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Union Says It Organized Ground Service Workers at United and Alaska Subsidiaries

Ted Reed The Street
'The largest airline union is expanding its reach, organizing the ground service workers who have largely been left out of the airline industry's remarkable post-recession recovery. The International Association of Machinists said that in the past 10 months it has organized more than 2,000 ground service workers at two leading providers: McGee Air Services, a newly formed subsidiary of Alaska (ALK) , and at United Ground Services, a United (UAL) subsidiary.'

It’s No Fad: I’m White and I’m Mad

Jordache A. Ellapen Common Reader
Many commentators who have affirmed that something called "white rage" gave us Trump appear to treat the phenomenon as if it was a newly sprouted thing. Here is a book that aims to add nuance and historical context to a widely noted, but still too-little examined, aspect of our contemporary political reality.

Why Do Ivy League Schools Get Tax Breaks? How The Richest US Colleges Get Richer

By David Sirota and Josh Keefe International Business Times
Despite the tax breaks and the flood of cash to Wall Street, many of the universities that benefit from the subsidies have refused to use their additional endowment resources to expand enrollment, admit more low-income students or lower their tuition rates.

A New Agenda in Jackson, Mississippi

Sarah Jaffe The Baffler
If we can change the conditions in Mississippi, right here in the belly of the beast, that speaks to what we can achieve across the globe.

The Level of Support for Jean-Luc Mélenchon is Frightening the Powerful

by Henry Crapo L'Humanité
Rising rapidly in the polls, the candidate of ``France Insoumise" has become the main target for defeat by his opponents. The right-wing press is unleashed, and the head of state mingles his voice in the refrain ``Liberalism or Apocalypse", which seeks to discredit any alternative policy.

A Flying Public Finally Erupts

Sam Pizzigati Inequality.org
Airlines make much more on premium seats than on seats in coach. Their goal: make coach seating unpleasant enough to keep the enormously lucrative premium seats filled. For this scheme to work, the inequality involved has to be clearly visible. Coach passengers need to know that passengers upfront are luxuriating while they, cramped and hungry, sit and stew.

Teachers Union Offers To Compromise On Pensions

Greg Hinz Crain's
Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis specifically said the union is willing to consider reducing benefits for those who still are working, although she emphatically ruled out changes for members who already have retired. But such compromise wont come until the city and the school board agree to contribute more to pensions each year in order to at least partially make up for a contribution shortfall that occurred during much of the past two decades.

Polio Declared An International Health Emergency

Maryn McKenna Wired
In a move that is simultaneously discouraging, urgent and deeply unusual, the World Health Organization has declared that the resurgence of polio is a “public health emergency of international concern.” The WHO, the CDC, the fraternal organization Rotary International and a raft of partners have been pressing an international and very expensive eradication campaign since 1988. Every time the world has gotten close, though, polio has flared up again.

Leave ‘Organic’ Out of It

Mark Bittman The New York Times
Very few people can avoid struggling daily with the avalanche of bad food and the culture and propaganda surrounding it. Near-hysteria or simple answers lead to unachievable situations and nonsolutions. More effective would be shifting the food culture, the relevant business models and public policies - a gradual and concerted movement toward making production and consumption simply "better." That is what the good food movement should be about.