University Wire, January 28, 2008, Monday

Copyright 2008 Cornell Daily Sun via U-Wire

University Wire

January 28, 2008, Monday

HEADLINE: COLA, Starbucks Face Off In Union-Busting Case

BYLINE: By Elizabeth Manapsal, Cornell Daily Sun; SOURCE: Cornell U.

DATELINE: ITHACA, N.Y.

BODY:

Companies are finding even more ways to screen job applicants - by checking club discussion boards. Starbucks Corp., the nation's leading coffee retailer, is under scrutiny after a series of e-mails revealed the company's anti-union practices. The pinnacle of the events in question came when Starbucks managers read through the discussion boards on Cornell Organization for Labor Action's website in order to identify job applicants and current employees that were labor activists.

In a series of e-mails uncovered by The Wall Street Journal, Starbucks managers pulled names from the discussion board and then cross-referenced them with an employee database. They found that three employees were members of the University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations and active union supporters, and asked executives if they could inform local managers of the workers' identities.

Daniel Gross, an organizer for the SWU and a former Starbucks barista, testified that Jim McDermott, a Starbucks executive, admitted on the witness stand in a pending NLRB case that he had approved of these activities.

The company has already singled out three graduates of the University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations as union activists - Tomer Malchi '03, Peter Montalbano, and Sarah Bender. All three worked as baristas and are members of the Starbucks Workers Union, SWU, which is a part of the Industrial Workers of the World.

The SWU has been trying to organize Starbucks baristas since 2004. The movement stems from some workers' claims that Starbucks does not treat its employees in a fair manner by paying low wages and not providing enough hours to work. These two factors can make it very difficult for someone to support themselves, according to the Starbucks Union Web site.

Because the content on the discussion board is public information, it is not illegal for managers to read through it. However, some consider it a questionable practice to use the information against current or prospective employees - similar to an employer's use of a person's Facebook profile or MySpace account to find information that could be used against them.

According to Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research, Starbucks was not looking to single out students and graduates of the ILR school, instead they were aiming to target individuals who were known labor activists and pro-union workers.

Bronfenbrenner said, "Cornell sends more students into the labor movement than any other university in the country and corporate America is aware of this."

Currently, the IWW has taken Starbucks to court in New York arguing that the corporation has committed at least 38 labor violations during 2005-2006. The National Labor Relations Board found that there was enough evidence to support these allegations and has passed the case onto to an administrative law judge, who will determine if there is enough evidence to support these charges.

Gross claims he was fired because of his union activity, which is a subject of the pending NLRB case.

"This case is important because it tells about the reality of employment at Starbucks. Starbucks has tricked people into thinking it is a better place to work, but the trial has shown just like Wal-mart, Starbucks will go to great lengths to coerce and restrain workers' right to organize," Gross said.

Starbucks maintains that it complies with all labors laws in New York state and recognizes workers' rights to organize. Forbes Magazine ranked Starbucks as the number two "best company to work for" in the large company category. It claims that the average hourly worker nets $35,294 a year.

The e-mails are part of an exhibit in the case that exemplifies Starbucks' anti-union stance by denying workers the right to engage in concerted activity and discuss working conditions on the premise. Gross said the union-busting mentality stems directly from the top with Chairman Howard Schultz.

"A company-wide message was sent out within days of our announcement that we were going to try to organize the workers saying [Schulz] was disappointed with the union. The union busting started immediately at this point," Gross said.

However, even if Starbucks is found guilty, Bronfenbrenner speculates it will receive no more than a slap on the wrist. As punishment for its action, it would merely have to hang a poster on the wall stating that it will not terminate or discriminate against union supporters. Starbucks would have to reinstate the worker and pay any lost wages that accrued during the case minus any wages the worker made in the meantime.

"That's the problem with American labor law... if a worker gets fired for union activity he is not going to want to go back to that employer," Bronfenbrenner said.

In light of these revealed e-mails, COLA has been forced to modify how they distribute information through online channels in order to protect their members from being discriminated against.

"We are disgusted by the fact corporations read our e-mails to screen out applicants. The reading of the e-mails itself is not illegal, so there is not a lot we can do but we have switched to a private list serve for specific campaigns like the one against Starbucks right now. Fil Eden '10, president of COLA, said. "Because we are so integrated with our alumni network and it helps people who don't go to the meetings . . . It's difficult to keep [names] anonymous on the listserv . . . we know have to be careful about what we write."

The last time Starbucks executives came to campus was more than a year ago to recruit ILR graduates for positions in the human resources department of the corporation.

This is not the first time the University has allowed an organization facing labor law violations to recruit on campus. In 2003, Cornell came under fire for violating the Open Hearts, Open Mind policy by allowing the uniform manufacturer Cintas to recruit at on-campus career fair after they had purposefully screened out applicants who were labor activists. But due to pressure from students in COLA and Students Against Sweatshops, University did not permit Cintas to recruit at any more events.

"Employers do not want a unionized setting because it takes away some of their control. Unionized workers make more money and have more control of their schedules, while also providing a way for workers to ensure there is just cause for discipline. They gain stability and morale," Bronfenbrenner said. "It's an issue of what kind of country do we have."

(C) 2008 Cornell Daily Sun via U-WIRE

LOAD-DATE: January 28, 2008

Austin American-Statesman (Texas), January 27, 2008, Sunday

Copyright 2008 The Austin American-Statesman

All Rights Reserved

Austin American-Statesman (Texas)

January 27, 2008, Sunday

Final Edition

SECTION: METRO & STATE; Pg. B04

HEADLINE: FUNERALS AND MEMORIALS

Albert Morris Chammah

Albert Morris Chammah, 79, passed away peacefully on Thursday, January 24, 2008, after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease.

