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Chicago schools and teachers are once again under serious attack from Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, and once again, the Chicago Teachers Union is showing that it is a powerful force. Thousands of teachers and supporters rallied Thursday, with 16 people arrested, protesting massive proposed cuts and layoffs:

Officials with Chicago Public Schools said Tuesday they're ready to cut $100 million from school budgets and force teachers to pay more pension costs after their union rejected the latest contract offer, ratcheting up the tone of contentious negotiations that have lasted over a year. [...]

The latest flare-up followed an offer a CTU bargaining team rejected Monday, after both sides had deemed it "serious." The proposal included pay raises and job security, but union officials said it didn't address school conditions or a lack of services.

The teachers have authorized a strike, though that wouldn’t happen until spring if it happens at all.

A judge wouldn't block Detroit teachers from protesting horrible conditions in the city’s schools by calling out sick, so Michigan Republican lawmakers are planning to go after the teachers with a new law.

The legislation, sponsored by Senate Republicans, would shorten the amount of time – from 60 days to two days – that the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) has to hold a hearing on a complaint that a teacher has taken part in a strike. Teacher strikes are illegal in Michigan.

The legislation would also fine districts that don't comply with MERC's rulings. The proposed fine is 5 percent of a district's total state aid payment.

In addition, the legislation would enable the state superintendent to suspend for two years or permanently revoke the certificate of a teacher who was found to have participated in a strike. The union representing teachers who participated in a strike could also be decertified for five years if it's determined that a strike occurred.

So Republican lawmakers can screw Michigan teachers and students any way they want—rodents and rotting food and ceilings falling in and mold and fungus in the schools, Flint’s former emergency manager, indignity heaped on abuse—and teachers don’t get to protest. Not if they want to remain teachers, anyway, not if this bill passes. And Michigan Republicans have shown they’ll pass outrageous, scary stuff time after time.

 Add the International Association of Fire Fighters to the long list of people and organizations that won’t be endorsing Ted Cruz for president. In his Iowa caucus victory speech, Cruz did some posturing about how great he’d be for firefighters and other first responders, and, rather than being pleased and flattered by the attention, the IAFF’s president calls it “disgusting.” Cruz’s words sounded celebratory (while delivering the obligatory Obama slam):

"To the police officers, and the firemen and the first responders, the heroes who rushed in to burning buildings instead of out of burning buildings, the last seven years of having a president, having an attorney general that demonizes you, that vilifies you, that sides with the criminals and looters instead of the brave men and women of law enforcement -- that will end on Jan. 20, 2017," [Cruz] said.

Problem is, Cruz opposed reauthorizing a law that provides health care for 9/11 first responders. You know, the people who rushed into the burning World Trade Center and then sifted through its still-smoking wreckage. It’s not hard to see why firefighters would be a tad annoyed to hear Cruz telling a national audience how he’d be their champion.

"What Ted Cruz did the other night in his Iowa victory speech is disgusting," said Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters. "He said he embraces fire fighters and the dangerous work they do, says he’s our friend and calls himself a great patriot. But when it came time to actually have the backs of fire fighters across the U.S., he was AWOL. Cruz is the worst kind of politician who will say or do anything to get elected." 

● New York Uber drivers are pissed, with good reason.

A crowd of 600 drivers gathered outside the Uber office in Long Island City, Queens, to protest a 15 percent reduction in fares last month, which also means 15 percent lower wages. That pay cut is on top of Uber’s 20 percent slashing of fares in 2014. All things being equal, drivers who began less than two years ago have seen their pay tumble a whopping 35 percent.

Actually, it’s not just New York.

Last September, Dallas-area drivers for UberBlack, the company’s high-end car service, received an email informing them that they would be expected to start picking up passengers on UberX, its low-cost option.

The next day, when the policy was scheduled to go into effect, dozens of drivers caravaned to Uber’s office in downtown Dallas and planted themselves outside until company officials met with them.

Indiana repealed prevailing wage protections to let them lower wages on public construction projects … and costs have gone up since then.

● Not your typical Alabama labor story:

The state's largest employer – the University of Alabama at Birmingham and UAB Medicine – plans to raise employees' minimum wage to $11 an hour beginning in March.

