Card check union election authorizations can elevate both DSP and the #PwDs they serve as HCBS neighbors

   Although bright spots of some organizing exist the effects of banning required fees or dues paid by workers to unions weakens labor organizing to the point that it only remains where workers are either desperately trying to keep the living standard they have or have been pushed to the ‘breaking point’ by, in some cases, 70 years of corporate funded anti worker laws.   The laws date back to the Taft Hartley Act in 1947 that started the ‘right to work (for less)’ law  movement by pre-civil-rights era Dixiecrat Democratic Governor William Tuck in Virginia where worker rights were pitted against the commonwealth retaining a AAA bond rating to reduce recurring budget deficits caused by higher interest rates.  The retelling of the 2017 primary issue difference between Ralph Northam and Tom Perriello, by WRVA fiscal conservative Republican commentator Norman Leahy for the benefit of owners of Virginia Talk Radio Network radio stations, among other businesses, exploits Democratic moderation on worker rights that cost them working class support nationally.  

  Card check bills were written, like the 2009 EFCA, to fix a part of the 1947 Taft Hartley Act to allow workers to authorize union elections.

  Future President John F Kennedy’s brother Ted tried to correct the Taft Hartley Act after then-50 years of slow union busting




It has been a decade since Sen. Ted Kennedy first filed the Employee Free Choice Act.
He filed the bill on Friday, November 21, 2003 – almost exactly 40 years after the death of President John F. Kennedy.
A coincidence? Not likely. Here’s the back story:
The Employee Free Choice Act would restore union organizing rights that were taken away by the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act. John F. Kennedy was a member of the Congress that passed Taft-Hartley.
“The first thing I did in Congress was to become the junior Democrat on the labor committee. At the time we were considering the Taft-Hartley Bill. I was against it, and one day in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, I debated the bill with a junior Republican on that committee who was for it . . . his name was Richard Nixon.” [from a 1960 recording of President Kennedy reflecting on his career]

 to allow forming unions more easily than having at least 2 elections.  Supporters of the secret ballot election process to authorize a union have made false attacks on card check alternative to a secret ballot. 
  Inclusion's enemy isn’t union workers 

 "Best outcome is a closed institution with better paid workers providing care in home and community based settings supporting #PwDs earning higher minimum wage"


 in institutions. The enemy of social and economic inclusion for #PwDs is taxpayer (local property taxes paying for the state part of medicaid) and private insurance company greed that cuts labor costs.  That greed of inadequate HCBS funding, and fears for resale and rental value growth expressed by owners of existing homes who resist permits for group homes in municipal and county zoning plans, created the institutions in the first place. 

  It isn’t only group homes low income/affordable housing is also resisted in the same local zoning plans if it’s planned near market-rate existing single family housing.  Group homes get conflated because people with disabilities generally have lower incomes
particularly if they need to live in group homes instead of finding individual roommates or living alone. 


  The owners of existing homes and commercial landlords fear that the proximity of poorer people to richer people will lead to at least one horrific crime that will stigmatize the area for 10 years or more until ‘redevelopment’ AKA gentrification and displacement.  Failings of group homes in communities are also the result of not enough money to hire support staff (direct service providers) with enough judgment and discretion to allow more individual autonomy.  


  Homes are paid for with private donations from families of residents, SSI or SSDI of residents and medicaid waivers that austerity and income inequality cut.   Which funding stream should be a target to demand increasing by activists/self-advocates likely with inclusive rhetoric for exclusive benefit that fails to equitably help autistics without intellectual disability at a higher risk of suicide?  @DragSyndrome show reporting demanding the same freedom in personal lives for group home residents with ID (Down syndrome/trisomy 21) was simply elevating a few people empowered with judgment and discretion.  That discretion can only be replicated everywhere by explaining how more people with ID/DD, like Down Syndrome, can avoid their support staff stealing money from people with ID and DD as well as the greater danger of staff on patient sexual assaults. 
 