Mr. Chammah was born on August 18th, 1928 in Aleppo, Syria. He was the first child of the late Moise Albert Chammah and Zekieh Kamayeh. He came to the United States in 1947 to study industrial engineering at Syracuse University. After graduation in 1951 he studied industrial and labor relations at Cornell University and earned a Ph.D. in social and mathematical psychology in 1969 from the University of Michigan.

Albert's professional career included positions as a research mathematical psychologist at the University of Michigan's Mental Health Research Institute and as a communication scientist at Cornell's Aeronautical Labs in Buffalo, New York. In the early part of his career he was a human factors engineer at General Electric Advanced Electronic Center, and he also served with Military Intelligence in the U.S. Army. He retired from the University of Texas in 1998 after teaching for 29 years. He held duel appointments at UT in the Psychology Department and Business School's Management Department. He was later appointed to the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. He coauthored with Anatol Rapaport the widely acclaimed book, "Prisoner's Dilemma".

Albert had a passion for good food and lively discussions with a wide range of friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. He was fluent in three languages and able to understand many others. He traveled widely, eager to understand and appreciate all the world's riches. He loved meeting new people, visiting new places, and immersing himself in the different cultures, and he built lasting friendships wherever he went. He was also a wonderful cook and photographer. Albert had a strong sense of family and took pride in his Sephardic Jewish heritage. He was a member of Congregation Beth Israel. He loved becoming a father, an event that came late in life and was his biggest joy. He will be remembered for his gentility, curiosity, and the joy with which he embraced life.

He leaves behind his wife of 25 years, Lorraine Guzzio Chammah and son, Maurice Albert Chammah. He is also survived by his sisters: Sarina Chammah Jenis of Bayside, New York, Bella Dayeh Kamhadji of Brooklyn, Liza Dayeh Ourfali of Tel Aviv and Shelia Dayeh Halifax of Holon, Israel. Three brothers also survive him: Edmond, Rouven and Haim Dayeh, all of Holon.

The family will receive friends from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 26, 2008 at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home.

Funeral service will be held at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 27, 2008 at Congregation Beth Israel, 3901 Shoal Creek Blvd., Austin, TX 78756. Burial will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, January 28, 2008 at Congregation Beth Israel Cemetery located at Capital Parks Cemetery in Pflugerville.

Those wishing to make memorial contributions may contribute to the Capital Area Parkinson's Society, P.O. Box 27565, Austin, Texas 78755, Hospice of Austin, 4107 Spicewood Springs Road, Suite 100, Austin, Texas 78759, or to a charity of one's choice.

New Haven Register (Connecticut), January 27, 2008, Sunday

Copyright 2008 New Haven

New Haven Register (Connecticut)

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News

January 27, 2008, Sunday

SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL NEWS

HEADLINE: Blacks losing jobs to illegals?

BYLINE: Mary E. O'Leary, New Haven Register, Conn.

BODY:

Jan. 27--NEW HAVEN -- New Haven Alderman Yusuf Shah was pretty worked up.

Told that a group called Community Watchdog Project was planning to leaflet black churches to convince worshippers that illegal immigrants were taking jobs from blacks, Shah said he found the claim "ludicrous."

"We have access to a lot of things that immigrants don't have access to," Shah said, as he ticked off educational opportunities and financial aid, not to mention English language skills, all of which give citizens more than a leg up in the job market.

"How could they (illegal immigrants) prevent anybody who is African American from getting a job?" he asked.

Beyond that, Shah said putting a wedge between groups of residents, no matter where they come from, is counterproductive.

"We don't have the luxury to be divided in this city. Division doesn't work. Only when we come together and work as one, do we make progress," said Shah, the Democratic alderman from Ward 23 in the Dwight neighborhood.

Alan Felder, a unionized plumber at Yale University, is as incensed as Shah -- but from a different point of view.

Felder, a member of Community Watchdog Project, said black citizens are losing low-wage jobs to the growing number of illegal immigrants flowing into the city, which some estimate is as high as 15,000 residents.

"It's just a matter of giving people the right information," Felder said.

A member of Local 35 of Unite HERE, Felder led a recent petition drive protesting that a portion of the union's dues are used by the national union to fight for immigrant rights.

"We didn't know that our money is going to try to help organize our competition. That would be like the United States is funding al Qaeda," said Felder, who doesn't agree with the labor movement's goal of strengthening its ranks by reaching out to all workers.

He also objected to the fact that Local 35 President Bob Proto signed a solidarity statement in December, along with city officials, community leaders and other union organizers, recognizing the rights of workers and immigrants, although Proto said he did so as an individual, rather than as a labor official.

Shah and Felder do have something in common. They are black.

Dustin Gold of North Branford put the watchdog organization together this summer after New Haven issued ID cards for all residents, including illegal immigrants, to access city services, which they objected to as a welcoming gesture to this group.

Among other things, the mainly suburban group, which is an offshoot of Southern Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Reform, campaigns that undocumented workers depress wages and cause unemployment for citizens in low-paying jobs.

Several national studies, however, question that assumption; others find there has been an effect, particularly among high school dropouts, but argue that competition from immigrants is only one barrier to employment for this group, among many factors.

Steven Pitts, an economist at the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California, in 2006 found there is no correlation between rising rates of immigration, with an estimated 12 million currently in the U.S., and unemployment among blacks.

He said blaming immigration masks the true causes of employment issues for blacks, which Pitts said are "persistent racism in hiring ... and incarceration among African Americans."

