News & Public Affairs
Labor unions hard at work at Pinellas HOPE on Labor Day weekend listen
09/06/11 Josh HoltonWMNF Drive-Time News Tuesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: labor, labor unions, Labor Day, labor movement, homeless, Homelessness, pinellas, Pinellas Hope, Pinellas County, Pinellas Park, homeless shelter, unions
Many Americans marked Labor Day weekend as a start to the football season, a day to fire up the barbeque, and enjoy a national holiday away from work. But the holiday began to honor labor unions that fought for 8 hour work days, a minimum wage, and an end to child labor. Last Saturday the executive vice president of the labor union visited Pinellas Park, calling on local labor unions to help some of Florida’s unemployed get back to work.
Many...
Be the first to commentPublic employees sue FL Gov. Rick Scott over order to drug test state workers listen
06/01/11 Sean KinaneWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: ACLU, Rick Scott, drug testing, drugs, unions, state workers, public employees
A public workers union and a state employee from St. Pete are suing Governor Rick Scott because of an executive order requiring random drug testing of all state workers. A lawyer from the ACLU of Florida is joining with Peter Walsh, a Miami trial lawyer, to represent the plaintiffs.
3 comments"Executive order 11-58 calls for random drug testing. It requires the state to set up a regime of random drug testing for all state empl...
Working people critical of Governor and Legislature
04/15/11 Robert LoreiRadioactivity: Live Call-In (Friday) Listen to this entire show:
Tags: unions, Rick Scott, payroll deductions, merit pay, teachers, FCAT, tenure, BP, Jean Clements, Cheryl Shroeder, Stephen Sarnoff, Ann Vanek-Dasovich, labor
Good morning, welcome to Radioactivity. I'm Rob Lorei. Coming up today we'll hear from local labor activists who are concerned about anti-union proposals being pushed by the Governor and being passed by the state legislature.
Our guests are: Jean Clements, President, Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association; Stephen Sarnoff, President, Communication Workers (CWA) 3179, represents city workers in Pinellas and Pasco Counties; Cheryl Schroeder, Executive Director, West Central Florida Fed...
Be the first to commentInterview with organizer of Tampa We Are One Rally starts the Last Call conversation today
04/04/11 Robert LoreiLast Call Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: We Are One, Jason Smith, AFL-CIO, unions, Florida, public workers, labor, Martin Luther King Jr., 2011 legislative session
Good afternoon, welcome to the Last Call. I'm Rob Lorei. We'll start today's program with an interview with Jason Smith of the Florida AFL-CIO who is organizing a We Are One rally today at Al Lopez Park in West Tampa.
At the time of his death on April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was marching in solidarity with 1,300 black sanitation workers in Memphis; the public employees were defending their right to collective bargaining for better wages, working conditions, respect and dignity...
Be the first to commentAudio: Florida Democrat chastised for saying "uterus" on House floor listen
04/01/11 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Abortion, Dean Cannon, choice, Scott Randolph, uterus, state house, Florida Legislature, labor, unions, 2011 legislative session
Whether it’s busting unions, requiring ultrasounds for women seeking abortions, or drug-testing welfare recipients, these days, GOP lawmakers in Tallahassee have been offending a lot of people. But last week, it was a Democrat in the state house who made waves. After a lengthy debate over a bill affecting public employee unions, House Speaker Dean Cannon raised a stink over an anatomic reference that Orlando Representative Scott Randolph had made.
Cannon issued a statement warning his coll...
1 commentsActivists rally against Scott, GOP legislature over a slew of issues listen
03/28/11 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: unions, teachers, SB6, SB736, Fight Back Florida, Awake the State, Rick Scott, Dana Young, education
Since the start of the legislative session, droves of people unhappy with Rick Scott and the Republican-controlled legislature have been spending Friday afternoons rallying against numerous state policies. Protesters don’t think they’ll be changing the governor’s mind any time soon, but they do hope to draw attention from fellow voters.
Republican State Representative Dana Young’s Tampa office...
Be the first to commentFlorida House passes bill targeting union dues process listen
03/25/11 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Friday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Rick Scott, unions, Florida legislature, Bill Frishe, Rick Kriseman, Jeff Clemens, Chris Dorworth, Joe Gibbons, Irving Slosberg, Gwendolyn Clark-Reed, Scott Plakon
As the battle over state workers’ unions continues in Wisconsin, the Sunshine state may be in for a fight of its own. Today the State House of Representatives passed a bill that would prevent state and local government employees from paying their union dues by way of automatic paycheck deduction. Opponents say the bill’s GOP supporters are trying to strip away workers’ rights.
Lake Worth Democrat Jeff Clemens told his colleagues that his job has an elected member of the Florida House of R...
1 commentsAnti-union bill squeaks by Senate committee listen
03/14/11 Kate BradshawWMNF Drive-Time News Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Unions, Wisconsin protests, collective bargaining, Florida legislature, John Thrasher, Paula Dockery
Following the lead of Wisconsin, the Florida legislature is challenging unions on the issue of collective bargaining for public workers. A key measure that would changes the way unions collect dues passed a state senate committee today, despite the pleas of police and firefighters who went to Tallahassee to testify.
Jacksonville Republican John Thrasher sponsored SB 830, a measure that would bar public employee unions from collecting their dues via automatic paycheck deductions. Thrasher s...
6 comments"Awake the State Rally" Protests Gov. Scott's Budget Cuts. listen
03/09/11 Joshua Lee HoltonWMNF Drive-Time News Wednesday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Awake the State, Florida Consumer Action Network, Rick Scott, jobs, unions, labor, Charles McKenzie
Tuesday about a thousand pro-worker protesters marched to Gaslight Park in Downtown Tampa. Thousands more labor union workers, state employees, and teachers demonstrated in more than 30 cities across the state to protest the largest annual budget cuts to education in Florida’s history. The largest of the “Awake the State” protests was in Tampa Bay.
While Governor Rick Scott may have run an election platform for job creation that insisted, “Let’s get to work,” President of the local Centra...
Be the first to commentMichael Moore says America is not broke, Wake the State Rallies, and pensions are not the problem
03/07/11 Robert LoreiLast Call Monday Listen to this entire show:
Tags: Michael Moore, Madison, pensions, Awake The State, unions, labor
Good afternoon, welcome to The Last Call, I'm Rob Lorei. Coming up we'll listen to part of a speech that film maker Michael Moore gave in Madison, Wisconsin this past weekend in which he placed the blame for the poor performance of the economy squarely on those at the top.
We'll also hear part of a story from the McClatchy newspaper chain which is headlined "[WHY EMPLOYEE PENSIONS ARE NOT BANKRUPTING THE STATES](http://...
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