  

Washington Post elevates deinstitutionalization by dividing DSPs income and #PwDs inclusion needs

   It should not be surprising that the WaPo would elevate any criticism of unions as a backhanded clapback at their own unions

 with content written by independent (freelance) reporters to cut the Post’s labor costs despite increasingly protecting their online content with paywalls as print content is protected by shoplifting and loitering laws limiting time skimming print copies in stores.


  The Washington Post was not alone in reducing the pay to journalists in its local circulation area. That reduced pay forced journalists to use new distribution models and e-payment vendors of patreon, substack and email newsletter distribution direct to readers.   Email newsletter distribution directly from journalist to readers also provides a series of authenticated user link clicks to raise pay from publisher to journalist if the journalist is paid by the click.  If paid by the click journalists are the 21st century version of Triangle Shirtwaist (some killed in an infamous factory fire) garment workers paid by the piece as clicks leading to page views or impressions are the practical equivalent of pieces produced.  

  The Washington Examiner expanded its circulation to Maryland by buying the Journal Newspapers in Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties in Maryland and shifting all the employer workplaces 


 A union representation election scheduled for Dec. 12 [2002] at Journal Newspapers Inc. in Maryland was postponed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) after the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild obtained an emergency injunction following the layoff of eight newsroom employees, described by the Guild as union supporters, at The Prince George’s Journal in Lanham and The Montgomery Journal in Rockville. In dueling press releases, the community papers complained the union had chosen “to block the democratic process” by asking to halt the election, while the Guild highlighted “unlawful firings and other employer actions aimed at spreading fear among Journal employees and making a fair election impossible.”






to right to work for less Virginia.  



  Journal Newspapers and later Washington Examiner publisher Ryan Phillips insisted on a secret ballot election he likely knew his business would lose without firing pro-union workers to intimidate the remaining workers.  It’s why unions later supported EFCA or card check, as an alternative to secret ballot elections that was banned in 1947 by the Taft Hartley Act, to authorize a union instead of an election back in 2009. 

now that ADU expansion has passed into law how to mitigate past opposition to more ADUs

   When the Montgomery County, Md county council passed a law allowing more accessory dwelling units to be built over the objections of the county executive the news was reported here among other news organizations.


Council Passes Accessory Apartment Zoning Change


This link has died since the original post. 


https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/government/council-passes-accesso=
ry-apartment-zoning-change/


A commenter with a privacy-protecting username 

Kabardino-Balkaria


viewable here

wrote this comment:


There is no "me and Elrich" unless you can cite where he is advocating for what I am calling for: YES on ADUs, with incentives 
to rent them out for under $1500/month. How on earth is this not being for affordable housing.




What I am afraid will happen is the following scenario:
a) a wealthy Chevy Chase family who wants to make even more money builds a high-end, freestanding unit on their property and rents it out for $2200/month, which will be out of range for any middle income young renter who takes transit, but will instead go to the Booz Allen associate who brings his car.
b) An entire family moves in with children and vehicles, making the unit functionally a duplex - which would be all well and good, except for the resulting crowded conditions in schools and on roads (since there is no way to prevent the ADU residents from bringing their cars) and increased impermeable surfaces which lowers the quality of life for both the new residents and the existing residents.





 Did what Kabardino Balkaria call "incentives" mean
rent stabilization Elrich promised in the 2018 primary?   Marc Elrich promised to create a countywide rent stabilization program and dropped the idea after he won the primary. Kabardino Balkaria may be distancing their personal past support for Elrich, at least on part of the affordable housing issue, by leaving out rent control/stabilization and rebranding it as incentives. 

 And Kabardino Balkaria's objections to the now-passed ADU bill leading to more cars in the single family zoned neighborhoods with larger impermeable surface driveways leading to storm runoff (a return to the 'nimby acting like an environmentalist' trope that is partly why building any housing in Montgomery County is so difficult unless it's market-rate housing) can be answered by
requiring driveway expansions to be done with water permeable pavement technology like what is used in parking lot of the Vienna, VA community center.  Reserve a shared car from car2go or zipcar, if one is priced out of car ownership to afford housing costs, and take a weekend drive to the Vienna, Va community center and observe it.  Take a few pictures to share on social media and in one's planning and land use activism with local electeds.  



