Editorial

At a time when a citywide coalition under the aegis of Community Labor United is demanding an $11 million Community Fund from the giant private equity firm and commercial landlord The Blackstone Group, we find it passing strange that Blackstone co-founder and senior chairman Pete Peterson is using his non-profit foundation to flog the release of a new documentary called I.O.U.S.A. this week.

A new report released this week by Community Labor United - a coalition of labor and community organizations whose mission is to "protect and promote the interests of working class communities in the Greater Boston region" - indicates that Boston taxi drivers need a fare increase and other reforms to be able to keep pace with "rising gas prices, rising living costs and stagnant fares." The report also found that drivers need to work 16 hours a day in difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions to make a minimum-wage living.

This coming Monday, Governor Deval Patrick will put ink to paper on a 10 year $1 billion deal that can justifiably be called a giveaway to the biotechnology industry - right before jetting off to a huge biotech conference in San Diego. Rushed into immediate effect as an "emergency law," the influx of cash is billed as helping to create new jobs in a growing economic sector, plus incubating new businesses and maintaining the state's reputation as a research innovator.

We've been a bit puzzled this week at the spectacle of progressive Boston City Councilor Sam Yoon crusading against alleged abuse of sick-day buybacks by numerous city workers.

Sick day and vacation-day buybacks - which involve the City of Boston paying workers a bonus for unused sick and vacation days - are a fairly common perk in unionized public sector jobs, especially among teachers. The idea is that buying back unused sick-days and vacation-days provides an incentive against absenteeism. The buybacks are sometimes a percentage of a day's pay, and sometimes a full day's pay.