The New York Times reported last year that almost three-quarters of young, black, male high school dropouts were either unemployed or jailed.

To put things in context, U.S. labor statistics show that for the last half century, the unemployment rate for blacks has been approximately twice as high as for white Americans, a number that has remained essentially static, even as the percentage of foreign born residents has increased.

Jared Bernstein, the senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., a liberal think tank, doesn't feel immigrants are a threat to native Americans in the job market.

He credits the increasing stridency in the immigration debate in this decade to tepid job creation, as opposed to the late 1990s when the large inflow of immigrants into the country, was matched by enough jobs to absorb all workers.

Where immigrants dominate a market, "they are more likely to compete with each other than with native workers," Bernstein wrote in 2006, pointing to non management jobs in construction in Washington and New York.

He did say that the one area where citizens are "crowded out" by immigrants is among high school dropouts.

"But there are mitigating factors to consider here as well. As would be expected in an advanced economy like ours, high school dropouts are a small and shrinking share of our work force (11 percent of the adult work force last year), and immigrants are a fast-growing share of this disadvantaged group, while the native share is contracting," Bernstein wrote.

One of the most recent studies, that may give a glimpse into the future for the rest of the country, was done in 2007 by the Public Policy Institute of California, a state which has a higher share of immigrants in its population than any other and where immigrants constitute one-third of the labor force.

The study by economist Giovanni Peri for the nonpartisan institute looked at census and American Community Survey data for California from 1960 to 2004, and estimated how wages and behavior responded to the increase of immigrants across age and education groups.

His first conclusion was that there no evidence that the inflow of immigrants depressed jobs for natives with similar education and experience.

Secondly, Peri said from 1990 to 2004, immigration actually induced a 4 percent wage jump for the average native worker, including dropouts, although they were on the low end with a 0.2 percent uptick. This rise increased, however, between 3 and 7 percent, for workers who had at least completed high school.

In his third conclusion, Peri, a professor at the University of California at Davis, found that the newest immigrants were the residents who suffered the most, with those who came to California before 1990 losing between 17 and 20 percent in income due to the newer immigrants entering the labor market.

He explained the 4 percent wage growth over the 14 year period ending in 2004 as the "complementary effect."

"As the number of immigrants available for certain jobs and task increases, so does the need for complementary jobs in managing, organizing and training -- work typically done by natives," Peri wrote.

"The findings would seem to defuse one of the most inflammatory issues for those who advocate measures aimed at 'protecting the livelihood of American citizens,'" Peri wrote. "Because California leads the nation in immigration trends (with a 40 percent jump in its foreign born residents over 14 years), this study may provide glimpses into the future and the potential effects of immigration on wages and employment at the national level."

A 2006 study by the Pew Hispanic Center found no evidence that young, poorly educated immigrants had an impact on the job prospects of native workers with the same status. The Executive Office of the President, Council of Economic Advisers, offered the same conclusion as Peri on complementary jobs in a study released last summer.

The council found that immigration "has a positive effect on the American economy as whole and on the income of native-born American workers. On average, U.S. natives benefit from immigration. Immigrants tend to complement (not substitute for) natives, raising natives' productivity and income."

There isn't a consensus, however, on whether immigration aggravates the causes of unemployment among blacks.

Peter Cappelli, a professor at the Wharton School of Management at the University of Pennsylvania, and Vernon Briggs of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, feel strongly that illegal immigrants cut into job opportunities for low-skill U.S. workers.

Cappelli has said it is a "complete myth" that immigrants take jobs that Americans don't want.

"Many employers seek illegal workers for the simple reason that it keeps costs down and means the companies do not have to invest in equipment and other capital improvements," Cappelli said in a 2006 article published at Wharton.

Cappelli feels the U.S. needs laws that address "the real economic issues. If you allow more unskilled workers into the U.S., it will lower costs for employers. It will also lower wages for people who do those jobs. It's clearly a political question," he said at the time.

Briggs said tougher immigration laws would protect the immigrants who put themselves in dangerous situations for little money.

"Tragically, many employers, if given a choice between illegal immigrants or U.S. citizens, will always take the illegal immigrant," he said.

A study by George Borgas of Harvard University concluded that 42 percent of the drop in employment between 1980 and 2000 for native Americans was due to immigration, while the rest were other factors.

Stephen Steinlight, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, said it is tough to address some of those factors, such as globalization, but "we can cut immigration if we want."

Steinlight also pointed to research indicating a prejudice by employers against low-skilled black workers over immigrants. If you work to lower the influx of illegal immigrants, "you don't give them the option" to discriminate against blacks, he said.

Bernard Anderson, another Wharton economist, however, said there is also evidence that blacks have moved beyond the low-skill jobs now held by immigrants. He said blacks improved their occupational status considerably as a result of the civil rights movement with 70 percent now holding better paying white collar, service sector and auto-industry employment.

Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, in testimony last spring before Congress, rejected what he referred to as simplistic analyses that blame immigration for the problems of low-skilled workers and he questioned the motives of advocates of this approach.

"To anyone who looks closely ... it is clear that immigration restrictionists are not -- and never have been -- our friends," he said, pointing to the lack of support from them when the Voting Rights Act came up for reauthorization, or when votes are taken on hate crime laws, affirmative action and Head Start.

Gold took issue with anyone who suggests their efforts are racially motivated, particularly their efforts to warn blacks about the impact of immigration, and in an e-mail to supporters, he resolved to double their efforts.

