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Doctors in the UK are striking for the first time in over 40 years. This comes after months of failed talks between the government and the British Medical Association (BMA) regarding the controversial new junior doctor contract. We do so with a heavy heart, as it goes against the very ethos of our vocation. Yet the fact that more than 98% of us voted to do so, speaks volumes about the current impasse.

The post Why the junior doctors’ strike matters to everyone appeared first on OUPblog.

It is the peak of immigration in New York City, at the dawn of the twentieth century. Shouts in dozens of languages whoop through the air and smells from every dish imaginable waft through the streets of the Lower East Side. Tenements, rickety but home, climb the sky, fire escapes snaking down. The streets are crowded with pushcarts and calls. Thus is the setting for The Uprising, by Margaret Peterson Haddix.

Bella is a young immigrant girl, fresh from Italy and weighted with the daunting task of providing for her family overseas. She is lucky to find a job, though the hours spent hunched over a sewing machine in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory are not quite what she expected.

Yetta has worked at Triangle for months. She lives with her equally rebellious elder sister, and, like Bella, sends most of her earnings home to her family in Russia. She is lively with life and pulsing with her want to change the world, to mean something, to matter. She wants women’s rights and safer conditions at work, shorter hours and higher wages. She is determined and fiery, willing to stand for months in the blistering heat and shivering cold, holding a picket sign and striking for union recognition in factories. Yetta is spirited and intense, gladly giving every bit of herself to her cause.

Jane, lastly, is a society girl with an intellectual spark. She is curious and compassionate, spending time with strikers and at rallies for no gain of her own, and finds herself swept up into this passionate world of striking and working and wanting and hoping. There is more to feel, she finds, outside of her ignorant, sheltered life. And these ardent factory girls so desperate for their cause accept her and love her—she finds a place with them that she cannot find at home.

Uprising is the story of these three girls. It is inspiring and adrenalizing (if that was not previously a word, I now deem it one), making me want to jump up and devote myself to a cause with all of my everything. On the other hand, the book does such a good job of enticing the readers into the world it creates, that it runs the risk of romanticizing poverty to some extent.

However, all in all, I love the way the book was crafted. The fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory looms ahead for the entire novel. Right from the first chapter, we learn that two of the three best friends will die in the fire, though we do not know which ones they will be. This sets up an interesting dynamic--as I would read and get to know each character better, I would start to root for her to survive, before realizing, dismayed, that the other two would have to perish. It gave the book momentum and a reason for me to keep reading at the few moments the plot lagged.

Furthermore, the author was very skilled at weaving fiction and fact together, creating a story that haunts and perplexes, makes you think about the world and what you can do to change it, but also makes you care deeply for the three main characters. She succeeded in bringing life to a tragedy that occurred almost a hundred years ago. In making us care not only for the girls who died, but for the factory owners and the workers who survived as well. In painting a horrifying picture of flame and sky and the impossible choice—to jump or to burn? In making readers understand that if we want change to we have to fight for it, as the shirtwaist girls did in their months-long strike. The author wrote the story to make us u

THREAT OF STRIKE FOR WRITERS/PRODUCERS - TV COULD GET A WHOLE LOT WORSE

"With their current deal set to expire on June 30, Hollywood actors and producers had yet to sign a new contract by June 13. And with each passing day, the likelihood of an actors’ strike—while practically unthinkable so soon after the Writers Guild of America strike turned the 2008 development season on its head—seems increasingly possible, especially with both sides sparring so publicly.

SAG president Alan Rosenberg has said the American Federation of TV and Radio Artists, which signed a tentative deal with producers last month, had made no headway on those points. SAG, representing about 120,000 actors, singers, dancers and stunt men, staged a rally last week to persuade the 44,000 or so of its members who also belong to AFTRA to delay ratifying their new contract until after SAG had completed its negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers."

Given the current TV schedule and programs that passed for entertainment this season, things could be a whole lot worse.

Read the entire story here: http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/national-broadcast/e3i5597024fecf11e332dbcd600b1e07895

The libraries in Victoria BC, the subject of an ongoing (166 days as of today) strike, are being closed and employees are being locked out. Here is the statement from the library

Due to the ongoing strike by CUPE 410, the Greater Victoria Public Library today announced that it will serve 72-hour lock-out notice on the union. It is anticipated that the 72-hour lock-out notice will take effect on Sunday, February 17 2008 at 5:01pm.

Here is the web site statement of the union.

In the 165 days since we started taking strike actions, the employer’s bargaining agent has made no attempt to restart negotiations. Since early in 2007, they have simply refused to discuss the major outstanding issues. Library workers experience this as a contempt for their needs, and for their contributions to the quality of life in the Capital area.

Here is a short article from the Vancouver Sun on the subject and a longer one from the Globe & Mail. Here is an column from the Victoria Times Columnist with some details about the actual money they’re talking about wagewise. One of the interesting parts of the ongoing saga is that some library workers, as part of their protests regarding promised but not delivered pay equity with other municipal workers, were waiving overdue fines for all patrons, costing the library between $40,000 and $50,000 per month. This likely endeared them to some of their patrons but was a interesting form of civil disobedience on the job. A few blogs posts on the subject here, and here. [updated because I had the title/location wrong and needed to republish]

BROADWAY STAGE HANDS GO ON STRIKE.

Seems that strikes are definitely in the air and the newest group to join is the stagehands union. Terrible timing with the holiday season here.

"After a morning of confusion and anxiety during which members of Local One, the stagehands union, met and the producers waited to see what would happen, the stagehands strike has officially begun. Union members are holding picket signs in front of theaters and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the parent union of Local One, issued a statement confirming the walkout.

The stagehands took their picket signs to the wet sidewalks around 10 a.m. today, after a meeting of Local One, their union, at the Westin New York on West 43rd Street.

The Saturday matinee traffic of tourists and theatergoers was thrown into chaos, with busloads of students sitting unhappily outside of “The Color Purple,” and nervous restaurant workers contemplating a Saturday night with no dinner rush..."


Read the full story and background info. about the strike here:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=av0pFpnkOdrA&refer=muse
(Update 3)

www.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/theater/10cnd-theater.html?_r=38&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=11947253

Mind you if you're looking for a new contract, this would be the perfect time to negociate one. Still too bad for everyone concerned. Let's hope that it doesn't drag on and that a fair and equitable settlement is reached.

Not long ago I had a chance to see Caroline B. Cooney give a speech to the New York Public librarians (children & YA) on a variety of interesting topics. At one point she cited her book Code Orange and explained where she got the inspiration for the tale. In 2003 there was an incident in Sante Fe where a librarian found a most peculiar bookmark:

Librarian Susanne Caro was leafing through an 1888 book on Civil War medicine when she spied a small, yellowed envelope tucked between the pages. Freeing it, she read the inscription "scabs from vaccination of W.B. Yarrington's children" in the corner, with the signature "Dr. W.D. Kelly," the book's author.

After some research, the 23-year-old Santa Fe, N.M., woman decided not to open the envelope. "The only thing I could find connected with it," she said, "was smallpox."