Clocking In A daily look at the #workplace of the #future…MIT @TechReview

…On how emerging technology is shaping the future of work, from the MIT Technology Review. If you have a premonition, send Tech Review your ideas.  Today read how billions of dollars are being stolen from US workers, excerpted from 5.22.18 issue of Clocking In.  ❝Digital punch clocks are stealing time

our gig and bookstore sitting

…Serendipity. I left the computer after opening this link and now can't remember where from, but the story, Bookstore-sitting gig: Not so charming? and cautions, have a familiar ring to them. Wendy Welch of Tales of the Lonesome Pine bookshop in Virginia is looking for a bookstore-sitter. Gushing book columnists from LA to NPR adore the advert for bargain basement help...

Another bookstore proprietor, Scott Brown in Eureka CA disagrees with the sentiment, writing...

"I reject the notion that going into bookselling should be like taking a vow of poverty," he writes. "The editor who bought the book gets a paycheck, health benefits, paid vacation, and a retirement contribution, as does the publicist, marketing manager, etc. They aren't working for love." 

"Nor is the company that will print the book, nor are the employees who work the presses. Nor is the company that manufactured the paper. They all expect to get paid. And rightly so."

Brown writes that the idea that a bookstore-sitter should be an unpaid serf at the bottom of book lovers' food chain is "an insulting and intellectually bankrupt view." That's a good point.

 The idea he rebuts is a familiar one...

Ms. Welch's basic idea is that bookstores are idyllic community resources free from the taint of lucre. "What WE booksellers do is important...WE represent an open market of free ideas, with value tied to meaning more than money," she writes (emphasis added, to show that she pretends to talk for all of us). In another post she says, presumably implying vows of poverty and years of penance done at the store, "Bookslinging is a hard way of life, but boy it’s a good one....WE’re like nuns and monks..."

Shades of Chaucer's Clerke... "And gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche."

online reading for wayward perma-temps

No, I haven't forgotten about the blogroll... still collecting, tagging, sorting, etc. A March 4 post from new adjunct blog, The Adjunct Voice. described as "a virtual meeting place for part-time/adjunct university faculty members from across the U.S. to have a voice... share... ideas, experiences and concerns" opens today's online reading list for wayward perma-temps. Each post "My name is Raye, and I am an adjunct"

Day of Action for Education event heating up for March 4. Do you know of a March 4th activity in your area? Please add it to her list.

CalFac list of March 4 actions

The Case Against College Education ... but for certification. If TIME is in favor of it, can group think be far behind?

1st the dot.com bubble, then the real estate bubble: now comes the student loan bubble, Bob Samuels in HuffPo

Share Your Story @ HuffPo - Majoring In Debt

Scientific American: Academic Labor Market Gone Seriously Awry

Organizing: the Arts and Sciences, Rich Moser

 Cross posted from New Unionism, which is about unions setting agendas, rather than just reacting to them. This network unites supporters of four key principles: organizing, workplace democracy, internationalism and creativity.  FAQ»  Join»   

 

Organizing: the Arts and Sciences

Organizing, yes, but for what? Richard Moser presents an intriguing summary of the current state of work and unionism in the U.S.. He argues that unions have tended towards an organizational culture which is resistant to change and unaccustomed to democracy. He traces the evolution of this process, mapping it against changes in work and society. Unions must develop a culture of organizing if they are to renew their influence and reconnect with their members. He then presents some recommendations on organizing, exploring the contradictory but creative tensions that animate union activity. These are the challenges faced by those who want to put the movement back into labor.

Excerpt:

Organizing and the Fate of the US Labor Movement

It’s all about organizing and that’s good news.  Good news because it’s in our hands.  Good news because if we attend to the core mission of organizing we can become the authors of a new labor history—and it is a far, far better thing to be the author of your own world than a critic of the existing one. There are good reasons to believe that we can develop the capacity for renewal if we tap sources now nearly forgotten or largely unknown: the traditions of organizing and the transformative potential organizing still holds for the labor movement. Opportunity knocks, but, even the best of opportunities must be taken.

Organizing should be our top priority.  Why?  It is our most achievable major goal and fundamental to labor’s entire mission.

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