"They will have 9 to 5, five-day-a-week, hired goons fighting their battle, but we have true patriots fighting ours. We will win, but everyone must step it up a notch," Gold wrote in the email on plans to distribute fliers outside churches today.

"They" in the e-mail refers to city officials and immigrant advocacy groups, including a law clinic at Yale University.

Shah feels he has to speak out against the effort by the watchdog group.

"We don't need anyone to scare African Americans into a hate-based bias against another cross-section of people," he said.

To see more of New Haven Register, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.nhregister.com. Copyright (c) 2008, New Haven Register, Conn. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

LOAD-DATE: January 29, 2008

PR Newswire, January 25, 2008, Friday

Copyright 2008 PR Newswire Association LLC.

All Rights Reserved.

PR Newswire

January 25, 2008, Friday 2:19 PM GMT

HEADLINE: Webster Names Denise C. Milde Senior Vice President, Human Resources

DATELINE: WATERBURY, Conn. Jan. 25

BODY:

WATERBURY, Conn., Jan. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Webster Bank, National Association, a subsidiary of Webster Financial Corporation(NYSE:WBS), announces the appointment of Denise C. Milde to senior vice president, Human Resources, a position that oversees the bank's Human Resources Department.

Milde has more than 25 years of experience working in various human resource capacities at IBM Corp. in support of several IBM global organizations. Most recently, she was director of human resources at IBM Application Services in Somers, N.Y. Prior to that, she was director of human resources at IBM Research Division in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., director of compensation at IBM's corporate headquarters in Armonk, N.Y. and program manager for executive compensation at IBM Software Group in Somers, N.Y. Milde has also been a noted contributor and speaker on various human resource topics with the Conference Board and the Pension Research Council.

Milde earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Labor Relations from Cornell University and an MBA degree from Fordham University. She will report to Chief Administrative Officer Jeffrey N. Brown.

Brown said: "Denise Milde brings valuable talent and experience to Webster. The depth of her leadership experience at IBM, both in the United States and internationally, in compensation and benefits, decision making, communication and career progression will serve us well as Webster pursues its vision to be New England's bank. Denise has contributed to setting the standard for progress in human resources progress at IBM, and we are delighted to welcome her aboard."

Webster Financial Corporation is the holding company for Webster Bank, National Association and Webster Insurance. With $17.2 billion in assets, Webster provides business and consumer banking, mortgage, insurance, financial planning, trust and investment services through 181 banking offices, 343 ATMs, telephone banking and the Internet. Webster Bank owns the asset-based lending firm Webster Business Credit Corporation, the insurance premium finance company Budget Installment Corp., Center Capital Corporation, an equipment finance company headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut and provides health savings account trustee and administrative services through HSA Bank, Member FDIC and equal housing lender.

For more information about Webster, including past press releases and the latest annual report, visit the Webster website at http://www.websteronline.com/

CONTACT: Webster Bank Media: Arthur House, 203-578-2391 ahouse@websterbank.com or Investors: Terry Mangan, 203-578-2318 tmangan@websterbank.com

CONTACT: Webster Bank

Media:

Arthur House, +1-203-578-2391

ahouse@websterbank.com

or

Investors:

Terry Mangan, +1-203-578-2318

tmangan@websterbank.com

Web site: http://www.websteronline.com/

SOURCE Webster Bank

URL: http://www.prnewswire.com

LOAD-DATE: January 26, 2008

Turkish Daily News, January 25, 2008, Friday

Copyright 2008 Financial Times Information

All Rights Reserved

Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire

Copyright 2008 Turkish Daily News, Source: The Financial Times Limited

Turkish Daily News

January 25, 2008, Friday

HEADLINE: US UNIVERSITIES CRITICIZED

BODY:

New figures show that there is a growing group of newly rich U.S. schools that are joining the tiny cadre of ultra-wealthy institutions.

The latest endowment figures from NACUBO, a college business officers group, highlight the growing prosperity but also the stratification among elite universities. That development is creating tension.

There are now 76 colleges and universities with endowments that have passed $1 billion - including 16 new members of that club like Georgetown and the Universities of Oklahoma and Missouri.

But five at the top each have nearly $6 billion more than any school outside that group: Harvard ($35.6 billion), Yale ($22.5 billion), Stanford ($17.2 billion), Princeton ($15.8 billion), and the University of Texas system ($15.6 billion).

The survey marks the end of the most recent fiscal year, which at most schools ended last June 30, so the numbers do not reflect the recent downturn in the stock market.

Among them, Harvard's endowment - the largest overall - expanded by an amount last year that's more than Ivy League rival Cornell has altogether. Princeton now has over $2 million in the bank for every student. Stanford raised nearly $1 billion during its last reported fiscal year alone.

Dispersion of wealth:

There is a "tremendous dispersion in wealth from the people right at the top to the lesser ones," said Ronald Ehrenberg, an expert on higher education economics at Cornell. "It falls off very, very quickly."

The figures come at a time when the advantages of that small group of superrich schools have been a contentious topic.

There's been growing criticism from the public that the wealthiest schools should be dipping deep into their savings to hold down prices. But when Harvard and Yale recently announced they would do so by boosting aid for families earning well into six figures, they were sharply criticized.

Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust added to the tension by getting into an exchange with Big Ten provosts over whether ambitious science research should be left to the most elite universities. Some objected to her suggestion that it would be better for some institutions to focus on social sciences and humanities.

There's also rising resentment in higher education over faculty raiding, with wealthier colleges offering salaries that poorer schools can't possibly match.

