From Matt:

Coming on the heels of 200 Providence Headstart workers voting to join SEIU and 600 nurses at Kent Hospital voting to join UNAP, North Smithfield school bus drivers voted “Union Yes!” today by voting to join SEIU.

The 34 school bus drivers and aides work for First Student, Inc. and serve the town of North Smithfield. The secret-ballot vote was supervised by the National Labor Relations Board and workers had the option to choose between two unions – District 1199 SEIU (who represents bus drivers in Lincoln and West Warwick) or the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 618 (who represents RIPTA bus drivers) or to choose no union at all. The final tally was 20 votes for District 1199 SEIU, 4 votes for ATU Local 618, and 10 votes for neither union.

The Arcade’s Christmastime decorations and hustle-bustle helped grow my early love of Providence — the perfect intersection of 34th St and Bedford Falls. The building could certainly use an upgrade, and has been intentionally allowed to atrophy over the last few years. But this is a travesty:

“It was losing money hand over fist,” Granoff said, claiming losses of $10,000 a month. “The goal has been to get an anchor tenant in there.”

The remaining businesses learned of their ejection yesterday from media reports. Shock resonated through the Arcade’s three stories.

“There’s been people crying in here all day,” said Don Beohner, who has owned the jewelry store Copacetic in the Arcade since the 1980s.

“Everybody’s shocked that we’ve only been given 30 days notice. How does anyone move a business in 30 days?” he said. “It’s just really sad. This is where I’ve been for 23 years.”

It’s a travesty — but it’s not a surprise to those of us who’ve had occasion to follow the business practices of Granoff Associates. I became starkly aware of their shenanigans circa 2005, as SEIU organized hard-working, low-wage janitors across downtown. The Granoffs were among the most obstinate in their insistence upon contracting with firms that paid next to nothing, and were the targets of protests and fasts. (We actually got a restraining order against the Providence Police, who were attempting to force peaceful, fasting protesters from the 12-foot wide sidewalk adjacent to Granoff Assoc’s Turk’s Head building.)

And they didn’t relent — even after their contractor illegally threatened to fire employees who spoke to the union, and physically attacked one of them.

So, best of luck to those who occupy the Arcade, and please let me know if I can be of any help.

Now this is some great news:

For the first time in the past quarter of a century, in 2007 U.S. unions increased their share of membership among workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) annual union membership report released today. Unions added about 310,000 members last year, raising the unionized share of the workforce to 12.1 percent from 12.0 percent in 2006.

  On Tuesday, the Student Labor Alliance, RI Jobs with Justice, and others will be hosting Stewart Acuff. List 120 (64 College St.) at 8pm. Acuff is an awesome speaker, and the way-left national director of organizing for the AFL-CIO. With elections on the horizon, and the recent split in the AFL-CIO — because of organizing strategy — it’s an especially interesting time to here what he has to say.

As organizing director, Acuff coordinates strategies to help working men and women join and form unions across the federation’s 53 member unions. He has been a community organizer and union organizer for 25 years, except for a brief stint as a truck driver. From 1977 to 1982, he worked as a community organizer in Missouri, Texas, Tennessee and New Hampshire for organizations affiliated with ACORN and Citizen Action.

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