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Alabaster Bastion bucks up superspreaders
Dirty words to remember on the Ides of September
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 9-15-2021

SUPERSPREADER ALERT
Teamsters handbill downtown Reno bus terminal
Charges filed against transit bosses for cell-block bidding
Foreign corporation ignores union contract offer, insists on running scheduling from Texas
Mask mandate compliance still ignored
9-14-2021

We have met the enemy and he is us
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 9-8-2021

HOT AUGUST STRIKE!

SUPERSPREADER ALERT
Déjà vu all over again
Transit bosses announce mask mandate compliance, then admit they won't enforce
Foreign contractor refuses to negotiate with Teamsters
RENO, Nev. (9-1-2021) — "Who's in charge here?" asked Teamsters Local 533 President Gary Watson.
[Much more]

Hail to the Chief
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 9-1-2021

The bitter taste of positive PR
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 8-25-2021

Union president excoriates Regional Transportation Commissioners' dereliction

Eternal reruns of toxic movies and PR spin
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 8-18-2021

BREAKING NEWS 8-16-2021 5:00 pm PDT / 00:00 8-17 (midnight) GMT

MEDIA ADVISORY
8-16-2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
GARY WATSON, President
Teamsters Union Local 533
(775) 348-6060 ext. 104

Keolis Transit refuses to meet with union

BREAKING NEWS 8-12-2021 11:00 pm PDT —
Teamsters win on health care, end Reno-Sparks transit strike

Bus bosses sic cops & doorshaker goons on peaceful picketers

"I wept because I had no shoes until I saw a man who had no feet"

On the smoky streets of Reno, Nevada

Union leader Logan Lansborough, seated.


     "My son Logan, in the wheelchair, was born with congenital absence of the tibia. At 17 months old, Logan had an operation to amputate both his legs. When Keolis first took over the transit system contract, I was trying to get Logan some new prosthetic legs but the company making the legs told me that Anthem/Blue Cross/Blue Shield had informed them that I had been terminated from Keolis employment — which was untrue. I had never missed work other than doctors appointments while Keolis always continued to deduct my premiums." —  Michael Lansborough, union member and bus operator.
While Logan rallies his dad and his supporters for justice

Logan Lansborough and his fellow trade unionists taking the heat and bringing heat to the streets of Reno in the quest for workplace dignity and fairness. Feel free to pick up a sign and join them any day and into the evening at the downtown bus station, 200 E. 4th Street, Reno 89501.


FREEBIE ALERT!

Call (775) 348-0477 option 2 to obtain a $20 UberX voucher from RTC. Tell them Bill Thomas sent you by. Take the free Uber ride to the strike line, get dropped off at the bus in the sky, snap a pic and hashtag the RTC on anti-social media —> #RTCfreerides2picket / After all, they are just spending your taxpayer money so you might as well get some of it back and this certainly qualifies as an emergency measure. Anytime some greedy boss tries to take away a family's health care, that's an emergency. RTC has illegally killed off shuttles for senior citizens and the disabled and forced those employees to work as strikebreakers servicing tourism.

By taking the money (you can get two $20 vouchers good thru August 31*), you're just helping the town to party down, stop worrying and learn to love the plague. So drop your linen and start your grinnin' — masks down, drink up, ROCK AND ROLL!

Be well. Raise hell. Stay cool. Stay safe — and please don't breathe Nevada air unless absolutely necessary.

_____________
* Are you surprised that these guys would stop the party just before Labor Day weekend?

Get on your hiking boots and pick up a picket
Featuring Logan Lansborough / Hot August Strike poster child
BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO / Expanded from the 8-11-2021 Sparks (Nev.) Tribune
+ WEB EXTRA: BARBWIRE CONFIDENTIAL—>Softshoe fascism in Reno

Coalition of community organizations join Teamsters picket lines
By Ben Margiott / KRNV TV-4/KRXI TV-11 / 8-10-2021

Community organizations join Teamsters picket lines on 8th day of strike
By Jeri Chadwell / ThisIsReno.com 8-10-2021

HOT AUGUST STRIKE!
Continuing Updates
Teamsters Local 533 strikes foreign-owned RTC bus contractor Keolis Transit

January-July 2021 U-News Front Page Headlines

Memo to modern short attention spaniels: This front page is chronological, the site map is categorical.
SITE NAVIGATION TIP: When all else fails, read the instructions
(A favorite John Hanks aphorism I've been using for decades)

Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
The Underbelly of the News—>TOP SECRET, HUSH HUSH!