  Both potential tenants in the examples used by Kabardino Balkaria, the family and the Booz Allen associate, may stop owning cars to pay higher housing costs.
The working class family may not replace their car if it breaks down.

Less parking and traffic will result in either case but more tenant turnover in the ADU will likely result if the tenant's job changes. People are more willing to drive farther to their jobs than take longer bus and rail commutes to their jobs.  Turnover rent increase opacity and one tenant at a time deciding after a visit not to rent is free market rent control without public information on past rents. The affordability problem persists as no public information on what the change in rent at tenant turnover is. The owner-occupied housing market has a sales price record, at least for the last 3 deed changes, in property tax records that are publicly available.

  The pace of progressive change of speeding up bus trips, to increase ridership, with transfers is too slow but for the poorest who cannot afford any other transportation choice, as well as the class descending poor, desperate to save money as COL (cost of living) rises faster than individual incomes and assets. Give up owning a car to spend the savings on housing costs is unpopular to say publicly and directly. Changing land use and transportation policies to limit parking slowly forces the same choice in many people already living without owning cars. 


 The costs of changing infrastructure to support a carless (car-free brand) lifestyle is usually privatized more than socialized.  The only exception is building and operating the bus and rail transit.  Getting the 'last mile' from destinations to bus and rail stops/stations is usually privatized.  That privatization of supporting a car-free (car-less) life shows in the growth of car, bike and e-scooter sharing (renting) services. Ride sharing services lower taxi fares below a living wage to the point that legacy taxi drivers publicly set themselves on fire.  And Montgomery County, MD has started weekday-only on-demand bus service between Wheaton, Glenmont and Rockville WMATA stations because of a free-market failure of not enough uber and lyft drivers getting ride requests to the same areas and drivers consequently not lingering there to enable their driver apps to be matched up by the GPS-locating 'dispatcher.'  "Ride share" drivers have 'red lined' the area as legacy taxi drivers 'red lined' east of the Anacostia River DC.  That lack of taxi service across the Anacostia river created higher fares for the few taxi drivers willing to pick up or drop off passengers 'east of the river' that led to DC's zone fare system (flat fares unless crossing fare zones) that has since been abolished for the distance fare system. 
   

AAGW meeting topics and mission flaw- too much individual improvement not enough advocacy for systemic improvement

     In June 2019 the discussion topics for the next 4 AAGW meetings were unilaterally decided by the group co-founder and president.  This unilateral decision followed a prior process of members of the AAGW board of directors picking 6 topics at a time for the previous two years as well as soliciting topic suggestions at meetings themselves.  Few suggestions were received beyond finding help finding and keeping a job.   




On Sat, 6/22/19, 'J. Willardston Smith' willardston@[address redacted to protect privacy] [dcaspie] <dcaspie@yahoogroups.com [moved off of yahoo to groups.io]> wrote:

Subject: [AS] Discussion topics for the next four AAGW meetings
To: "Autistics Association of Greater Washington Inc." <dcaspie@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Saturday, June 22, 2019, 9:54 PM





   
   





     
      July
27th [2019] Employment

August 24th [2019] Social acceptance of autistics

September
28th [2019] How to manage your disability - on your own or getting support

October
26th [2019] How to speak up for yourself




An email reply to the announcement of the next 4 topics shows an unmet need for assistance with transportation to Teaism restaurant at 8th and D streets, NW.   Two other members have this need met regularly or semi-regularly  by building peer relationships with AAGW leaders or their friends.  

Pat McCoy p.a.mccoy@[redacted to protect privacy] [dcaspie] <dcaspie@yahoogroups.com>
To:dcaspie@yahoogroups.com

Jun 23 [2019] at 7:20 AM


I wish I could attend, especially about
the one on manag[ing] disability.

Unfortunately, my health issues make
it impossible to travel alone because
of additional disabilities such as
dysautonomia.

