Regular readers of the Phoenix will recall the story I wrote last month on Joey DeFrancesco, who quit his crappy room service job at Marriot's Renaissance Providence hotel with the What Cheer? Brigade in tow - two trumpets, two cymbals, a bass drum, a snare, and a sousaphone serenading his perfectly evil boss - and quickly became a YouTube sensation

We've got a pretty good sense, now, for what the pension bill will look like when it comes up for a vote. And most observers expect it to pass. So how did the key players fare in Smith Hill's battle royale? An initial look:

• Gina Raimondo seems a clear winner, here. This bill was her baby. She got loads of local and national press for it.

Yesterday, I wrote about the various political forces bearing down on members of the General Assembly as they decide how to vote on Treasurer Gina Raimondo and Governor Lincoln Chafee's tough pension reform package.

Among the factors they must consider: public employee unions have demonstrated they are willing and able to pick off Democrats, in primaries, who cross them.

Move over, Steven Slater

Bob Walsh, executive director of the National Education Association-Rhode Island, called for a "thoughtful pause" on pension reform in the wake of a judge's decision yesterday that cast some doubt on the state's ability to curb retirement benefits for existing employees.

His call, predictably, went unheeded. Treasurer Gina Raimondo and other state leaders declared that the state must move forward with pension reform while the case winds its way throught the courts.

Providence Journal sister paper, the Dallas Morning News, has laid off 38 employees in the face of declining advertising revenue. Both papers are owned by Dallas-based A. H. Belo. From the Dallas Business Journal:

The Dallas Morning News laid off a reported 38 employees on Tuesday as the paper's parent company, A.

Steve Smith, president of the Providence Teachers Union, has been a pivotal figure in Rhode Island's education reform movement. He has joined with Providence Superintendent Tom Brady in a unique labor-management partnership to turn around failing schools - a model that has won national attention. And he provided a key bit of support in the state's successful, reform-minded application for $75 million in federal Race to the Top dollars.

Contract negotiations kick off later today between management at the Providence Journal and the Providence Newspaper Guild, which represents news and advertising staff at the paper.

Management is expected to present a contract offer which the union will mull over in the coming days.

The guild's current, three-year deal expires December 31.

An interesting partnership between the Rhode Island AFL-CIO and the Princeton Review. From the release:

The Princeton Review, Inc. (Nasdaq: REVU) and The Rhode Island AFL-CIO and the Institute for Labor Studies and Research, organized labor’s leading job training and educational program in Rhode Island, announced today that they and The Princeton Review’s wholly owned subsidiary, Penn Foster, Inc.

State Representative David Segal, expected to announce a run for Congress in the near future, has posted a piece on the left-leaning national blog Daily Kos asking progressives to sign a petition backing the workers at the Westin hotel, who are locked in a dispute with management.

The post quotes the political director of Netroots Nation, a large coalition of progressive blogs, suggesting that the group will drop plans to hold its annual conference in Providence next year if workers' needs are not met.

WRNI political analyst Scott MacKay has an interesting essay on the "myth" of union control of Rhode Island politics. He catalogues a series of defeats over the last couple of decades on everything from unemployment benefits for striking workers to the length of the gubernatorial term.

It is time again for the chorus of Republicans, talk radio shouters, a few business leaders and Governor Carcieri to trot out one of the biggest myths in Rhode Island politics: That labor unions control the state, especially the State House.

In the aftermath of 9-11, a boom in demand for American flag lapel pins was easy to anticipate. Richard McIntyre, an economics professor at the University of Rhode Island, knows of a fellow American who tried to win the manufacturing job for these pins to sell them to Wal-Mart. As McIntyre describes it, Wal-Mart demanded such a low price that the flag pins -- the kind for which Barack Obama faced criticism (for not wearing one during the bygone campaign season) -- that they were instead made in China.

From the United Food and Commercial Workers, regarding an event tomorrow:

Providence, R.I.—Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), grocery workers and community members will gather at the Providence PriceRite store on 325 Valley St., to hand flyers out to customers and speak with them about the need for good union jobs in this troubled economy.

Yesterday, I reported on how all six city unions plan to picket this evening's young professionals' fundraiser for Providence Mayor David Cicilline.

Today, Matt, a member of the host committee for the event, has a post explaining why he won't be going:

Why?

For the first time in decades, all of the municipal unions will be picketing this event.