Submitted by Amanda Ogus on Mon, 06/18/2007 - 4:34pm
- Firedoglake blogs about the Employee
Free Choice, a bill which aims to restore workers’ freedom in choosing a union,
especially establishing stronger penalties for violation of employee rights
when workers seek to form a union. FDL
explains that while 60 million workers say they would join a union if they
could, but many people are intimidated by corporate giants. By stating that this act is a “workplace
rights issue,” a “human rights issue,” and a “civil rights issue,” FDL frames
the issue in universal terms that appeals to the broad advantages for
everyone. The benefits in unionizing
workers appear in many forms. With union
workers receiving an average wage 30% higher than the nonunion worker, creating
greater access to membership will help lessen the growing wage
inequalities. Here's hoping this rights-based frame can help push the issue forward. - Feminist blogs comments on a piece on Salon.com which compares the rate of obesity in black women to that of white women
(78% of black women are considered overweight), and essentially opts to blame
black women for preferring to keep the extra pounds and purposely
eschew advice to lose weight. Feminist blogs skewers the Salon piece, nothing the complex causes of obesity rates among black women. In 2000, low-income African-American families were 7.3 times
more likely than poor white families to live in high poverty neighborhoods with
limited resources. In addition, black
women are more likely to lack adequate health care access. While 11.2% of white Americans were uninsured
at any point in 2005, 19.5% of African Americans were uninsured and more likely
to be dependent on public sources of health insurance. It's disappointing to see Salon reduce this alarming trend to individual behaviors. This is not a question of individual responsibility. It is one aspect of a larger social issue - which requires increased public awareness and collective action to reach a solution. 
Prometheus 6 reports on the alarming disparities in the
racial composition of the 30% of students who fail to graduate high school. In a recent Education Week report, only half of
American Indians and black students graduated, compared with more than
three-quarters of non-Hispanic whites and Asians. The reports uses information from the 2003-04
school year to estimates the number of graduates in 2007. Their analysis shows
that while minority students make up less than half of the total public school
population, they make up more than half of the nongraduates. In addition, Hispanic youth are four times
more likely to drop out than are white youth (pdf), creating an education gap that limits opportunities for young people of color and widens other disparities - in income and health coverage, for example - later in life.
Sentencing Law and Policy reports on a new article from
stateline.org about how increasing prices to maintain the overcrowded prisons
are leading lawmakers to provide different alternatives to prisons. Some of these ideas include an expanded
program to help prevent offenders from being incarcerated again (like diverting funds from prisons to rehabilitation centers), earlier release
dates for low-risk inmates and sentencing revisions. State spending on prisons continues to
increase at an alarming rate to account for the high number of incarcerated
persons. Between 2004 and 2005, not only
did the number of incarcerated persons increase, but so did the rate (491 per
100,000 people in 2005 versus 486 per 100,000 in 2004).
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