Firefighters: Negotiations heat up
The state Joint Labor-Management Committee finally gave Boston Fire Department Local 718 a wake-up call yesterday when its chairman, Judge Samuel Zoll, ordered the union and the Menino administration to attend a mediation session on Wednesday to hash out a new contract. The judge also should order the stalling union to bring a written proposal to the table. The city wants to introduce drug and alcohol testing in the troubled department without having to meet the union's excessive financial demands. Amid a federal probe of whether dozens of firefighters faked injuries to sweeten their pensions, Local 718 might try to be reasonable on the drug issue. But lately reason isn't in residence at the firehouse.
Fair pay: Women still not getting even
Of all the retrograde reasons to oppose the Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act, the one offered by Senator John McCain on Wednesday takes the cake. Ledbetter, who earned $18,000 less than her male counterparts at a Goodyear tire plant for doing the same job, lost her case in the US Supreme Court last year because of a narrow interpretation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The bill that Senate Republicans killed on Wednesday would have clarified that section of the law. McCain, who didn't even leave the campaign trail to cast a vote, complained that it "opens us up to lawsuits," which is exactly the point. For McCain to say he is for pay equity for women but not for their right to sue to achieve it reveals a basic misunderstanding of US civil rights law.
Zimbabwe: To the loser go the spoils?
Strongman Robert Mugabe clearly lost Zimbabwe's presidential election March 29, yet his regime has refused to release the vote totals. This week, a state-run newspaper briefly floated the absurd idea of a "national unity" government that would include first-place finisher Morgan Tsvangirai but be led by Mugabe. Perhaps Mugabe supporters got this notion from Hillary Clinton. She has been trailing in the Democratic nomination race, but nevertheless signaled last month that she would consider frontrunner Barack Obama as her running mate.
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