Its not just the richest schools - prosperous public universities raid poorer peers, too. Some argue there's a public benefit when talented scholars gather in one place and collaborate. But there's also a cost when the schools that educate the most people lose their stars. Harvard now pays full professors on average about $177,000, compared to about $106,000 at the average public research university.

The NACUBO survey reports colleges earned on average 17.2 percent on their investments last year, with schools with $1 billion or more returning 21.3 percent, compared to 14.1 percent for schools under $25 million.

LOAD-DATE: January 25, 2008

PR Web Press Release Newswire, January 24, 2008, Thursday

PR Web Press Release Newswire

PR Web

January 24, 2008, Thursday

Secure Talent and Advantage Host Webinar on Worker Misclassification

Cornell University speaker discusses the impact of incorrectly classifying workers.

San Francisco, Calif. (PRWEB) January 24, 2008 -- Worker misclassification continues to gain national attention but many employers are still unclear on how it can affect their business. "The Costs of Worker Misclassification: How New York is Leading the Charge for National Reform" is a free Webinar hosted by Secure Talent in partnership with Advantage, a leader in talent management solutions. Featuring keynote speaker Fred B. Kotler, J.D., of Cornell University, the Webinar takes place on Feb. 13, 2008, at 1 p.m. EST.

As a faculty member of Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and director of the New York State AFL-CIO/Cornell Union Leadership Institute, Kotler co-authored "The Costs of Worker Misclassification in New York State," a 2007 report that served as a basis for New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s Executive Order for the Joint Enforcement Task Force on Employee Misclassification.

Attendees of this Webinar can expect to:

1. Explore the costs and implications of worker misclassification in New York and the associated financial exposure to employers.
2. Discover how New York is leading the charge for national reform on the issue of worker misclassification through recent legislative actions.
3. Learn about high-profile worker misclassification cases currently in litigation and the potential implications to their business.
4. Investigate current trends including the continued rise in the number of independent contractors and find out why the movement is gaining speed.
5. Understand how worker misclassification can impact their business through a question-and-answer session with Fred B. Kotler and Jeff Phelps, founder and president of Secure Talent..

Space is limited for this free event. For more information or to register, please visit http://www.securetalent.com/newsevents-costs-of-worker-misclassification.html

Headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., Secure Talent, Inc. offers nationwide 1099 compliance and complete payroll services. Its parent company, Eplica, Inc., is a provider of “back office” services for staffing companies across the United States. For more information about Secure Talent, please visit www.securetalent.com. For more information about Eplica, please visit www.eplicaservices.com.

Advantage is a leading provider of professional and support-level talent and innovative workforce management solutions. For further information about Advantage’s services, please contact Laura McGarrity, director of marketing & communications, at (203) 394-5229.

This press release was distributed through eMediawire by Human Resources Marketer (HR Marketer: www.HRmarketer.com) on behalf of the company listed above.

Christian Science Monitor, January 22, 2008, Tuesday

Copyright 2008 The Christian Science Publishing Society

All Rights Reserved

Christian Science Monitor

January 22, 2008, Tuesday

SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. 8

HEADLINE: Cash for school grades? it works

BODY:

The use of "pay for performance" - linking a financial reward to measurable goals - works in business. But can it also motivate underachieving students? Though cash may at first seem a perverse incentive for education, one study of such a practice shows some promising results.

Texas pays $500 to students in low-income, largely minority school districts who pass an exam for an Advanced Placement course. Known as the Advanced Placement Incentive Program (APIP), the practice has been around for more than a decade and has spread to a few other states.

What are the results so far?

Texas schools with APIP showed a 30 percent increase in the number of graduates who scored better than 1100 and 24 on the SAT and ACT college admission tests, respectively, according to a recent study at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Such scores are indicative of later success in college. The study also found that the number of students admitted to colleges from APIP schools rose by about 8 percent.

Aren't programs like this simply bribing kids to study? Shouldn't teachers and parents be able to get the same results by instilling a love of learning and by demanding excellence?

In theory, yes. But advocates of APIP-style incentives point out that students raised in homes below the poverty line often have parents who dropped out of school and who may not value education. They need to see clear rewards in order to take school seriously.

But there are intangible rewards, too. Students who ordinarily might never consider taking a college-level course are exposed to challenging classes usually taught by the best teachers at the school. They may discover a whole new world of learning.

APIP "has created a culture where it's cooler to be in an AP class than to be in a regular class," Michael Watkins, associate principal at Dallas's W.T. White High School, told U.S. News & World Report. He says more of his students are being motivated to apply to colleges.

The program could also save Texas taxpayers money, concludes C. Kirabo Jackson, a professor of labor economics at Cornell and author of the study.

Texas spends some $80 million each year on remedial college courses to bring incoming high school students up to a level where they can cope with college course materials. APIP could cut the number of college freshmen needing this extra help.

While his study didn't make a conclusive tie between cash awards and higher test scores, Professor Jackson said it did appear to change the culture of the schools. Attending an AP class no longer was looked upon as terminally un-hip. And even if the earnings were spent quickly on sneakers or an iPod, the sense of achievement remained.

Experiments such as APIP need to be closely watched and expanded, although carefully to prevent any abuses.

But the cool kids in high school are usually the sports stars or the Jerry Seinfeld wannabes who cut up in class. Can APIP be a bad thing if more students at low-performing schools start wondering what's happening inside those Advanced Placement classrooms?

