The Globe News Department Thinks We're Stupid
What is extraordinarily puzzling about newspapers nowadays is where the straightest talk about labor issues will be.
Sports reporters are not always the most objective sources of news, but an assiduous reader of the sports pages will get detailed and generally accurate news about labor relations in almost any sport, from baseball and football to hockey and soccer.
Similarly, the writer's strike that has affected the movie and television industries has received ample attention in the normally breezy entertainment sections of newspapers.
No one would expect a television writer to refer to, say, an association of animation studios as a group of "nonunion writers." But that is what the news section—you know, the section that is supposed to have facts about the news—of the Boston Globe did with a local group of contractors.
Nonunion construction workers are opposing Governor Deval Patrick's casino legislation, arguing that it discriminates against them by encouraging developers to use union workers.
"It's not a level playing field," said Ronald N. Cogliano, president of the Merit Construction Alliance, which advocates for nonunion contractors.
"The appearance is that the governor is trying to give a little political payback to his biggest supporters. That's troubling."
Cogliano sent a letter yesterday to Patrick and legislative leaders, arguing that the legislation should not discourage casino developers from using nonunion laborers.
Patrick's casino legislation has provisions that would encourage casino developers to use union workers, and it also gives organized labor a seat on an advisory committee that would have influence over casino regulations.
The headline on this masterpiece was "Nonunion workers oppose Patrick on casino legislation." The problem is that Ronald Cogliano does not represent nonunion workers, but instead he represents their bosses. Any reporter in the sports or entertainment pages would have recognized the difference, but apparently standards are not as high as they might be in the Globe news department.
Yes, technically, Ronald Cogliano is a non-union worker. He is the executive director of the Merit Construction Alliance of Massachusetts, whose website encourages contractors—not construction workers—to become members at $1,000 to $5,000 a pop. Indeed, its 2005 tax return claims "approximately 58 members" who contributed $130,000 in dues.
Incidentally, Cogliano might want to think a bit about that nonunion status: he supposedly works 40 hours in a typical week—at least that is what he signed to under the penalties of perjury, yet he earned only $22,342 in compensation and expense reimbursements and $0 in retirement benefits. That's $10.74 an hour, which surely does not go very far. (It is possible that the 2005 tax return did not reflect a full year of compensation; still, in 2004, when there was no executive director, the group's president earned only $37,500 for an ostensibly full-time job.)
Labels: Merit Construction alliance, owners, Stupid reporting tricks, workers