UAB employs more than 23,000 faculty and staff. The institution currently pays $8.24 an hour, about a dollar higher than the federally mandated minimum wage.

● For union members: seven steps to opening up bargaining.

● Workers Independent News report for February 3, 2016:

● 

Darnell Earley was the emergency manager who put toxic water in the homes of Flint, Michigan, and he’s the emergency manager who has presided over Detroit public schools with fungus growing in the halls, rotten and moldy food served to students, and serious rodent infestations. Now the big question is, where’s the next place Gov. Rick Snyder will override democracy to put Earley in charge? Because Earley is stepping down from being the Detroit schools’ emergency manager at the end of the month. 

Earley is declaring victory because “comprehensive restructuring necessary to downsizing the central office” blah blah blah, but the announcement of his departure comes after sustained teacher protest over terrible conditions in the schools and a lawsuit that, among other things, called for him to be removed from his position. According to a statement by Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich:

“For the sake of the kids, Earley needed to go, but this move should in no way allow him to dodge his responsibility to fully comply with every investigation about his role in the Flint water crisis. The governor must demand that he testify before Congress tomorrow and be completely transparent in turning over every document related to what happened.

“The public also has a right to know all the details about his severance package, contract terms and any nondisclosure agreement. Make no mistake, this announcement today was not motivated by what is best for the children — it was about saving face for the politicians who are worried about what he might reveal under oath.”

In response to Earley’s announcement, the Detroit Federation of Teachers called for the schools to be returned to local control: “Appointing another emergency manager won’t fix Detroit’s education crisis. Now is the time for DPS to have an elected school board that answers to the people of this great city.”

Donald Trump’s appeal to white working-class voters is something Democrats are going to have to grapple with if he becomes the Republican presidential nominee. We know that intuitively, and now Working America, the community affiliate of the AFL-CIO, has provided a more in-depth look at the challenge. The organization sent canvassers to talk to 1,689 people in white working-class communities in Pennsylvania and Ohio. The good news is that 53 percent of the people Working America talked to are undecided when it comes to presidential candidates. But there’s plenty of bad news:

• Donald Trump was favored by more than a third of those who chose a candidate (38%), overwhelming all other Republican candidates (27% combined). Nearly the same number chose one of two Democratic candidates, Clinton (22%) or Sanders (12%).
• While most of Trump’s support comes from the staunch Republican base, 1 in 4 Democrats who chose a candidate showed a preference for Trump. [...]
• Party loyalty did not determine candidate choice as much as expected. Of Trump partisans, 58% said they would support him even if he runs as an independent. Additionally, a small number of Trump supporters were considering a Democrat if Trump doesn’t end up on the ballot.
• Good jobs/the economy, which is historically the priority concern of Working America constituents, remains the top issue among voters we talked with, at 27%, with homeland security and terrorism next (14%) and health care as the third most frequently cited priority (10%).
• Immigration was the top issue for only 5% of all those canvassed, but for Trump supporters it was the third–most-important issue (cited by 14%), after good jobs/the economy (29%) and homeland security and terrorism (21%). Voters for whom immigration is the priority issue are often Trump partisans (48%), but overall, those who prioritize immigration are a relatively small number.

It’s definitely not an “abandon all hope” situation—definitely not—but we have our work cut out for us. This unscientific survey also provides reminders that talking to people who disagree with us can be worthwhile:

For example, there was the man in Wadsworth who supported Trump because he wants to repeal Obamacare, yet struggled because he has multiple sclerosis as a preexisting condition; he did not make the connection between the two until his conversation with the canvasser.

Additionally, canvassers encountered people whose first choice was Trump and whose second choice was either Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton.

A jury has told Walmart to pay $31.22 million to a New Hampshire woman who says she was fired in retaliation for pointing out poor safety practices. Maureen McPadden also said there was an added element of gender bias in her firing:

McPadden claimed that Wal-Mart used her loss of a pharmacy key as a pretext for firing her in November 2012, when she was 47, after more than 13 years at the retailer.

McPadden said she was fired in retaliation for her raising concerns that customers at the Wal-Mart store in Seabrook, New Hampshire, where she worked were getting prescriptions filled improperly because of inadequate staff training.

