WRNI political analyst Scott MacKay has an interesting essay on the "myth" of union control of Rhode Island politics. He catalogues a series of defeats over the last couple of decades on everything from unemployment benefits for striking workers to the length of the gubernatorial term.

It is time again for the chorus of Republicans, talk radio shouters, a few business leaders and Governor Carcieri to trot out one of the biggest myths in Rhode Island politics: That labor unions control the state, especially the State House.

In the aftermath of 9-11, a boom in demand for American flag lapel pins was easy to anticipate. Richard McIntyre, an economics professor at the University of Rhode Island, knows of a fellow American who tried to win the manufacturing job for these pins to sell them to Wal-Mart. As McIntyre describes it, Wal-Mart demanded such a low price that the flag pins -- the kind for which Barack Obama faced criticism (for not wearing one during the bygone campaign season) -- that they were instead made in China.

From the United Food and Commercial Workers, regarding an event tomorrow:

Providence, R.I.—Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), grocery workers and community members will gather at the Providence PriceRite store on 325 Valley St., to hand flyers out to customers and speak with them about the need for good union jobs in this troubled economy.

Yesterday, I reported on how all six city unions plan to picket this evening's young professionals' fundraiser for Providence Mayor David Cicilline.

Today, Matt, a member of the host committee for the event, has a post explaining why he won't be going:

Why?

For the first time in decades, all of the municipal unions will be picketing this event.

UPDATE: The city responds.

Here's a comment from Rich Kerbel, Cicilline's director of administration, responding to the union concerns:

"While the administrator of the City’s health plan will change, the coverage itself will remain the same. Ninety-seven percent of Rhode Island primary care physicians who treat City employees are already in the UnitedHealthcare network.

In separate segments, Colonel Brendan Doherty of the Rhode Island State Police and Dennis Grilli, executive director of AFSCME's Council 94, are the guests this week on WPRI/WNAC-TV's Newsmakers. Tim White fills in as host for the vacationing Steve Aveson, joined by Arlene Violet and myself.

Doherty told me that the different stances between himself and Dean Esserman regarding Governor Carcieri's executive order on immigration have not had an adverse effect on relations between the state police and their counterparts in Providence.

Here's the word from the Gov:

Governor Donald L. Carcieri today issued an Executive Order authorizing that all employees represented by unions that have not ratified the co-share and plan design changes outlined in the Memorandum of Settlement shall enjoy the same health, vision, and dental plan benefits, as non-union Executive branch employees and as employees whose unions have negotiated and ratified agreements containing these cost-savings and will be contributing accordingly.

This just in:

The final vote of the election previewed today by Steve Peoples was 2870 (against) to 196 (for).

In a statement, executive director Dennis Grilli says he will be in touch with the state about renewing negotiations to seek a new proposed settlement.

It will be interesting to see how the administration responds.

Writing in this week's Phoenix, Steven Stycos updates the story of Alexandra Svoboda, the young IWW member who was seriously hurt during an August 2007 demonstration in North Providence.

Attorney General Patrick Lynch plans to investigate the incident, but he has to wait until after Svoboda’s trial, explains Alan Goulart, chief of the AG’s criminal division.

Governor Carcieri might have precluded the stormy reaction to his executive order on immigration if he had initially talked with some of the people on his new oversight panel. Instead, we got a lot of distracting side battles at a time when the state remains challenged by a fiscal crisis.

And now, by backtracking, the governor has angered Terry Gorman and some others by not including a RIILE representative on the oversight group.

From the gov's office:

Governor Donald L. Carcieri today issued the following response to a television advertisement being run by state employee unions. The attack ad specifically assails four state employees under the Governor’s authority: Deputy Secretary of the Office of Health and Human Services Adelita Orefice; Deputy Chief of Staff and former Department of Administration Director Beverly Najarian; former Director of the Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals, Dr.

Labor activist Patrick Crowley, who's been on the warpath lately against Governor Carcieri (Pat, we suspect, would say it's the other way around), sends word of this rally:

Community Activists, Organized Labor and Religious Leaders Will Join In Calling On State Leaders To Promote Economic Justice For All Rhode Islanders

With various people and groups gearing up for Earth Day a week from tomorrow, the most interesting local effort may be plans by Local 99 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to dedicate its solar-powered union hall, which it bills as largest completed solar project in Rhode Island.

On Thursday, April 22, 2008 at 11:00am, the IBEW Local 99 will dedicate its solar energy project, providing clean, renewable power to its union hall.

As I've written before, I think the ProJo's Ed Achorn writes a very good column. While N4N might not agree with everything he says, his writing is clean and elegant, imbued with a knowledge of history (and a love of baseball), and his weekly Tuesday piece is generally pointed and provocative -- qualities that are highly desirable in opinion writing.