More professors speak out:
America needs a change at the top. As professors and scholars of management, we are charged with educating the next generation of leaders. As citizens in a democracy, we take seriously our responsibility to speak out on matters of public policy, especially when the common good and the long term viability of the economy are at stake. We cannot be silent while the Administration of George W. Bush attacks the gains of working people over the past hundred years. It would be bad enough if the Bush administration were merely trying to turn the clock back to the "good old days" of untrammeled managerial prerogatives and unfettered markets. In reality, however, this administration is forging an ever more noxious mix of private economic interests and covert public power. Our economic, social, health, and environmental security is threatened as never before.
The Bush majority on the National Labor Relations Board has stripped rights from health care workers, denied protection to a significant fraction of private university employees, weakened penalties for egregious labor law violators, and challenged state laws banning the use of taxpayers' money in anti-union drives. The NLRB is supposed to enforce workers' rights, but the Bush administration seeks to make it the ally of union-busters. There is a gaping and expanding hole in American democracy.
The Bush administration has issued a regulation that denies millions of workers their right to overtime pay. The formation of the Department of Homeland Security has carried a huge price tag in compromised civil liberties, including the abolition of all collective bargaining rights for the 170,000 federal workers transferred into that huge department. Rules to limit the spread of tuberculosis have been dropped to please big business. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has become more "business friendly," which means that standards to protect workers from toxic chemicals are killed before they can help. Ten years of research on ergonomics were trashed because the Administration does not feel the pain of carpal tunnel syndrome. Bush's chief economist sees outsourcing as good as long as his job is secure.
We cannot remain silent as the Administration harnesses the power of government to serve the special interests of the super-rich at the expense of ordinary, working Americans. Most of our students stand to lose as their workplaces become more dangerous, their jobs less secure, their freedom of expression more constrained. Even an MBA degree cannot save you when the most powerful state on earth wages class war on its working people.
Paul Adler, U. of Southern California
Rose Batt, Cornell U.
Laurie DiPadova-Stocks, Park U.
Frank Dubois, American U.
Dale Fitzgibbons, Illinois State U.
Bernard Goitein, Bradley U.
Davydd J. Greenwood, Cornell University
Vanessa Hill, U. of Louisiana, Lafayette
Ray Hogler, Colorado State U.
David Jacobs, Hood College
Milton Jacobs, emeritus, SUNY-New Paltz
Anita Jose, Hood College
David Kolb, Case Western Reserve U.
Satish Kolluri, Pace University
David Levy, U. of Mass.-Boston
Sharon Livesey, Fordham U.
John Luhman, New Mexico State U.
Richard Marens, Cal.State U.-Sacramento
Biju Mathew, Rider U.
Ali Mir, William Patterson U.
Raza Mir, William Patterson U.
Ralph Stablein, Massey U.
Sarah Stookey, U. of Mass.-Amherst
Judy Strauss, Cal. State U.-Long Beach
John Truty, Northern Illinois U.
Ray Vegso, Canisius College
Vamsi Vakulabharanam, Queens College
Maxim Voronov, Columbia U.
Dvora Yanow, Cal. State U.-Hayward |
