Category Archives: Unions

Scab music

Posted on February 22, 2011 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell Detroit Symphony Orchestra management wants to play hard rock. They want to keep their $400,000-a-year CEO and their pricey music director, but they want musicians to take a giant pay cut. Now, having had their cheapskate contract … Continue reading →

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Scab concert

Posted on October 10, 2010 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell Once upon a time, before the Great Newspaper Strike of 1995, the Detroit Free Press published a huff-and-puff editorial chastising Big League Baseball for putting on games during a strike of players. “Scab Ball,” the Free Press … Continue reading →

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DSO fans — let’s strike!

Posted on October 7, 2010 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell Ticket holders of the DSO unite! You have nothing to lose but your claims! Claims to refunds from Detroit Symphony Orchestra management for failing to deliver a season of great concert music. DSO management is dealing unfairly … Continue reading →

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Bashing musicians at the News

Posted on October 4, 2010 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell The Detroit News was huffing and puffing when their editorial writers advised striking Detroit Symphony Orchestra musicians that “union-protected jobs with six-figure salaries are scarce in today’s Michigan. The musicians should hang on to theirs with both hands, … Continue reading →

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Slow worker? Off with her head!

Posted on September 23, 2010 by hro50ta1

By Rival Pong JOTR Labor Writer Finally, a solution to the worker productivity problem. If only Henry Ford had known this trick. There would have been no slow-downs, no work-to-rule, no strikes and indeed no contracts between management and labor. … Continue reading →

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Letter to The Times

Posted on September 17, 2010 by hro50ta1

To: Editor, The Rodent Times From: Bertha Rat, Chair-Rodent, Rat Anti-Discrimination League and Executive Ratperson, National Academy of Research Rats To the Editor: I have addressed my concerns to the editor of joelontheroad.com about a recent slur against all ratkind … Continue reading →

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Apologia

Posted on September 16, 2010 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell I want to apologize for a recent blog column in which I compared three Gannett honchos to pigs for splitting 10.6 million in salary and bonus bucks while firing 6,000 workers and asking the ones who remained … Continue reading →

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Bullies of the newsroom

Posted on September 21, 2009 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell Normally, I don’t reply to comments people post on my blog. But now and then one of these letters-to-JOTR is just too obnoxious, too disingenuous to let pass. So it is with a reader’s response to my … Continue reading →

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Harvard and the hypocrites

Posted on September 18, 2009 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell Back in 2007, when top brass at the Detroit (so-called) Free Press reprimanded me for donating $500 to Michigan Democrats, then threatened to fire me if I ever again dared exercise my right as a U.S. citizen … Continue reading →

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Stockholm in Detroit

Posted on May 22, 2009 by hro50ta1

By Joel Thurtell A longtime Detroit Free Press employee and Newspaper Guild member who was a loyal striker in the 1990s, who used to refer to johnny-come-lately Free Press owner Gannett as “evil,” recently told me Gannett is “not so … Continue reading →

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