McPadden also said her gender played a role, alleging that Wal-Mart later disciplined but stopped short of firing a male pharmacist in New Hampshire who also lost his pharmacy key.

Walmart will be appealing, but this jury decision comes as the retailer is fighting two gender-related lawsuits in Pennsylvania, one from a woman who says she was told to choose between her career and her kids and one from a woman who was denied family leave and fired when she asked for family medical leave to take care of her sick mother. McPadden’s case has another element of familiarity—employers like Walmart often come up with flimsy reasons to fire people who’ve complained or organized—but there’s plenty of evidence that a woman who works at Walmart will always have a target on her back.

It’s been seven years since the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first piece of legislation President Obama signed. That law was a small step toward equality, but the United States needs big steps, and Congress has (predictably) blocked that progress since. So Obama, who has been increasingly willing to do what he can to work around Congress, is taking that strategy to the push for equal pay:

President Barack Obama will make his latest push to advance equal pay for women Friday, proposing a new rule that will require companies to report pay data by gender, race and ethnicity, the White House announced.

The rule, which would apply to companies that have 100 or more employees, will require employers to include salary information on a form already submitted to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that currently includes employees' sex and age.

That will make it easier to see and investigate patterns in companies’ pay practices. Of course, it’ll take a while for this rule to be finalized and it wouldn’t go into effect until September 2017—which is another reminder of how very important it is to elect a Democratic president this November. Do you think Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, or Marco Rubio is going to make companies report information that might show they’re discriminating?

Here’s a good—and by good I mean terrible—example of the lengths to which American bosses will go to deny their workers a living wage. Low-paid contract workers in the Senate fought hard to get the word out that, while they’re serving senators, their low wages forced them to work second jobs and still scrape to care for their families. The group of janitors and cafeteria workers held one-day strikes. Bernie Sanders rallied with them before the pope’s visit. They fought hard, and they won … sort of.

The company that directly employs the workers agreed to give them substantial raises. But, the Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell explains, the story didn’t end there. After the new wages were agreed on, workers started getting called into the manager’s office, where they were told they had new job titles. 

“I’m a cook, and I’ve always been a cook,” said 45-year-old Bertrand Olotara. “Now suddenly he’s telling me I’m a ‘food service worker.’ ”

Olotara’s duties didn’t change; he’s still cooking burgers, eggs and Philly cheesesteaks, just as he always had.

But his title matters.

See, wages in the new contract were occupation-specific. And lo and behold, “food service worker” falls into a lower tier than “cook.”

Rather than getting the big raise Olotara expected as a cook — which would have upped his pay to $17.45 — he was entitled to just $13.80 as a “food service worker.”

Olotara isn’t the only one with this basic story. Good Jobs Nation, the group organizing the workers, has filed a Labor Department complaint. The workers may end up getting the raises they were promised, the raises they earned for the jobs they were—and still are—doing.

But they wouldn’t have gotten raises without organizing. They wouldn’t have a chance of winning without labor laws and federal employment rules that tell bosses ”you can’t do that.” And too many other workers across the country face the same kind of low wages, the same kind of rat-bastard bosses, without the attention-getting hook of working in the Senate and without the help of unions and organizing groups. As it is, these advocates are stretched too thin by the magnitude of the opposition they face from giant corporations, and the individual rat-bastards they employ and train to screw workers whenever possible.

● The local plumbers union is helping install water filters in Flint, Michigan:

The local plumbers union started going door too door on Thursday, and since then they've helped about a thousand homes.

"It's a little easier for me just cause I've been around it," said Slatton. "I know what I'm doing, what I"m looking for."

He's just one of about 20 plumbers working on the project every day, visiting the elderly or disabled first.

● Missouri lawmakers get into fist fight over anti-union law. I guess if you’re going to throw punches over anything …

● The long-term numbers on union membership remain very bad, but what passes for good news is that the union membership rate held steady in 2015.