Pat McCoy, M.S.
Addiction Psychology

Slow Down and Enjoy Your Garden!
Plus a quote from Leonard Nimoy:  A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.  LLAP



  The AAGW discussion topic pickers and leaders failed in what should be one goal of peer-run or autistic self advocate-run organizations.  Focusing only on individual 'empowerment' (individual supremacist or social model of disability perspective) is a recipe for failure and stagnant organizational growth. Autistic-led self-advocacy organizations can be more effective for their members if leaders can recognize that some individual member problems are individual manifestations of systemic failures (mostly bad public policy choices because of the consequences of local, state and federal government elections).   Meeting disruption by desperate people with pressing needs unmet by the self advocate leaders of the self advocacy organization also is a consequence of focusing too much on individual peer-based help and not enough on accessing systemic help ('big guvmint' that autistics on the political right seek to avoid).  Benefits counseling and where to find it, within local governments and federally funded centers for independent living,  was ignored in the Dec 2017 and likely September 28, 2019 AAGW discussion topics.  Funding needs for self advocate run organizations could be obtained by designating them as additional CILs under the 1974 Rehab Act.



 particularly to jointly advocate for funding (expand the 1974 Rehab Act funding stream to state and local governments) local CILS for people with intellectual and physical disabilities as well as wellness and recovery 'drop-in' or 'clubhouse model' centers for people living with mental illness.



 Or CILs could donate, or hire a willing volunteer for training in benefits counseling, as reciprocity for referrals.  Those two suggestions meet the unmet need if the CIL benefits counselor is ‘too busy’ to take on any more work.   Stagnant growth can be measured by real life meeting attendance or small online platform user increases and little ‘traffic.’  




  The topic of the September 28, 2019 meeting (how to manage your disability- on your own or getting support) was a repeat topic from December 9, 2017 in the first image below.  

The discussion subject "Autism Resources" (number 133) was the prior occurrence of an inadequate attempt at benefits counseling, replacing it with peer to peer referrals instead of referrals to Centers for Independent Living or Departments of Human or Social Services at a local government (DC, MD or VA county) level, by AAGW leaders and discussion topic selectors. 

 

   There was also a living arrangements (housing for adults with the disability of autism) topic November 2018.  Most comments were individuals considering or who had bought homes.   One person who had recently moved to a shared house sponsored for people with disabilities (hope-house.org) shared their individual experience that was unlikely to help anyone else because of lack of housing availability.  Little discussion happened about PHA (locally-based public housing authorities) and federal HUD housing choice (formerly known as section 8) voucher wait list process.  Special set-aside units, varying by town, city or county (local government jurisdiction) one lives in, for people with disabilities are rent-subsidized living options that local governments intentionally do not publicize well to avoid demands to build more such units and protect confidentiality of occupants.  Confidentiality conceals inequity and inequality.   


   Finding a CWIC (certified work incentives counselor) at a federally designated and funded Center for Independent Living could be of more immediate individual help than going to a 'dinner and a support group meeting' of Autistic (formerly Asperger) Adults of Greater Washington.
  

   To start one's search here are some links.

ssa.gov/disability


servicesource.org/service/benefits-counseling

drswm.org/services_menu/independent-living/ssi_benefits_counseling
   
  These two links are focused toward people over 65 who have acquired disabilities as a result of aging.  People with disabilities may also qualify if they are receiving SSI or SSDI. 
  
www.benefitscheckup.org

www.benefits.gov or 800-333-4636

  The ban on nonprofit organizations from 'political advocacy' is not an excuse for lack of advocacy for systemic improvement to 'do more good for more autistics at a faster pace.'  The test that the IRS uses is that nonprofit advocacy be more about issues than candidates or legislation.  All a nonprofit organization needs to do to keep its 501c3 deductible status for donors on their individual income tax returns is avoid anyone authorized to speak for the organization speaking the words 'vote for' or 'vote against' candidates or legislation.  Even letter writing campaigns are still allowed to direct people to say in their own, or a template letter, 'vote for' or 'vote against' legislation.