“Nurses need the protection and voice on the job that union membership provides,” says D’Abrosca, who has been a nurse at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London, Conn., for two years. She is also the vice president of her union at the hospital, Local 5049/AFT Healthcare.

That protection could be taken away by summer’s end when the National Labor Relations Board rules on a series of cases known collectively as Kentucky River. As with the Yeshiva Supreme Court case, which effectively made faculty at private colleges ineligible to bargain collectively, this NLRB decision is expected to categorize many nurses, building and construction trade workers, and others as supervisors and thus ineligible for protections under the National Labor Relations Act. Although such a ruling could strip nearly 8 million workers of their union rights, the board has refused to hear oral arguments as it considers the case.

In July, D’Abrosca was among thousands of union members and labor activists who took part in a week-long series of protests nationwide sponsored by the AFL-CIO in anticipation of the NLRB ruling.

In Connecticut, union nurse members gathered in front of the NLRB regional office in Hartford. A half dozen of the nurses, including D’Abrosca, met with NLRB officials  and presented them with a petition to reconsider its decision not to hear oral arguments on the nurse supervisor issue.

More than 1,000 union members and activists descended upon the NLRB headquarters in Washington, D.C., chanting, “We’re fired up, won’t take it no more,” and carrying signs that read “I won’t give up my voice at work” and “Don’t roll back workers’ rights.”

As protesters blocked the front doors of the NLRB and halted downtown traffic, AFL-CIO organizing director Stewart Acuff told the crowd, “This is just a small preview of the kind of massive disruptions that will occur across the country if the board rules against workers.”

In Milwaukee, Wis., the county labor council, which included members of the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, staged a “kangaroo court” street play based on the NLRB’s refusal to hear oral arguments on the nurse supervisor issue. Hundreds of labor activists in attendance also marched to Puddler’s Hall, the oldest union hall in the state.

Members of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals were among hundreds of union members who rallied downtown to encourage the NLRB to hold public hearings before ruling on the nurse supervisor issue. They were joined by Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D), who turned out to show support for protecting collective bargaining rights.

Last year, in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the school district fired thousands of teachers and school-related personnel and, at the same time, invited charter school groups to take over New Orleans schools. Concurrently, the Louisiana Legislature changed the law to allow the state to take over most New Orleans public schools. There are now several distinct authorities running schools in the city—the state-operated recovery school district; a number of independent charter school organizations and New Orleans Public Schools, which has retained control of six schools. At the beginning of this school year, 58 schools had been reopened.

The United Teachers of New Orleans is actively signing up educators in all three systems. "Many of these teachers and other school employees are former UTNO members who are very happy that we are still working on their behalf," UTNO communications director Joe DeRose says.

In recent months, UTNO has successfully lobbied the state Legislature to appropriate $6 million to help reduce the insurance premiums for all retirees, including those forced to retire as a result of the dismantling of the school district. The union also is asking for clear and consistent guidelines and qualifications for teachers hired in all three school systems.

UTNO is also pushing to make sure teachers and the community have a voice in the rebuilding of New Orleans. "It's time to bring the teachers and their union back into the dialogue," UTNO president Brenda Mitchell says. "Our members have the experience and desire to work with district officials to bring a sense of order back to our schools."

UTNO placed an advertisement in the Times Picayune on Aug. 29 to remind readers that the community still needs its schools and that school employees still need a voice.

Even the conservative Wall Street Journal conceded there was no way to put a positive spin on the research. Under a headline titled “Long-Delayed Education Study Casts Doubt on Value of Vouchers,” the Journal reported that “Students in public schools perform just as well as their private-school peers when test scores are adjusted for race, socioeconomics and other factors” and that the report, delayed by the department due to scoring concerns, “casts doubt on the value of voucher programs that give students public money to attend private schools.”

The Bush administration’s response to the study: So what?

Just four days later, Spellings was flanked by GOP leaders to throw weight behind legislation to provide federal dollars for private school vouchers. “We’ve already seen the power of choice in Washington, D.C., when we launched the first federally funded opportunity scholarship program.” Spellings was referring to the controversial D.C. voucher program for low-income children, which has been so miserably subscribed to thus far that the GOP Congress wants to open up vouchers to families with incomes 300 percent above the poverty line. Not one mention in Spelling’s statement dealt with her own department’s study showing that when it comes to student learning, “the power of choice” was a lie.

The push for vouchers is “coming from ideologues who are hurting kids” in the process, AFT president Edward J. McElroy says. “We need to do what’s been proven to work for public school students rather than push legislation that meets an ideological litmus test.”