(c) Copyright 2008. The Christian Science Monitor

LOAD-DATE: January 21, 2008

Chicago Tribune, January 21, 2008, Monday

Copyright 2008 Chicago Tribune Company

Chicago Tribune

January 21, 2008, Monday

Chicagoland Final Edition

SECTION: BUSINESS ; ZONE C; MINDING YOUR BUSINESS ; Pg. 3

HEADLINE: Colleges take the business course;

Small, independent institutions are adopting marketing techniques usually identified with commercial firms

BYLINE: By Ann Meyer, Special to the Tribune

BODY:

Elmhurst College for years was largely a commuter school without a growth plan until a new president with an entrepreneurial bent arrived in 1994 and started making changes.

Under Bryant Cureton's leadership, Elmhurst has repositioned itself among small Midwestern residential colleges by following a formula heavy on marketing and communications that any consumer products company would recognize. In the process, it has become a leading example of what can happen when non-profits embrace business principles, experts said.

"The business side of all of higher education is increasingly important," said Ronald Ehrenberg, director of Cornell University's Higher Education Research Institute. Heavily dependent on tuition, many independent colleges are, as Ehrenberg puts it, "on the financial bubble." They need to pay attention to larger trends and react by carving out new niches, he said.

Aside from about 40 of the most selective independent colleges, many of the nearly 600 private colleges and universities throughout the nation, including about 80 in Illinois, will likely face challenges in attracting high-quality students in coming years, experts said. As demographics shift, the pool of affluent college-age students looking for small, independent schools will shrink, said Richard Ekman, president of the Council of Independent Colleges in Washington, D.C.

The colleges that are poised for continued success have differentiated themselves in the marketplace, he said. Elmhurst, which had struggled financially along with many independent colleges in the early 1970s, survived that downturn by admitting more part-timers. But by the early 1990s, its was looking for a new approach.

Since Cureton's arrival the college has doubled residential enrollment, to about 1,000 out of 2,400 full-time students; nearly doubled annual revenue, to more than $45 million; and tripled its endowment, to $100 million. The changes have brought a more engaged student body, better-qualified applicants and an expanded faculty of 127, up from 95.

Central to the growth, Cureton said, has been new clarity of Elmhurst's brand image as the ultimate small-college experience. The tagline "What college ought to be" communicates a focus on quality and also has served as a great motivator to faculty and staff, said Cureton, who is retiring at the end of the academic year from the school affiliated with the United Church of Christ.

Elmhurst now attracts students with better grades and test scores, boosting its selectivity. The college, ranked ninth in 2007 by U.S. News & World Report in the Midwest comprehensive colleges category, is an example of the turnaround possible through a concerted business strategy, experts said.

\ North Park makeover

While Elmhurst has been beefing up academics by emphasizing small class sizes and a focus on the practical through mentoring and internships, North Park University in Chicago has established a new image as "a good value" in education, said Mark Olson, dean of enrollment at North Park, which is affiliated with the Evangelical Covenant Church.

The new positioning stems from the university's restructuring of tuition and financial aid, which was announced in 2005 with a 30 percent tuition cut.

"After a decade of growth, we had hit a plateau with undergraduate recruitment and wanted to resume our growth," Olson said.

Part of the challenge was overcoming resistance in the marketplace to its tuition, which was then about $20,000. Although the university gave financial aid liberally, often knocking thousands of dollars off the price tag, communicating that upfront wasn't easy.

"We'd be at a college fair and someone would say, 'What's your tuition?'" Olson recalled. "They would walk away before we could say, 'We offer a lot of financial aid.'"

At the same time, others were becoming increasingly sophisticated about financial aid and scholarships, negotiating more vigorously than ever. "We wanted a more straightforward approach," Olson said. So North Park reduced tuition to $13,900 for full-time undergraduates in 2005. Tuition for the 2007-08 school year is $16,500.

By touting the lower tuition North Park immediately stood out, Olson said.

The school is still reaping the gains from that move, he said. "It's been fabulously successful," he said. "We're calling it a no-haggle approach to financial aid and tuition. Our first offer is our best offer."

Not only has the strategy helped to boost applications by more than 30 percent since the tuition restructuring, but fewer students now appeal the school's financial aid award, Olson said.

But beyond the tuition cuts, North Park's overhaul was driven by former university president David Horner's earlier decision to cut the number of majors offered from 50 to 30 instead of trying to be all things to all people.

"It's kind of a 'good to great' strategy, figuring out what you do best and focusing on it," Olson said.

The school also redesigned its general education program, adding an interdisciplinary focus called "The North Park Dialog" to address life's great questions through the study of philosophy, arts, literature and religion. Enrollment of traditional undergraduates has grown from 1,245 in 1997 to 1,854 this past fall, he said. Overall enrollment has more than tripled, to 3,250 from 1,042 in 1990.

North Park also has bolstered its graduate program in non-profit management, which has seen enrollment pick up. The university also has garnered attention with an annual symposium for non-profit executives.

\ Personal attention

Meantime, Elmhurst College's focus is as a liberal arts college where students get personal attention, learn practical skills and have an opportunity to try 133 student organizations and 18 varsity sports.

"We want to nail this notion that the faculty will know your name. You're not going to get lost in the back row" of a classroom with hundreds of students in front, Cureton said, noting that the student-teacher ratio is 13-1.

The change took place slowly, with a 10-year plan Cureton devised. "The biggest change is the school became very purposeful about articulating what it wanted to be," said Jim Winters, vice president for marketing at Elmhurst.

The result was "a deeper, richer, fuller education" that emphasized professional preparation through internships along with critical thinking skills, he said. With it came better-qualified students. The average high school grade point average of freshmen climbed to 3.44 from 2.99 in 1994, while the average ACT score rose to 23.8 from 20.7 in the same year.

Like North Park, Elmhurst provides a great example of what happens when a college clearly communicates its point of differentiation, Ekman said.

