Quotes and Mentions - January 3, 2024
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“It’s almost impossible to believe that the [U.S.] Supreme Court will not accept this case. It addresses a matter of exceptional importance, and the question of whether the 14th Amendment’s disqualification clause applies to presidents is a question that has not been answered by the Supreme Court before.”
Paul Collins, legal studies and political science, comments on the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision barring former President Donald Trump from that state’s presidential primary ballot.
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“It’s a tight labor market so the employers may just have less leverage, and they’re worried about losing workers to competitors. But they’re also worried about a union campaign, and that union-deterrence aspect is central."
Arin Dube, economics, comments in an article about the increase in labor strikes in 2023, which contributed to the biggest single-quarter wage hike for unionized workers since 2007.
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“The representation of Lady Fenwick radically changed from the 1800s to the 1900s, and much more of that has to do with who was telling her story. In the 1800s, you have predominantly women telling her tale. She is largely seen as kind of a woman’s icon, a domestic icon, a sorrowful figure, a lonely figure, a woman who sacrifices virtually everything for her husband and for her family, and very much represents the dilemma of women in a patriarchal society.”
Stephen Olbrys Gencarella, communication, is quoted in an article on the legend of Old Saybrook, Connecticut's “Lady Fenwick,” a vaunted figure dating back to the 1600s.
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“There’s no obligation for Starbucks to reach an agreement. Nothing happens if they don’t reach an agreement, as long as Starbucks can prove they bargained in good faith."
Clare Hammonds, UMass Labor Center, says the current standoff between Starbucks and its employees who are attempting to unionize is a common scenario between a corporation with near-unlimited resources and thousands of retail employees unwilling to stand down.
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There is additional distribution of an article co-authored by UMass Labor Center Director Jasmine Kerrissey, sociology, on strikes by labor unions in 2023.
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“What if the financial losses were so large, that there are such big interest groups behind these that they could derail progress? What if the big oil companies push back? What if the utilities push back?”
Gregor Semieniuk, economics and Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), is quoted in an article on stranded fossil fuel assets. As the economy moves toward more renewable energy sources and the assets of oil and gas companies become obsolete, the financial losses pose a problem for the green transition, he says.
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There is ongoing coverage of a recent poll by UMass Poll of nearly 300 former members of Congress that shows rising concerns about threats of political violence related to the 2024 presidential election.
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An article on a new New York law creating a commission to study the impact of slavery cites a 2021 UMass Poll that found nearly two-thirds of Americans opposed the idea of providing reparations to the descendants of slaves.
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