UNRWA Workers Strike vs Holocaust Teaching

An estimated 11,500 employees of UNRWA's Gaza Strip sub-offices went on strike Wednesday morning, protesting the dismissal of a group of workers, and demanding permanent contracts for staff.

Certain employees of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, currently renew a one-year contract annually, and when a group of workers lost their jobs at the end of their contract, union officials threatened to strike.

The union called the strike for Wednesday, pulling teachers, doctors, maintenance staff, and security personnel from their posts, and keeping an estimated 220,000 students out of class.


Firas Press adds that the issues also include lack of respect for the "Palestinian judiciary" (this must mean Hamas courts, as the strike is in Gaza) and - if I am reading it right - workers being upset over the possibility of teaching about the Holocaust in UNRWA schools.

Govt Shutdown Could Prove We Don't Need Govt

House Speaker John Boehner's challenge to convince his caucus to avoid a government shutdown begins with its second most powerful member: "Time is up here," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Tuesday. Cantor said any short-term spending resolution to avoid a shutdown is "unacceptable." Boehner, however, refused to rule out another temporary extension or a compromise that would settle for smaller cuts than what the GOP is demanding. Democrats, meanwhile, are resigning themselves to a shutdown.

Read it at Politico

Every August 750,000 govt employees strike for the whole month. The only noticeable difference: nobody collects the garbage.