I realize you don't believe workforce development is possible in this retarded place, and you do not intend to help develop workforce here...
But I do, and there is something called a local foods movement here - ever heard of the pursuit of new economy - so are new farmers and food production workers intended to undercut the existing labor force or add to it. Who will protect them - what are their rewards?

Are you a writer, or not?

Are you interested to be represented by a union.

Get serious, and real, Jeff.. we aren't all retired.

Disrupt IT

So what is the average wage of Farmers and food prodcution workers in the local foods sector here... how about the web content sector.

What are their futures.

Who will invest in their workforce development.

Shouldn't this be done in partnership with labor? Unions?

Disrupt IT

Good place to start an analysis.

If we are deciding what investment in local foods workforce development is desirable for Northeast Ohio, may one criteria be that it pays a "living wage" and respects some rules of "fair trade"?

What is a living wage, for what work, and what is fair trade regarding local foods, in developing parts of America, like urban Cleveland?

For example, if our local foods economy consists of Cleveland non-profits using local workforce development and social welfare funding to pay youths low wages to tend install rain barrels and build community gardens, or for non-profit management to manage volunteers, is the money helping any people earn a fair or living wage, is it denying funding for workforce development for people who need to earn a living wage, and is the food produced fair trade?

Is the food sold at local farmers markets fair trade?

May the region gain help from organized labor to grow this sector of our economy? May unions help fund the workforce development?

Disrupt IT

where any discussion about a labor movement brings in the neutralizers.

I've had enough people mess with my work and cause my family harm here to now ask for straight, intelligent discussion when we look at the core of my proposal.

Jeff, is "Realneo is stressed to the wall just paying for the server every month" your final answer?

I plan to join the National Writers Union for $120 a year to see what benefit it offers. I certainly qualify.

And, I intend to contact the head of the AFL/CIO to see their thoughts on this subject.

I welcome the serious thoughts of all others.

Disrupt IT

Dwebb, I enjoy reading the comments on here and on Cleveland.com. 

And I enjoy reading your posts.  Just because people don't always see eye to eye on every topic it doesn't mean that they disagree on everything.  My husband and I have been married for many years and we still disagree about many things but that doesn't mean that we don't love and cherish one another.  I think it is the same here.  I think we can disagree on some things but find a common bond on other things.  I also think that looking at an opposing point of view is healthy.  It gives us another perspective and gives us food for thought.  I think people learn a lot by looking at an alternate way to view the same situation.  It gives us perspective. 

Please keep on blogging.  You views are important. 

As Cuyahoga County development director Paul Oyaski said, he can't support an industry that grows $4 tomatoes.

The reason so much of our food comes from foreign countries is the lower cost of labor elsewhere (like that's a new story). So, is building a multi-billion-dollar local foods economy here about bringing in foreign labor and paying them low wages, or paying people here low wages, or gaming the system as long as possible, or is it about how we innovate with the general local foods system to support paying local labor living wages, or offering better, and growing food that is fair trade.

That is my interest, and that is why I ask this question. It is a serious question... really the core of the local foods economy equation. The biggest cost is not the land, seeds, water, facilities, information technology or transportation, but the labor.

Disrupt IT

Do you know the economics of new media?

The value of REALNEO is all the result of individual members' time and effort - labor.

Is there more value in our labor than we know and capture, as a cooperative and as individual new media artists?

A union may help us figure that out... perhaps the Newspapers Guild

Founded as a print journalists' union, the Guild today is primarily a media union whose members are diverse in their occupations, but who share the view that the best working conditions are achieved by people who have a say in their workplace.

We have more than 34,000 members in the United States, Canada and in Puerto Rico, and we are journalists, sales and media workers of all kinds.

We are on-line writers and designers, reporters, editorial assistants, photographers, editors, paginators, editorial artists, correspondents, typographers, advertising sales people, marketing, information systems specialists, commercial artists, technicians, accountants, business, customer service reps, drivers, maintenance, mail room, pressroom, telephone operators, circulation and distribution staff.

