About half of the students in Wisconsin were given a three of four day weekend by the law breaking teachers of Wisconsin who were conducting illegal strikes.
So, what are these law breaking teachers so scared of?
Well, according to the law before the legislators, the "teachers" and other public employees will have to pay more in their pensions and health insurance. Right now, the employees don't pay anything into their pensions. When I was a teacher in Wisconsin, for about 9 years, when I left, I got a check for $17,000 from the pension fund even though I didn't contribute anything to it. The health insurance for teachers is the Rolls Royce of health insurance if the teacher gets the teacher union insurance, the WEA insurance. You pay minimally for the insurance and you get first rate insurance where there is very little out of pocket expenses, like co-pays. So, the governor wants the public employees to pay a little bit of money for benefits that the private sector never will get.
Second, their raises are tied to the CPI. Well, this could very well benefit the employees as inflation will soon be with us and they will get bigger pay raises than they normally will get, so this is a non-issue.
Next is work place rules. 99% of the public employees are hard working and rarely get into trouble, so they won't be affected by this issue. The 1% or so employees who are the problems and make public employees look bad would be in trouble, but I suspect most employees would love to see bad employees fired.
So, what is causing the unions all their anger? Why, it is the fact that unions would have to justify themselves every year to their union members. The unions and locals will have to undergo a vote each year to decide if the workers still want to be unionized. The unions are scared of this because they know the unions benefit only a few but tax everyone. They know locals will soon become non-union and then the unions lose members and more importantly, union dues. This is all about money- union dues money. The unions will find out they are not wanted and they will find themselves decertified and lose power and money. This is why the unions, union leaders and some of their union members are scared and pooping in their pants at the thought of losing power.
That is what is behind the illegal teacher strikes in Wisconsin.
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Toward the beginning of your post, you say that the teachers don't pay anything into their pensions and get a Rolls Royce health insurance policy. Toward the end of your post, you say that the unions only benefit a few (of their members) but tax everyone. Your post contradicts itself.
ReplyDeleteAnd, contrary to what the right-wing media is telling you, the protesters are not all (or even mostly) teachers, and they are not showing up at the Capitol by the tens of thousands just to protest what amounts to an 8% pay cut. They are protesting the repeal of collective bargaining rights.
Union negotiations are not just about compensation; they are also about working conditions. Ask the folks at Massey Energy, a company that violated OSHA regulations for years and kept appealing the fines rather than fix the problems (until a bunch of coal miners were killed) whether unions are still needed in this day and age. Ask the family of the corrections officer in Wisconsin who was killed earlier this month (after repeatedly complaining about being the only guard assigned to the prison chapel) whether the Walker Administration can be trusted to look out after the welfare of State employees.
Yes, unions sometimes abuse their power, just as employers do. However, without the right to organize, workers in this country would be forced to accept third-world living conditions. Without union jobs to compete for the local labor pool, non-union jobs would pay a lot less than they do now.
When i say the union only benefits a few, I mean it benefits the union leaders, like union presidents and other members of the board and paid workers of the union.
ReplyDeleteThe corrections officer that was killed was from Florida, not Wisconsin.
3rd world living conditions? Please Jill, you are better than that.
Have you seen how migrant farm workers live in this country? Have you heard about illegal sweat shops? Remember that Wal-Mart down south where the custodial services contractor was locking the janitors in the store? The government does not devote sufficient resources to enforce this country's labor laws. There are already pockets of 3rd world living conditions. Conservatives keep saying we need to compete globally. They mean that American workers should accept Chinese living conditions, with overcrowded apartments, no environmental protections and low wages.
ReplyDeleteAnd what does that have to with state and local government employees and getting paid less? Do you think all these govenment workes are just going to quit? Doubtful.
ReplyDeleteJill, it is obvious that you have never been to a "third world". If you had, you wouldn't be calling it a third world, and secondly you wouldn't be making the comparison. This is one thing about teacher's unions and supporters, they love the drama of exaggeration.
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