Teacher contracts extended, still in dispute

From the Inquirer, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and the school district are expected to extend their contracts for another month, as they have done several times already.

The union is 11,000 members strong, and is the district’s largest.

Dredging in the news

Jeff Montgomery of The News Journal in Wilmington has an in-depth story on the dredging project and its controversies up here.

A snippet from Jean-Paul Rodrigue, an associate Hofstra professor who thinks the project’s profits are overblown: “I think it would be a waste of money if they’re deepening it for the really big ships that will be coming through.”

International Longshoreman’s Association VP James H. Paylor Jr. apparently does’nt think so. He is quoted in the story, saying “We’re sitting on a gold mine right now.”

Sunday Numbers: 950

This week’s number comes to us from a not-so-positive source: the number of jobs lost when Sunoco and Valero closed down plants in Delaware City, and West Deptford in Jersey. Mike Armstrong of Philly Inc. wrote a few posts about it last week., focusing on the jobs lost, but also on the environmental savings from the closed plants.

Plants closing and jobs disappearing aren’t exactly big news during the recession, but the fact that the plants were oil refineries may be.

These kinds of hits to labor opportunities offset the benefits Philly receives from decreases in consumer prices. For example, utility gas service prices dropped 5.5 percent from August to October of this year in Philly, and dropped 21.5 percent since last October, which, as this Bureau of Labor Statistics page points out, is the largest yearly decline since they started keeping track in 1971. The decrease came with the oil bubble bursting, but it may not help Philly overall if the region also sustains high job losses

A 21.5 percent decline in prices is good for all of us trying to stay warm during the winter, but it comes with the kind of job losses the plant closings in Delaware and Jersey bring.

Editor’s Note: Sunday Numbers is a weekly feature highlighting a statistic in the news or an unexpected number. Enjoy it with your coffee!

A new industry for Philly?

This Inquirer article focuses mostly on the process and history behind composting as an industry, and not so much the jobs it could create, but it’s an interesting prospect nonetheless.

ANALYSIS: Columnist: Competition is good, life is unfair

Ruben Navarrette, Jr. makes an interesting point on CNN.com. He says American workers have become too complacent and unwilling to compete against each other and against foreign workers for jobs. To a certain degree, he’s right. He also points out the futility of bills like the one Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Illinois, is proposing. A quote Gutierrez gave is quoted in Navarrette’s article:

“No one born here in this country should ever have to lose an opportunity for gainful employment at the expense of someone not born here.”

The lack of historical perspective in itself is frightening.

Happy Turkey Day!

Philly’s and nation’s economy improving, in fits and starts

From the Inquirer, a story on the economy improving, if only a little.

From the story: “Business conditions improved for the fourth consecutive month and hiring plans appeared to have become firmer, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank said.”

As of now, that may not mean much for jobs in Philadelphia, but it could be at least one silver lining.

Sunday Numbers: 2006

This week’s number is a year, like last week. But unlike that gloomy year, 2006 seemed to be a pretty good time, at least in hindsight. It may also provide some insight into why there is so much union activity at a time when most people seem to just be happy to have a job.

2006 marks the end of a half a decade of falling union membership in Pennsylvania. Incidentally, it also marks the end of an almost equally long drop in unemployment.

From 2001, union membership in Pennsylvania dropped (check off all the boxes in the Pennsylania row, and click “retrieve data” at the bottom) from 910,000 to 745,000. Then, it rose in 2007, and jumped a hundred thousand members – to 847,000 – by the next year. Union membership rises and falls because of many factors, obviously. Unionized plants close down, or entrepreneurial activity increases, and the rate will rise or fall. But there is another explanation, and it’s fairly simple: safety.

Unions offer a defense against pay cuts and layoffs. And when the economy turns bad, they look pretty good. During a similar period as the drop in union membership, from 2001 to 2006, unemployment  in Pennsylvania fell overall along with membership, from 5 percent to 4.5 percent. In other words, the job market looked pretty good, and safety wasn’t much of a concern. In 2007, unemployment dropped – barely. The next year, it jumped 1.2 percent. The year after that, 2009, it jumped 3.2 percent.

The takeaway seems to be that when the economy does well, unions don’t. When the economy tanks, everybody runs to unions. This may seem like a fairly obvious conclusion, and it probably is. But it helps explain why unions aren’t afraid to rear their heads, even when the economy is not doing well. Simply put, they represent safety, and that’s worth public disapproval during strikes and labor negotiations.

Editor’s Note: Sunday Numbers is a weekly feature highlighting a statistic in the news or an unexpected number. Enjoy it with your coffee!

ANALYSIS: Temple’s adjuncts raise their profile, and the stakes

Temple University’s adjunct professors, who teach somewhere between a third and a half of all classes at Temple, have started agitating for more rights and unity. Perhaps inspired by current and past labor struggles, the adjuncts have begun demonstrating on campus.

The numbers are revealing. Of a total of 3,400 faculty, 1,584 are adjuncts. That’s a powerful bloc if they become united and have a motivated membership and aggressive leadership. But therein lies the rub. The group says it has 50 active members, which is far short of what it needs to be an effective organization.

Considering the recession, it may not be the best time to start organizing. Adjuncts are happy to have any job they can get. Still, and this is based largely on anecdotal evidence, adjuncts might be tired of being at the mercy of the university, with low pay, few to no offices, and widespread cuts during a recession.

The likelihood of substantial change happening is pretty low, as it stands now. Temple has no room for more offices, and can barely fit the professors and classes it has now. There’s a lot of out-stretched hands waiting to get disappearing funds. Unless the adjuncts become very organized very fast, this probably won’t move any mountains soon.

Well, it could be Detroit…

Interesting stats from Jane von Bergen’s Inqy blog Jobbing. She points out that even though the job market here in Philly is bad, it’s not nearly as bad as some other cities. Of course, D.C. is still way ahead of Philly in the jobs department, but it’s ahead of most cities in that department, anyway.