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BRIEFS: Radio spots tout SRPs November 19, 2003 Radio spots tout SRPs That may be New York State United Teachers President Tom Hobart you hear when you tune to your favorite radio station. Hobart will highlight School-Related Professionals during American Education Week in a NYSUT-sponsored public service announcement slated to run statewide the week of Nov. 17. The spot encourages community members to thank SRPs and educators for their work. "It takes more than teachers to make a school run smoothly - often professionals like school nurses, bus drivers, secretaries, food service workers and teachers aides are overlooked," said Hobart. "Hearing'thank you' can be extremely rewarding at the end of a challenging day." Gov. George Pataki designated Nov. 18 as statewide "SRP Day." In October, NYSUT First Vice President Antonia Cortese voiced a radio spot urging parents to participate in parent-teacher conferences. January high school tests Statewide secondary assessments, including Regents Exams and Regents Competency Tests, will be given Jan. 26-29 throughout the state. The schedule follows:
Complete test schedules for the 2003-04 school year and other information on statewide tests are available on the State Education Department Web site. Go to www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/ and click on "assessments." The site includes test samplers and information on component retesting. Details on the state's English as a Second Language Achievement Test and dates for the spring administration of the new test are also available. Teachers can download applications to become writers of test questions and review Regents Exam questions before tests are printed. Ink cartridge recycling NYSUT members have two more months to raise money for schools while helping the environment. The NYSUT-Staples Partnership for Student Enrichment deadline has been extended until Dec. 31. In the joint project of the statewide union and Staples, the office products company donates $1 to NYSUT grant programs for every used ink cartridge members bring to their local Staples store. Members can obtain recycling containers for their schools from their local Staples. Sweatshops behind the music A new report by the National Labor Committee links hip-hop entreprenuer Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and rapper Jay Z to a sweatshop in Honduras. The report, including interviews with current and former workers, details abuses suffered by workers at the Southeast Textiles S.A. plant in Choloma, Honduras, where workers sew shirts that carry Combs' Sean John label. NLC inspections found workers are forced to undergo pregnancy tests, offered contaminated drinking water, restricted to two bathroom visits a day and have no health insurance. "I want to make sure that any merchandise that has my name on it is made by workers who are well treated," Combs said in a statement. Combs said he would cut ties with the company if sweatshop conditions are confirmed. Last summer, 15 workers at the plant were fired for trying to organize a union, the NLC said. Workers are paid about 75 cents an hour for producing shirts that retail for $40 in the U.S. The plant has produced clothing for rapper Jay-Z's Rocawear label and Old Navy, Timberland and Nautica. To view the entire report, visit www.nlcnet.org. Unemployed workers greet Bush Members of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees and other out-of-work textile workers opened a "soup kitchen" in Winston-Salem, N.C., near a recent fund-raiser for President Bush to remind voters of the state's devastating job loss since the president took office. Bush was in the Tar Heel state stocking his campaign coffers at a $2,000-a-plate dinner and other events. Meanwhile, union members, laid-off workers and others wanted to remind voters that more than 50,000 North Carolina textile jobs have disappeared since January 2001, according to the American Textile Manufacturer Institute. "People on the street are really connecting the dots today and are understanding the fact that jobs are going away due to the trade policies of this administration," John Emrich, CEO of Guilford Mills, told the Charlotte News Observer.
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