All the news you never knew you needed to know—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
The Underbelly of the News—>TOP SECRET, HUSH HUSH!


10 the Hard Way
Barbwire wins 10th Nevada Press Association award
6 of 10 gold
Tribune editorial page voted 2020 best

Dennis Myers 2nd Barbwire nominee elected to NPA Hall of Fame

Support Don Dondero and Jake Highton next
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The Dean's List

   The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites.

RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006

 

The Lady in the Red Dress
The Barbwire's award-winning classic Nevada Day column written in 1983
The compleat history of the Silver State in 500 words
SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
DAILY SPARKS TRIBUNE 1-3-2011

Je Suis Charlie

30+ years of Barbwire Archives thru today

SITE MAP

Navigating the flagship—>Making quick work of NevadaLabor.com

WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS DEPT.—> A year or so back, I got my first criticism in more than two decades that this site is a bit confusing to navigate. I take that as a compliment. Confusing people is one of my few talents.
    I thought I had anticipated any such problems years ago by liberally sprinkling links to the front page site map. (These days, am I supposed to say that I sprinkled progressively rather than liberally?)
    The front page of NevadaLabor.com acts as a chronological listing of recent workplace news with the latest at the top. I archive annually to create a continuous permanent record fully accessible via the site map or any garden-variety websearch.
    "We Don't Need No Education" is now approaching its 100th installment and long ago earned its own section inside. Say hi to Don Quixote.
    Current Barbwires plus more than 20 years of columaniacal archives, the Statewide News Roundup and Breaking News/Bull'tins/Almanac are all available via the site map—>as well as the usual general or specific ongoing madness and historical inflammation. (Once something's posted here or to any of my other sites, it's up forever.)
    While the front page is chronological, the Statewide News Roundup is categorical, e.g., construction, hospitality, legislation, health care and many others. Breaking News/Bull'tins/Almanac often publishes original U-News as well as links to items at other sites that are not hot enough for the front page chronology. The NevadaLabor.com search engine acts as a short-cut to everything, depending on what you seek. So simply seek and ye shall find.
    As my old friend Wise John the Lake Havasu Cropduster Pilot often says, "when all else fails, read the instructions." So when all else fails, re-read the above, then go to the nearest site map link and/or "search." The NevadaLabor.com search engine is really amazing. It's also union-signatory and thus quite efficient.
    Thanks for your inputs and support over lo, these many years. Keep up the good work and the good fight.
    Esté bien. Haga infierno. / Be well. Raise hell.

—> Andrew the Barbwire Man

Political Animal Crackers & Crackups

      "I think it is dangerous to confuse the idea of democracy with elections. Just because you have elections doesn't mean you are a democracy...I'm still taken aback at the extent of indoctrination and propaganda in the United States. It is as if people there are being reared in a sort of altered reality, like broiler chickens or pigs in a pen."

— Indian novelist Arundhati Roy
in the Barbwire of 9-12-2004


      The American electorate is a dumb cow that follows the herd, is easily stampeded, gets milked for all she's worth and produces offspring for meat, muscle or cannon fodder to benefit the few. When all used up, she is sent to the slaughterhouse so that she may give her overlords the last full measure of devotion, bones for Jello and hide for belts. No stars and stripes for her grave because she doesn't merit one, having been totally consumed by our consumptive system. — Barbwire 9-12-2010

"If elections mattered, they wouldn't let us do it." — Travus T. Hipp, 1982

Great Minds Think Alike Dept.
Over-rated New York Times Pulitzer over-achiever Thomas Friedman predicts emergence of a third political party a month after the Barbwire did so for the umpteenth time (He's just one short.)
Paul Krugman: Murdoch as Citizen Kane / GOP candidates paid off by Faux News
New York Times 10-4-2010

