What's behind Andrew Stern's resignation as president of the powerful Service Employees International Union (SEIU)? Anna Burger, SEIU's #2 and the so-called "Queen of Labor," was expected to take his place, but she also quit (or was ousted), and the new president is Mary Kay Henry, a union unknown. Not since the old days of Kremlinology has there been so much speculation about leadership changes in a closed society. In this month's Labor Watch Ivan Osorio examines what's known about the infighting at SEIU and what it portends.
Grantmaking foundations fund the National Day Laborers Organizing Committee (NDLON) and labor unions urge it to become a recognized AFL-CIO affiliate representing casual day labor. Casual workers are typically hired off the street or in labor centers by employers in construction, roofing and landscaping firms. The problem is that an estimated 75 percent of them are in the U.S. illegally. In this month's Foundation Watch journalist David Hogberg notes that NDLON does not directly lobby to give illegal immigrants amnesty. Instead, it proposes legislation to improve the working conditions of day labor. The clever strategy: If their working conditions can be subject to clear labor standards so that everything they do is legal, then why shouldn't their residency status be legalized too?
You thought ACORN's federal grants were cut off? Think again. Because of a quirk in the law Congress's ban on funding ACORN will end at the end ot this month, writes CRC senior editor Matthew Vadum, our ACORN expert, in Big Government.com. Meanwhile the HUD Inspector General has just issued a report finding that an ACORN affiilate may be misusing taxpayer dollars by receiving grant payments for the salaries of employees who have been terminated.
We are spreading the word alerting readers about CRC education fellow Phil Brand's great new book, "The Neighbor's Kid: A Cross-Country Journey in Search of What Education Means to Americans." This 180 page book is in part a travel diary of Phil's visits to parents, teachers and students at 100 schools in 49 states (sorry, Alaska). It's also a discussion of the varieties of school choice and education reform across our country. "The Neighbor's Kid" is available from Amazon.com, or from our distributor AmP Publishers (or call them at 1-800-621-2736) or call CRC directly at 202/483-6900.
Phil has a praiseworthy blog at the Washington Examiner website strongly defending the philanthropy of David and Charles Koch, who have come under attack in a nasty article in the New Yorker magazine. Phil says that without the help of the Koch foundation he would not have had the educational opportunities he enjoyed in Washington, DC, which included the chance to write a book about education reform!
We are saddened to learn belatedly that Dr. Robert Lerner died in May. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Dr. Althea Nagai, who with her husband wrote a number of studies for CRC drawing upon their expertise in statistics.
The job of the Capital Research Center is to monitor political activism in the nonprofit sector. We hope you will consider making a contribution to the Capital Research Center. Many thanks for your support.
Terrence Scanlon
President
Capital Research Center
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