Below is a press statement detailing Schwarzenegger's veto against funding for University of California labor research centers, namely at UC Berkeley and UCLA.  

One of the reasons I was so fortunate to have been able to attend Take Back America was that I got the opportunity to hear the perspectives of a number of people in the organized labor movement. Despite my fairly progressive upbringing, this was a constituency that I rarely heard from. I didn't grow up in a union household, nor did I know anyone who did. In fact, I daresay the sizable majority of my generation had little familial exposure to the labor movement.

A general student strike has been called on UMass Amherst's campus. Organizers have been phonebanking all week to shore up support for the strike.

They also have a thorough and well-organized online presence. As of this writing, their Facebook event has more than 1,700 people "attending," though some are students at other universities.

Having just put the finishing touches on a case study for YP4's forthcoming Little Black Book on online organizing, I have online organizing strategy on the brain even more than usual. Here's my take on what they're doing well with this site.

Read more below.

If you're like most folks our age, chances are depressingly good you can't name one - as I've written about before, the corporate-produced popular culture of the last forty years or so hasn't been the kindest to labor.

All of which makes the vocal celebrity support for the current WGA strike all the more interesting for me. Whether or not the rumors about Jon Stewart supporting his writing staff until the strike's resolution end up being true, these kind of stories have a sort of impact that we shouldn't blithely underestimate. Granted, a textbook old-media celeb like Jay Leno doesn't carry nearly the same generational cachet as, say, Stephen Colbert, but having Obama and Edwards vocally support a strike (when was the last time you heard a Presidential candidate do so?) is of real value in the war of perceptions.

I hope you all are familiar with The Onion - that biting and often close-to-home paper that relishes in sarcasm and wit. If not, get to it immediately. The Onion is an incredible place to turn when the drudgery of real news gets too much (and Stewart or Colbert aren't on).

The Onion today featured a video article about Gap unveiling a new line of clothing "For Kids By Kids".

Staffers on Tyra Bank's reality show America's Next Top Model (or ANTM for those of us in the know) are looking to join a union, specifically the Writer's Guild of America.  Problem is, executives don't want to recognize these staffers on a reality show as "writers," despite the fact that they clearly organize each episode's 41 minute "script" through editing 200 hours of raw footage line by line into (incredibly) entertaining stories that compel viewers (admit it-- you can't stop watching).  

[More after the fold.]