Editor's Note: Many of the news links on this site are from Nevada dailies. In late 2006, the Reno Gannett-Journal began nuking much of its archive. If you encounter any broken links, I encourage you to contact them and send me a copy. On the one hand, they want to build their web traffic in order to increase the price of ads. On the other hand, they are killing that very traffic. Far be it from me to reconcile the Dilbert-style motivations of an outfit for which a 38 percent net profit is not enough. If you can explain it, please enlighten me. (Before you e-mail me, please read this bulletin — AB) UPDATE: In early 2008, the Las Vegas Sun "upgraded " its website, nuking more than a dozen years of links. If you find an orphaned Sun story, search their site for the title.

 



NevadaLabor.com Site Directory

Navigating the flagship—>Making quick work of NevadaLabor.com

Latest Breaking News & Bulletins + Almanac + Archives 1999-present

January-July 2021 U-News Front Page Headlines

2000-2020 U-News Front Page Archives

U-News Statewide Archives 1996-2018

In Search Of...

Right to Work for Less | Nevada Labor History | Sparks Centennial
Building Energy  | 100 Years of Union Apprenticeship

DoctorLawyerWatch.com | Barbwire Oilogopoly Archive| BallotBoxing.US

War Rooms: Banks, Cabbies, Cable TV, Cabela's, Cancer Kids/Mining, Corporate Welfare, Energy, Health Care, ReSurge.TV, Starbucks, Wal-Mart

NEW —> WE DON'T NEED NO EDUCATION
The Neverending Series
The Barbwire Molly Ivins Memorial Columniator Hall of Flames

Un-dissing the Dead—>The campaign against forcibly-paid newspaper obituaries

Labor Links | Nevada Writers | About the Editor | Search | Deciding Factors


Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
The Underbelly of the News—>TOP SECRET, HUSH HUSH!

 


The unmatched and comprehensive online meeting hall
for Nevada workers since 1995



The tale of our gorgeous union-created graphics

In 2002, we were honored to produce the Centennial Book for the 100th anniversary of the founding of northern Nevada Painters and Allied Trades Local 567/AFL-CIO. Working on a short time frame, we cast a nationwide net for appropriate cover art and succeeded beyond our wildest dreams thanks to muralists Kathleen Scarboro and Kathleen Farrell. The above illustration ("Papering the World: Joliet's Wallpaper Industry") appeared on the cover and interior of Local 567's Centennial Book, copies of which have been submitted to Nevada libraries and historical organizations. The mural, painted on a wall in Joliet, Illinois, depicts Painters Union members manufacturing wallpaper the old fashioned way, long about the time of Local 567's founding. Ms. Farrell is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829, an affiliate of the International Union of Painters & Allied Trades/AFL-CIO. Ms. Scarboro is a member of the Maison des Artists in Paris, the association which represents artists in France.

Ms. Farrell executes murals, mosaics and figurative sculptures for the labor movement. Her work and that of others may be viewed at the Friends of Community Public Art web site. "We have added new table top size sculptures for sale as well as additions of our life size sculptures," she says. "A number of the sculptures feature union members including the Baseball Player (The Catch) and The Firefighter. I have also finished the rad workers sculpture I mentioned awhile back. I welcome work from unions that would like to buy the existing sculptures or hire me to create awards, tabletop size sculptures and life size sculptures."

Sister Farrell may be contacted at terri@fcpaonline.org; phone (815) 722-4140; fax (815) 722-9007. You may view more of her work and obtain additional contact information at http://fcpaonline.org/artist.asp?a=farrelka

Rotating at the top of this site as well as in pastel form in the background of this page is a mural produced for the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Union/AFL-CIO. The others were acrylics on canvas done for the United Food and Commercial Workers and to memorialize the plight of U.S. chicken processing workers (si podemos). Enjoy.

Be well. Raise hell.

Murals/montages copyright © Kathleen Farrell


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But before you do so, please read this bulletin — AB

Entire contents copyright © 1982-2021 Andrew Barbano

[CWA 9413/AFL-CIO]