Why Not Joe?

I know what you're saying to yourself after reading my last post, "Hey, Graham ain't  the right guy to be selling  STEP to working-class folks like me. Old Main shudda sent JoePa out to charm us plain-folk." 

Well, you know that was Plan A. There were supposed to be three "Evenings With Joe Paterno" this spring and before each of them, STEP was on the agenda. Unfortunately, all three of these events had to be canceled because...Well, I'll let Graham explain.

"Coach Paterno has had intestinal issues this summer that have forced him to limit his efforts to team activities and therefore some of his personal appearances have been cancelled," university president Graham Spanier said Monday night in an e-mail.

That's right, Joe hasn't been able to stop shitting himself since Graham told him he'd have to help explain to people why a 500% increase in that tax deductible kickback was really all so working-class.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Spanier, Paterno, Seat Transfer and Equity Plan,

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STEPing on the Working-Class

Old Main must be very worried about the blowback from the Seat Transfer and Equity Plan (STEP), which raises the kickback required to get season football tickets by 500%, since they've sent  out Graham, a man with the cojones to say,"I assure you, we don't do anything very lavishly at Penn State. We're very working-class when it comes to what we do,"  to do a damage control interview with BlueWhite Illustrated. 

Let's review some of Graham's working-class bona fides.

First off, Graham just received a contract extension which boosted his salary by 12.9% from $620,000 to $700,000. Com'on, what UniMart clerk hasn't received an $80,000 raise in one year? This is working-class through and through. No?

Then there are the corporate boards that Graham sits on.  In  2008, he made $270,9800 in compensate as a director of US Steel and last year he pulled in another $170,000 from the gig. ...not bad for our working-class hero. He has also sat on the board of Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania  for a number of years and it was announced this summer that he was appointed as a director of FM Global,an insurance company, which according to the press release announcing Graham's appointment does business with Penn State. Unfortunately, these are not publicly traded companies, hence the compensation of a director is not disclosed by either. But this sort of thing is commonplace amongst the working-class. Staff assistants at Penn State are always being tapped to serve on corporate boards.

Of course, we can't overlook Graham's role as the sometimes washboard player in the Deacons of Dixie, a local Dixieland jazz band. This is a very down to earth hobby, very working-class. The Deacons are working-class to the bone. They often preform at the W.C. Handy Festival in Florence, Alabama and what's more working-class than driving to Florence in a beat up RV?

Now, Graham didn't make the trip that year. When he did make the trip, he didn't think the RV was working-class enough.  Here's Graham's concept of working-class travel.

I understand Lear Jets are all the rage amongst retirees on fixed incomes...very working-class.

Like I said, it takes a man with a big set of cojones to live the way Graham does and then to claim that "We're very working-class when it comes to what we do."  Graham doesn't know working-class.

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A Couple of Items on the Labor Front

First, Fritz Fitz, a longtime reader of this blog and sometime commenter, sent along word this morning that the United Students Against Sweatshops will be holding at teaching-in on the Employee Free Choice Act this upcoming Thursday, October 15, at 7pm in 160 Willard on the Penn State University Park campus. Speakers will include a representative of the AFL-CIO and  Paul Whitehead  a Penn State Labor Law professor.

Also, there was news today about the AAUP pushing back against complaints lodged by the right wing Landmark Legal Foundation against  academic labor centers around the country which conduct research about and offer programs for unions .

Technorati Tags: Employee Free Choice Act, Penn State, USAS, AAUP, Landmark Legal Foundation

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Penn State, Inc.

Davis at Onward State attended a meeting over the Kleer-Cut Campaign between members of Eco-Action, a longtime Penn State student environmental group, and Paul Ruskin of the Penn State Office of Physical Plant. He contrasted the stonewalling and, more recently disingenuous gestures, that United Students Against Sweatshops has faced from Old Main over the Designated Supplier Program with the openness of OPP toward Kleer-Cut.

We were expecting a frustrating meeting of passion on one side and corporate doublespeak on the other. Instead, what we saw was a genuine collaboration between two groups with slightly different missions, but similar ideals. We won’t get into specifics here– the conversation got pretty wonky, including one nice discussion about how best to test the different toilet paper options– but it was cool to see. Paul Ruskin, the Communications Coordinator for OPP, even brought tea for the group.

