On my way to work each morning, I walk past the Attorney General’s office on South Main Street, and I never tire of giggling at the building’s inscription:

With great power comes great responsibility. — Stan Lee

Yesterday, it seems, this motto received more than mere lip service when special assistant AG Molly K. Cote managed to prove two ACI guards—Former Capt. Gualter Botas and former Lt. Kenneth Viveiros—guilty on charges of assaulting four inmates.

The ProJo reports:

Yesterday’s verdicts, which culminated an 18-day trial before Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Procaccini, came after jurors had deliberated for less than four hours over the course of two days.

Afterward, state corrections Director A.T. Wall issued a statement that began with a quote from former President Theodore Roosevelt: “No man is above the law and no man is beneath it.”

“These two former correctional officers have now been held accountable in a court of law for their abuse of inmates entrusted to their custody,” Wall said. “They do not represent the staff of this department. In fact, through their actions, they have dishonored the 1,500 men and women who perform their jobs with pride, professionalism and integrity every day. These men and women do a very difficult job, and they do it without breaking the law.”

Their charges are misdemeanors, carrying a maximum sentence of up to one year in prison. Can you imagine the fate of an inmate convicted of beating inmates? Botas and Viveiros have yet to be sentenced, but each, rightly, has been fired by the Department of Corrections.

Providence Business News reports  big cuts to wages and health care in the Laborers’ International Union of North American Local 1033’s–the biggest union in town–new contract with the city.  Remember, lower wages and inaccessible health care for union workers means lower wages and inaccessible health care for everyone who works for a living: 

The City of Providence said changes were made to prevent layoffs and maintain job, financial and retirement security for employees (including an 8-percent wage increase over the next 37 months), and are seen as a big step forward in public-employee labor negotiations, according to Mayor David N. Cicilline. With other union contracts coming up, the new deal may serve as a model. . . .    

One change that will have an impact on union workers is an increase in health-care cost co-sharing, which will nearly double over the next four years. Individuals’ cosharing will jump to $1,000 per year from $400, while family plans will see an increase to $1,900 from $900.

 I know there’s a recession on and we’re all suffering, but I can’t help but wonder why Cicilline and some of his well paid staffers,  who make six figures, aren’t stepping up to cut their salaries and take their share of the pain.

An update for Dave’s coverage of last night’s immigration raids that took janitors across the state–RI Jobs with Justice and others are holding a press conference in about half an hour to respond to last night’s events:

Last night ICE detained 31 people as they got to work.
Stand together today to say we won’t let raids break up our communities.
Join us TODAY (7/16) at 3pm in front of family court. 1 Dorrance Plaza.

You can also read about the raids in today’s BeloJo.

In a series of articles that started running this weekend, Steve Peoples points out that, in fact, Big Labor bosses don’t actually run Rhode Island; as is the case throughout the country, union density is dropping, shedding 1,000 or more members each year. (There are many reasons for this, and labor’s situation would certainly improve under a Dem president, and with passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.)

The article ends up amounting to an affirmation of those very principles that underly the labor movement: There’s strength in numbers, and by building solidarities and working in common cause we can achieve things that might otherwise be impossible.

But organized labor also has a strong voice in discussions about over health -care cuts for the poor, reduced benefits for foster children, environmental causes like recycling, and even gay marriage….

“The reality is that for a lot of our various advocacy organizations and service organizations, it takes organized labor sometimes to push them over the top in terms of helping them build the power they need to win on their issue,” says Karen Malcolm, executive director of Ocean State Action. “In turn, labor gains new alliances and partnerships. Labor gains support –– whenever you work an alliance there is a give and take.”

Also Pat Crowley hones right in on this great George Nee quote:

“The hippies never had the work ethic. You didn’t work for the farm workers if you were a hippie. We were very, very disciplined,” says Nee, a Boston native, reflecting on his early days in the labor movement.”

