlighted extraordinarily high long-term unemployment. The lack of jobs creates “a terrible, terrible environment for young people trying to start their working lives” that will scar their entire careers.

Events in Europe have shown that austerity is not the solution. Instead, as part of a more general economic stimulus, we should return to normal state and local spending. Krugman asserted that alone will bring 1.3 million new jobs.

Representing DPE at the EPI event was Executive Director David Cohen. For video, go here. For a Krugman column in The New York Times that reprises much of Krugman’s talk, click here. For an AFL-CIO blog account, go here.

To buy the book from a union bookstore, go to Powell’s Books. The employees of Powell’s Books organized and joined International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 5. Ordering through their website contributes 7.5% to their strike fund. If you do not have online access, call Powell’s Books direct at 800-878-7323.
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OUR DIVIDED POLITICAL HEART: U.S. HISTORY SHOWS BALANCE THAT CONSERVATIVES FORGET – A balance between the individual and the community has been an integral part of U.S. history. Even more striking, that balance – including its emphasis on an individual’s obligations to the community – has long been a core element of the conservative tradition.

So argues E.J. Dionne in his new book, Our Divided Political Heart: The Battle for the American Idea in an Age of Discontent. Dionne traces U.S. history to remind the Tea Party radicals who exalt individualism that true conservatives have long found that responsibility accompanies liberty. In Newsweek, Paul Begala writes:

“Why has the GOP gone off this far-right cliff? As he has so often, E.J. Dionne has written a brilliant new book, and it places our current division in political and cultural context. In Our Divided Political Heart, Dionne points out that one of the reasons we can’t agree on where we’re going is that we can’t even agree on where we’ve been—or who we are. …

“Dionne argues that we must honor the tensions between two strains of the American Dream: the rugged individualists who respect those who make it on their own; and the communitarians who revere the Americans who help their neighbors, fight our fires, and wage our wars. Both are central to the American character.”

E. J. Dionne Jr. is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a columnist for The Washington Post, and a professor at Georgetown University. He appears weekly on NPR and regularly on MSNBC and NBC’s Meet the Press. He is the author, editor, or coeditor of numerous books, including the bestseller Why Americans Hate Politics. Dionne served as the keynote speaker at the June 2008 leadership meeting that launched Professionals for the Public Interest: Associations and Unions Defending Professional Integrity, which DPE began organizing in 2007.

To buy the book from a union bookstore, go to http://www.ilwulocal5.com/ and order through its link to Powell’s Books. The employees of Powell’s Books organized and joined International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 5. Ordering through their website contributes 7.5% to their strike fund. If you do not have online access, call Powell’s Books direct at 800-878-7323.
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DPE SIGNS ON – On May 8, 2012, DPE joined dozens of other organizations, including AFT and the AFL-CIO, in a letter to all members of Congress urging their support for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. To read the letter, go here and click on the link.

DPE joined the Directors Guild of America, IATSE, and SAG-AFTRA in a May 17 letter to the U.S. Department of Commerce calling for safeguards for new generic top-level domains administered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. To read the letter, go here and click on the link.
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DPE IN THE NEWS – A May 11, 2012 post on HERvotes, “My Time, Intellect, Skills and Labor are Worth Less than Those of My Male Peers? Really? Yes, Really.” cited the DPE Fact Sheet, “Professional Women: A Gendered Look at Occupational Obstacles and Opportunities.” To read the post, click here. The Coalition of Labor Union Women home page provides an Equal Pay Resource Guide that links to the same Fact Sheet.
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