● A court case is challenging Massachusetts’ cap on charter school numbers. Now the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice and the New England Area Conference of the NAACP are weighing in against that suit:

“It is critical that the voices of students in traditional public schools be heard in this lawsuit,” saidMatthew Cregor, Education Project Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice and one of the lead attorneys for the student intervenors.  “Traditional public school students – particularly those who are underserved by charter schools – suffer immense harm as more and more funds are diverted to charter schools.”  He noted that earlier this year, Boston Public Schools announced that it expects to cut $50 million from its 2016-17 school year budget, citing shifts in enrollment as one of the key reasons for the shortfall. [...]

“The NAACP is firmly committed to high quality, free, public schools for all,” said Juan Cofield, President of the New England Area Conference of the NAACP.  “All available dollars for education should be used to improve public schools and close the education gap.  Public policy which siphons funds from traditional public schools and expands a dual education system is not a constructive solution, and it will lead to the erosion of traditional public schools.”  He noted that many charter schools are not welcoming environments for students of color, citing evidence of charter schools that suspend Black students at far higher rates than traditional public schools.

The Detroit Federation of Teachers joined with some parents Thursday to sue the school district over conditions in the schools and call for the dismissal of state-appointed Emergency Manager Darnell Earley.

"Asking a child to learn or a teacher to instruct with steam coming from their mouth due to the cold in the classroom, in vermin infested rooms, with ceiling tiles falling from above, with buckets to catch the rain water falling from above, or in buildings that are literally making them sick is more than what is legally or constitutionally tolerable," the lawsuit says.

The complaint also alleges that Earley, who was appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder and has sweeping powers, has neglected his duties and made the district's financial problems worse. Officials have said DPS is in danger of running out of cash in April or May.

The plaintiffs are asking a judge to remove Earley and restore local control to the school district. They also want the district to be ordered to fix the building problems, promptly investigate complaints and create a long-term capital plan.

Earlier in the week, a Detroit student explained why she supports her teachers:

Trying to silence teachers by threatening to take away their jobs is childish and unfair to my education. When you have lost these teachers, how will you replace them? Who wants to work in a school district where ceilings fall on student’s heads, and mushrooms grow in the hallways? I did not have an English teacher for the first
four months of school, and last year I did not have a French teacher the whole first semester. With a history of all these vacancies, how will firing 23 teachers help your case at all. [...]

Legislators, the Emergency Manager and others have said that teachers are hindering our education by doing these sickouts, but the reality is that none of you live in Detroit, and none of you have children who go to a DPS school. None of you have to come to school every day and share books (if we even have books), or be in the middle of doing work and the lights cut off. None of you have to worry about your safety everyday of your life, or walk past mushrooms growing in the hallway. None of you have to skip lunch every day because the food is moldy, and the milk is old. None of you experience what we experience, and until you have, you have no right to speak on anything happening in our district. Our teachers are doing what is best for us, and my education is not being hindered any more than it was when I went a whole Semester without a French/English teacher.

When you’re talking about kids facing unsanitary conditions and hunger and being deprived of a chance at an education, you find the money to fix it. Just like you don’t poison a city’s water supply. Except if you’re Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and his cadre of emergency managers, apparently.

Today, Thursday, is four days before the Iowa caucuses, and the day of the last Republican debate before those caucuses. So Iowa fast food workers decided it was a good day to draw attention to their fight for $15 an hour pay and the right to join a union. It’s a fight that should resonate with plenty of Iowa workers. One of the workers writes in the Des Moines Register that:

The Fight for $15 has also helped me realize that I’m not alone: almost half (48 percent) of all Iowa workers make less than $15 an hour. I am nervous to walk off the job, but it is also empowering to join with other underpaid workers who are coming together this year to finally make a change.

2016 is not just the first time I’m going on strike — it’s also an election year, and for the first time I feel like my voice matters. Since moving to the U.S., I’ve felt so invisible that I never bothered to vote in any election. Politicians didn’t talk about the things that mattered to me, like raising the wage or union rights. I believed companies and politicians alike were blind to my day-to-day struggles.

There are plans for an attention-getting finale on the day:

The walkout is part of a daylong series of protest[s] that will end with a 1,000 person march on the GOP debate.

This is a long fight that won’t be won all at once, but workers have already made significant progress getting the minimum wage raised in several cities and states. And you don’t win if you don’t fight.