For this week's roundup, let's start with the case of a California NEA local where the teachers are working to the rule. The job action to protest the school board's (most likely illegal) decision to pass a student who had clearly failed.  One of the things unions do is give teachers the strength to stand up for high standards (via the good Doctor).

While some were watching the Oscars a few weeks ago, Battlestar Galactica was looking at issues of class and unions. A blog called The Pop Culture Junkies looked at this juxtaposition of class struggle and the red carpet. And if you go to Scifi.com you can download a podcast from Ron Moore, the producer of Galactica.  (The episode is called "Dirty Hands.") "It's a good thing to remind people why the union movement exists." 

Don Jones is a retired Goodyear worker who, twelve years after a heart transplant, took to blogging in reaction to the Steelworkers’ strike last year.  Stories like this are what makes America great. Check out Jones’ blogging about the importance of teachers and their unions. 

And, in today’s Employee Free Choice Act blogging, we have the Washington Post saying the system by which workers form unions is broken and tilts too much to management’s side. Rather than change the system, they call for more penalties and stricter enforcement of the current rules. The National Association of Manufacturers’ blog manages to call this position “praiseworthy.”  Perhaps that’s because they know how well this proposed change has worked to keep employers from hiring illegal immigrants.  If you’re interested in an editorial that gets it right, check out the The New York Times.  And for more EFCA blogging that gets it right, check out LB at Unfogged.