The legendary Scott Molloy will have to figure out how to speak with his indoor voice, as he tells tales of the RI labor movement circa 1838, and the Dorr Rebellion.  Not to be missed.

Fri, 5/16, 5-7pm: SALON – Meanwhile, At That Same Moment… part 7: Historian Scott Molloy on the labor movement, circa 1838.

Rhode Island workers organized themselves into a primitive labor union in 1789, a year before the establishment of Slater’s Mill. By the 1830s the local Mechanics Association was already agitating for a ten-hour workday, better working conditions, and the right to vote for ordinary citizens.

The Union, led by the state’s first notable working class leader, Seth Luther, rallied, petitioned, and lobbied for their demands. By 1838 these skilled workers took the lead in setting the stage for the Dorr Rebellion in 1842 with its host of constitutional changes and democratic initiatives. Although their effort failed to some extent, these tradesmen did manage to enlarge the suffrage and ensure inclusion of their voices in future political debates.

For Athenaeum members and their guests.

As the JwJ National Conference continues, I’ll be moderating a ‘Green Jobs’ panel today at 1:30, in the Westin’s Newport Room.

For the full agenda, head on over here.

To the chagrin of the powers that be, a zillion lefty activists will descend on RI this weekend, for the Jobs With Justice national conference.  To register, click HERE.As part of the event, there will be both a march and a rally at the state house.  The March starts at the Westin Hotel at 3:45 PM on Friday, May 2nd.  While the rally is at the State House from 5-6PM.

The weekend will include a whole slew of events — lectures, workshops on everything under the sun, parties, banquets, and open mics.

Volunteers are still needed.  If you can help, please email Pat Crowley at crowley767 at hotmail.com.

The agenda’s after the jump.  And a list of workshops is here.

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This is really good news — and as such won’t get mentioned on talk radio or be the subject of Projo staff editorials:

Rhode Island had the best record for worker safety in 2006, with the lowest rate of job fatalities, according to the annual Death on the Job report scheduled for release today by the AFL-CIO. The study includes how many people lost their lives or were injured at workplaces.

Rhode Island’s rate for worker fatalities was 1.8 per 100,000 workers, slightly less than half the national average of 4 per 100,000 workers, the national labor organization’s data show. Rhode Island tied with New Hampshire for the lowest worker fatality rate and Alaska had the highest. In total, Rhode Island had 10 deaths and 17,200 cases of work place injuries and illnesses in 2006.

As we’ve mentioned a couple of times, the Jobs with Justice national conference will be in Providence this May. JWJ is looking for a local artist to design an official conference logo for t-shirts and such. (And there’s some money in the offing.)

If you’re interested, why don’t you email us here, and we’ll pass along the info.

Something cool at Brown this Wednesday for Women’s History Month:

“Women in the Labor Movement”
4:30pm on Wednesday, March 5
Petteruti Lounge in Faunce House
75 Waterman St.
Providence, RI
Featuring Roxana Rivera
RI Director of SEIU Local 615 and workers from Brown

Learn about the role of women in leading and joining the labor movement. Hear Roxana Rivera’s perspective on being a female leader in what remains a male-dominated movement and workers from Brown speak about being part of the union.

Sponsored by the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center and Women Students at Brown and the Student Labor Alliance as part of Women’s History Month 2008: Women Inside/Outside Tradition

This has been going on for years and years now, but now we’re getting e-mail propaganda from the city about it. If you missed the Special Edition of Providence City News that just came out, here’s some highlights:

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The Providence Newspaper Guild Follies are this Friday — and with Rhode Island politically relevant at the national level, there’s hardcore speculation about who the surprise special guest might be.

Making things even more intense — and making it even more likely that the presidential campaigns will be paying attention: The annual conference of the national Newspaper Guild will be in town this weekend. Meaning that reporters from all over the country will be descending upon Providence. And, in particular, they’re reporters who take their union memberships seriously, and therefore are likely to be especially attuned to politics, and happenings on the Democratic side of the presidential race.