"Places like Elmhurst and North Park are very entrepreneurial and innovative in doing some things to attract students and additional donors," Ekman said. "Clearly, a distinctive program is likely to attract more donors than a mediocre one," he said.

As Elmhurst built its reputation, not only did its endowment grow but financial donations picked up as well, with annual fundraising more than doubling since 1994, to $3 million.

NOTES: Small Business

GRAPHIC: Photo: Elmhurst College President Bryant Cureton (left) and James Winters, vice president for marketing, in the Frick Center of the college. Key to the college's recent growth, Cureton said, has been new clarity of Elmhurst's brand image as the ultimate small-college experience. Photo for the Tribune by David Banks

Photo(s)

LOAD-DATE: January 21, 2008

The New York Times, January 18, 2008, Friday

The New York Times

The New York Times

Politics Wrapped in a Clothing Ad


By LOUISE STORY
Published: January 18, 2008

IT is not often that a clothing advertisement includes the words “apartheid” and “purgatory” along with a quote from President Bush, but American Apparel has always been different from other consumer brand companies.

The clothing company, known for its tight-fitting jersey T-shirts and brazen attitude, regularly runs advertisements showing scantily clad young people, photographed by the company’s founder and chief executive, Dov Charney, that some critics say border on the pornographic.

In a new series of ads, American Apparel is moving in a political direction. The cause is immigration reform, and the ads say in part that the status quo “amounts to an apartheid system” and should be overhauled to create a legal path for undocumented workers to gain citizenship in the United States.

•

The black-and-white quarter-page advertisements show American Apparel employees of Guatemalan origin — fully clothed. The ads have run in newspapers like The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times over the last month. Like the company’s usual sexually charged ads for T-shirts and leggings, the political ad bears the imprint of Mr. Charney, himself an immigrant from Canada.

“These people don’t have freedom of mobility, they’re living in the shadows,” he said in an interview. “This is at the core of my company, at the core of my soul.”

Most advertisers try to steer miles away from controversy, particularly avoiding political issues that are as divisive as immigration. Benetton and Nike have run ads about social causes, and scores of companies today are addressing environmental change in their ads. But, advertising executives said, those issues were not the lighting rod that immigration tends to be.

“This is an issue that elections are being decided on,” said Greg Stern, chief executive of Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners, an advertising agency. “But, of course, they’re a very radical company.”

The company is used to publicity, some of it unwelcome. Mr. Charney has been sued on accusations of sexual harassment by several employees, who said he had created an uncomfortable work environment. The company denies the accusations and is fighting a case in Los Angeles, where the company designs and manufactures all of its clothing.

The ads have already generated attention for American Apparel, and the company has received letters of support, Mr. Charney said. Other large companies privately lobby the government over various policies, but he said he would rather be open about his position.

“Let me be clear who makes our clothes. It is a collaboration between American-born people and non-American-born people,” he said. “I don’t think supporting immigration reflects negatively on my brand, and in fact, it makes it look like we’re a responsible business.”

American Apparel, which operates the largest garment factory in the United States, has long advocated fair treatment of workers and in the past has run ads in local publications about immigration. American Apparel went public in December, and Mr. Charney said that has allowed him to take the company’s advocacy to national outlets. He said he planned to continue to try to spark debate on the topic.

Some immigration experts criticized the advertisement and said it amounted to an admission that American Apparel uses illegal immigrants.

“It is self-serving propaganda to perpetuate cheap labor policies that are in violation of American law,” said Vernon M. Briggs Jr., a professor emeritus at Cornell who specializes in immigration policy. “This is not ‘apartheid.’ This is simply law-breaking. ‘Apartheid’ is an emotional term that is designed to inflame the issue.”

•

Mr. Charney said the company was careful to make sure that its workers presented the necessary documentation for employment.

Alicia Schmidt Camacho, an associate professor of American studies at Yale, called the advertisement “brave” and said she largely supported its statements.

“What I think is startling is that this is a partisan advertising campaign that advocates for workers and is not advocating for the consumer,” Ms. Schmidt Camacho said. “It’s an appeal that is based on their brand and identification with particular values.”

Mr. Charney said American Apparel’s customers appreciate the company’s views on immigration. He said his customers were “borderless.” He named the company American Apparel, rather than “USA Apparel,” he said, on purpose.

“I think my Latino workers are American workers,” he said. “They’re from the Americas. We’re all here together.”

Chicago Tribune, January 18, 2008, Friday

Copyright 2008 Chicago Tribune Company

Chicago Tribune

January 18, 2008 Friday

Chicago Final Edition

SECTION: BUSINESS ; ZONE C; Pg. 3

HEADLINE: Monitor hired for bus union vote;

Teamsters upset over lack of input in the selection

BYLINE: By Stephen Franklin, Tribune reporter

BODY:

First Student, the nation's largest school bus firm, has set up an internal monitor's office to help ensure workers can freely decide whether to join a union.

The monitor, William B. Gould IV, a professor emeritus at Stanford University Law School and former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, said he hopes the effort will serve as a potential model for other companies.

Supported by a six-person staff, Gould said he will investigate workers' complaints and report findings to company officials.

And while the Teamsters Union, which has been trying hard to organize First Student's 68,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada, has high regard for Gould, union officials said they don't like the fact they had no input in the decision.

Still, Gould is hopeful. When company officials approached the 71-year-old labor law expert about the effort, he said he was taken back by the idea.

"My biggest surprise was that anybody would do this," he explained. "So many companies see things going their way, and so they figure why change anything."