What is to be made of the difference in the response of the University to these two groups? Not much, both responses are consistent with the current dominant corporate culture.

When it comes to labor issues such as sweatshops or unions, Penn State  stands with  Wal-Mart and the US Chamber of Commerce.

When it comes to Going Green   , Penn State stands with Wal-Mart, which

... has reduced annual shipping container use by 500 units, preventing the consumption of 1,000 barrels of oil and 3,800 trees while netting $2.4 million in cost savings,

and the US Chamber of Commerce, whose Web site  is chock-full of positive stories about Going Green.

Penn State  is  to be commended for  its commitment to Going Green, as are Wal-Mart and the US Chamber of Commerce, but  this commitement should not be mistaken as an indication that the University is somehow becoming less corporate. In fact, it is an indication of just how corporate Penn State is.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Going Green, corporate university, anti-labor,

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Graham Places Russell Athletics on Double Super Secret Probation

Since I first noted that the University of Wisconsin  responded to Russell Athletics' unfair labor practices by canceling their licensing contracts with the company,  other universities have followed suit. Today the Collegian reports that Penn State will take a different approach to the problem. Old Main has placed Russell Athletics on Double Super Secret Probation.

"We made a decision several weeks ago to put Russell on probation. We informed them more recently of our deadline for addressing issues that have been identified and for answering questions we posed to them," Penn State President Graham Spanier wrote in an e-mail. "Their response will determine whether we renew our relationship with them."

How does this Double Super Secret Probation work, you ask? It's simple. Old Main demands that Russell comply with ten remedial steps in a Fair Labor Association report on Russell's practices in the Honduran plant in question or else the University will cancel its contract with the apparel maker.

Well OK, not exactly. Old Main wants the company to provide a written timeline for complying with the steps in the report. The University will then renew the contract. So it's basically allowing Russell to promise to fix things. Penn State will sign a new contract with the company based on this promise and by the next time the contract is up for renewal everyone will have forgotten about this little incident. Pretty neat uh? It's even more underhanded than Harvey.

This is what Graham's weaselly leadership looks like.


Technorati Tags: Penn State, Spanier, Russell Athletics, Fair Labor Association, Workers Rights Consortium

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Here is What Moral Leadership Looks Like

The University of Wisconsin at Madison has decided to end its ties with Russell Athletic after the apparel maker chose to shutdown a Honduran plant rather than see it unionized. This is the second time that Wisconsin has ended a relationship with an apparel maker over the maker's questionable labor practices. Earlier it end it ties with the New Era Cap Company.

Graham  refused to take any action  in the New Era Cap Company case and he has not taken any action in the Russell Athletic case.

For Graham,  morality is about looking out for the interests of the powerful.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Spanier, Russell Athletics, Sweatshops, University of Wisconsin at Madison

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Graham Spanier: Union Buster

According to Penn State's fourth quarter 2008 Federal Lobbying report, the University lobbied against the Employee Free Choice Act. (Penn State spent $520,000 on Federal lobbying last year, up from $100,000 the year before.) Here's a screen shot.

Is it any wonder that Graham won't sign on to the Designated Supplier Program or take any action against Russell Athletics's union busting in Honduras when he is opposed worker's rights here at home?

No, he'd rather go on a national propaganda offensive with his support of Above and Beyond by Knights Apparel. You know... Harvey. No one in Old Main could find the time to talk to the local media about this program, but Damon Sims talked to Inside Higher Education about it. The Worker Rights Consortium refused to be interview and Knights Apparel didn't respond to IHE's request. It looks like they may be distancing themselves from the Old Main Propaganda Shop. (But someone, most likely someone in Old Main, leaked an email from Scott Nova of WRC to an unnamed university to IHE.) This IHE piece makes it perfectly clear that Graham's embrace of Above and Beyond is about shaping national opinion and not about doing any good for anyone other than himself.

Graham will do nothing to help these sweatshop workers, because he is anti-union and anti-worker.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Spanier, union busting, EFCA, DSP, WRC, Above and Beyond by Knights Apparel

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