May or may not be too late to get tickets — give the Guild a ring over at (401) 421-9466.

Another bit of momentum in the push for a green economy in Rhode Island. This op-ed by George Nee and Chris Wilhite comes out of a working group of enviro advocates and trades unionists that Sens Miller and Moura, RI Jobs With Justice, and I have been convening:

At the same time, Rhode Island’s excessive dependence on imported energy threatens our environment and our national security. The massive amount of energy that Rhode Island imports creates a drain on our economy. The good news is that environmental challenges like global warming represent the most important economic opportunities of our generation while protecting our coastlines and our beloved Narragansett Bay.

That’s why the Sierra Club Rhode Island Chapter and the Rhode Island AFL-CIO share a vision for Rhode Island’s new energy economy. This new vision is integral to bridging the gap between environmental groups and the labor community in regard to Quonset Point. Now we are joining forces to make Quonset the potential center of the new-energy economy and to reduce our dependence on imported energy in two ways: 1) invest in renewable power; and 2) conserve our energy resources.

This is big, and will move a lot of votes in RI:

Two labor sources tell Politico that the giant Service Employees International Union, which has been neutral through the primary, is on the verge of throwing its support to Sen. Barack Obama.

“It’s done,” said one person close to the union.

SEIU spokeswoman Stephanie Mueller confirmed that union leaders are set to discuss a potential endorsement today.

“Our board is going to be talking this evening,” she said. “This will be a topic of their conversation.”

This has been a 3-year fight by the Brown Student Labor Alliance and other activists:

Brown just agreed to sign onto the Designated Suppliers Program, which needs to be in place in order to effectively fight sweatshops and provide a decent labor standard for those who make university apparel.

Brown was actually an early leader in anti-sweatshop work, having been the first school to sign onto the Workers Rights Consortium, the organization that first brought together schools who pledged to fight sweatshops, and spun off the DSP. But the WRC has been ineffectual, for one key reason:

The capital that funds the production of apparel is incredibly mobile. So when workers agitate for better conditions, or universities or other more benevolent entities insist on better conditions, the capital from the multi-nationals (Reebok, Nike, etc) flies away to cheaper shops. Leaving the factories in question without enough contracts to survive.

The DSP tries to solve this by having colleges and universities direct their contracts to specific factories, providing them with the critical mass of contracts needed to stay afloat.

So congratulations to the student activists who made this happen!!! It was an arduous process, that included disruption of a million meetings — and at least one naked raiding of the main green and Ruth Simmons’s office. (That, in typical Brown fashion, was briefly derailed by a semi-nude a cappella performance that was accidentally scheduled for the same time and place…)

I’m going to do something different this week so, this column won’t take its standard gush-about-stuff-from-this-week format, because I’m responding to something Newbury Comics has done in their weekly comic book and graphic novel e-mail newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. For my thoughts on this week, you can check my blog.

Okay, so down to business. Publishing 10 best comic book titles of 2007 lists from your superexploited employees (I say superexploited because people who work in Newbury Comics don’t make a lot and tend to be people who chose the work environment because of an affinity for some superfluous product the store sells–i.e. comics, cds, hello kitty dolls–and so end up spending a huge portion of their limited income at the company store. I don’t even want to imagine the kind of debt I’d wrack up if I spent 5 days a week surrounded by comics for sale. Yikes. Sorry, huge tangent.) would not seem to be a task that the first week of February 2008 would call for. I know if I were left to my own devices I would never dream of publishing a list of my 10 favorie comics from 2007 this week, but Newbury Comics had to go and do that. What’s worse is that the lists provided by these guys (and they were obviously all male) demonstrate that they are even less equipped to provide such a list to the general public than I am. In the course of human events, there comes a time when I must cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war against Newbury Comics’ tardy best of 2007 lists. (more…)