We are also independent translators and interpreters, non-profit organization staff members, public relations staff and technical workers.

We are part of many communication media: wire services, newspapers, magazines, labor information services, broadcast news, public service and dot com companies.

Or the National Writers Union?

The National Writers Union is the trade union for freelance and contract writers: journalists, book authors, business and technical writers, web content providers, and  poets. With the combined strength of nearly 2,000 members in 16 chapters nationwide, and with the support of the United Automobile Workers (UAW), the Union works to defend the rights and improve the economic and working conditions of all writers.

Disrupt IT

lmcshane,

In your "Rational Discussion" comment, you hit the nail on the head.  Because as you so rightly state, all too often online discussions do get distorted.  Not everytime, but frequently.

In addition to that I would say as well that I do think that when a conversation morphs into debate, you do have to have a certain degree of combativeness in order to see who's ideas fall apart and who's ideas stand up for the duration.  Individuals and their ideas need to vetted in order to be accepted as worthy of being on the table--being validated.  But you know I'm the kind of person who can be laser focused and assertive, while also being supportive and enthusiastic.  This sometimes confuses people who's intellectual paradigm still functions in the outdated modalities of croynism and nepotism; were criticism of the ones you love and/or admire is simply not allowed; as in do as I say, not as I do...or, be seen but not heard.

But again I share your belief, especially when you say "we don't need to have a winner...just a chance to move forward."

AND as a total sidebar that has absolutely nothing to do with this discussion, would you guys (lmcshane, Jeff B, Norm, Debbie, Debra, Susan Miller et all) check out the Michael Reese Hospital preservation site.  The hospital campus consists of a rare collection of buildings in Chicago that are threatened with imminent demolition.  There's 22 buildings in all, 8 of which were in large part designed by Bauhaus founder and modernist master, Walter Gropius.  There is no other site like this in America, yet because of The City of Chicago's desire to build their Olympic Village there on the same waterfront property, should they be awarded the 2016 games, this historical site of epic proportions hangs in the balance.  I know the guy, Grahm Balkany, who is spearheading the effort to preserve, so definitely give him a shout out.  He needs all the support he can get. 

A new friend in Chicago needs our voice.  Will you heed the call and show him some love?

Eternity

Since WE - REALNEO to Real Coop - are a legal cooperative, owned by US, the members, we own ourselves, the laborers. And if we coopertively decide to move forward in the new economy for financial and other benefits - me using a union to help with contracts and pursue compensation for my photographs, for example - then we may want to do that with some collective intelligence.

I sense unions have collective intelligence, and offer political and economic might.

Unions still matter in the world, in many professions in which I am working, and I am interested in how they fit in the new economy, and how they have value to me.

Like I said, I've never been in a union, but I know union folks, and I see the potential. Now I'm just trying to figure out what that may be.

I look forward to learning more.

Disrupt IT

I agree. In the end, no matter how kindly the management feels and treats the employee, there will be situations where some will benefit and others decline and not in a way that is based on merit. Take the grievance system: if the end result ends in the decision by the management, as most do, a collective bargining unit is the way to go. And not everyone can perform as highly as the co-workers in some areas but then excells in another. Who sets  performance standards and then who evaluates them?

There just isn't any way around this if one really cares about the well being on the worker AND if equality in the workplace is the desirable result.

The core components of the proposal are a document called "Preamble: Real Co-op for Open Food, Information and Community Development 2009" and "For REAL COOP Members, Draft Executive Summary of INFO FOOD Initiatives for Cuyahoga County"

Lots of related material linked in the left "Book" menu frame, especially embedded in "The Vision for Cuyahoga County is clear - The world's first "Digital City" and the "Greenest Place On Earth", which I have simplified to making NEO the brightest greenest place on Earth.

As for the Obama speech page... try returning around 11:30 AM tomorrow and it should be streaming live.

Disrupt IT

That area looks like hell, now - blighted by nearly all.

I'd love to see some data on # jobs in local foods, and relative wages, now and then.