The union's embrace of Gould is understandable. Gould's four-year term in the mid-1990s drew howls from corporate America over the agency's increased use of court injunctions against companies.

Teamsters Union President James P. Hoffa, in a letter this week to the chief executive of FirstGroup PLC, First Student's British-based parent company, detailed the concerns about its decision to "unilaterally" install a monitor.

Company spokeswoman Liz Valdes said Thursday that the monitoring effort was launched Jan. 1 "to give employees another chance to let us know how they feel."

First Student does not take a stance on whether employees should belong to a union. However, the Teamsters, which represents about 14,000 workers at First Student, has accused the company of waging anti-union campaigns. Last year alone the union filed about 50 complaints against the company with the NLRB.

Valdes would not comment on the union's complaints or on Hoffa's letter.

FirstGroup last year bought Naperville-based Laidlaw International Inc., the nation's largest school bus firm at the time, and merged it with First Student, the second largest, and moved the operations to Cincinnati.

In Illinois, the company has about 7,000 employees.

Organized labor has made corporations' resistance to their organizing efforts a major theme in its plan to reform the nation's labor laws.

"Harassment of workers who want to join a union is extreme in this country," said Kate Bronfenbrenner, a labor expert at Cornell University.

And for such a monitoring program to succeed, workers must be assured that they will not be fired for speaking up, she added.

"It would be interesting to see if it gets picked up elsewhere," said Martin Malin, a labor law expert at the Chicago-Kent College of Law. "I don't think [Gould] would agree to do something like this unless he was assured independence."

sfranklin@tribune.com

LOAD-DATE: January 18, 2008

Christian Science Monitor, January 18, 2008, Friday

Copyright 2008 The Christian Science Publishing Society

All Rights Reserved

Christian Science Monitor

January 18, 2008, Friday

SECTION: USA; Pg. 10

HEADLINE: Nevada's unions fracture over candidates and caucus rules

BYLINE: Ben Arnoldy Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

DATELINE: Las Vegas

BODY:

Labor unions have fractured among the three top Democratic presidential contenders, diluting labor's overall influence here and adding extra wallop to the bruising nomination fight.

Unions in Nevada have poured money and occasional vitriol into a battle between three pro-union candidates. One union has even joined a lawsuit against the state Democratic Party.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. In moving Nevada's caucus to the front of the primary calendar, national Democratic leaders were offering unions an opportunity to influence the nomination. In exchange, the thriving labor movement here would get a head start mobilizing its rank and file for the November general election in this swing state.

But the 21st-century face of US organized labor - particularly the service industries that have flourished in high-growth areas like Vegas - is showing itself to be more independent and risk-taking with its political deals, say experts.

Case in point: the decision by local chapters of the Culinary Workers Union and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to endorse Sen. Barack Obama after his second-place finish in New Hampshire.

"This is totally unlike the old labor political activity," says Richard Hurd, professor of industrial and labor relations at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. "These unions have broken away from the AFL-CIO and they are trying to forge a new path. Their decision to endorse Obama, who never had any major union endorsements until they came along - that's the kind of thing they want to do: something path-breaking."

Traditionally, labor unions' approach is to nurture relationships with longtime, mainstream politicians, says Dr. Hurd. The SEIU and the Culinary Workers Union, by contrast, are "far more aggressive," he says.

"In reaching their decision, they undoubtedly took into account what sort of access they might gain if they make an endorsement that pans out," says Hurd. "If they are the first big unions to make an endorsement, then they are right there."

The approach has turned labor's voice in Nevada into a cacophony. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has eight unions in her corner, former Sen. John Edwards has four, and Senator Obama three.

But Obama's few endorsements bring with them the most workers. The culinary union's 60,000 members top the combined local membership of Senator Clinton's or Mr. Edwards's endorsements.

To some extent, the division of union members diminishes any one candidate's labor advantage, says Peter Francia, a political scientist at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. "The fact that they split three ways suggests that the winner will probably owe their victory to which union is better able to get their people to the polls, and potentially to other groups that are part of that candidate's coalition."

The competition to deliver, plus the extraordinarily tight race, has seen one pro-Clinton union launch anti-Obama ads in Iowa and New Hampshire. In Nevada, the money is flowing in to pay for new ads and ground operations.

Meanwhile, local media reported how a state assemblyman toured a Hispanic neighborhood with Clinton in an effort to get Hispanic culinary workers to break ranks for her. Whether union workers would be comfortable doing that in the public forum of a caucus is unclear.

Then there's the lawsuit.

The state's teachers union, the Nevada State Education Association (NSEA), joined a lawsuit against the state Democratic Party and its plan to hold caucuses at some casinos on the Strip. These special "at-large" precincts would let shift workers downtown take part without going home. Half of all casino workers on the Strip belong to the culinary union. Without this accommodation, the union leadership says, thousands of its workers would be disenfranchised.

The teachers union argues, however, that their members need a special accommodation, too. Schools will be used as caucus sites, requiring janitors and other union members to staff precincts that may not be their own.

"NSEA's only interest was fairness, not disenfranchising anyone," says executive director Terry Hickman. His board has not endorsed a candidate, he says, and he discounts the notion that high-level staff ties to Clinton could influence it.

The culinary union wasn't amused. Its chief has accused the teachers union of being "used" by the Clinton campaign.

The suit asking for the at-large precincts to be disallowed came two days after the union endorsed Obama.

The Clintons deny they are behind the lawsuit but don't denounce it. At press time, a ruling was imminent.

(c) Copyright 2008. The Christian Science Monitor

LOAD-DATE: January 17, 2008