Stupid Union News Part 1

The teachers union in the Clark County School District (covering the Las Vegas area and other areas of Las Vegas), the Clark County Educators Association (CCEA) has shown that they are about as smart as the teenage drop out gang member.
Over the past few years, the CCEA has demanded smaller class sizes in their schools.  Never mind that, with a few exceptions, class sizes are over whelming in the schools, is a myth.
At the beginning of the school year, yes many class sizes are large.  But within 4 weeks, CCSD has a leveling day, where schools that have a large amount of students get more teachers and schools that have too many teachers per their enrollment, lose teachers.  Further, because Las Vegas is such a transient town and a school district known for drop outs, classes that may have had 40 students on the first day of school, could very well have less than 20 students after the 1st quarter.
The union is also mad because the CCSD won an arbitration ruling in which CCSD doesn't have to pay step pay raises for education and years of service.
So, because of this ruling, CCSD is going to hire between 1000 and 2000 teachers or more to reduce class sizes.
And the union was out the other day protesting the hiring.
Why?
Because the teachers wanted smaller class sizes, something the union wanted...
Make sense?
Well, of course the union is happy with this because they have the potential of more union members.
The union members, and I am one of them, are being screwed because we are losing pay raises so the District can hire more teachers.
And most teachers I talked to have no clue what is going on.
So, the union has to decide what they want, more union members or pay raises for veteran teachers.
The union leadership elected to get more teachers and potentially more union members over the wishes of the majority of union members.
The CCSD just kicked the teacher's butt without the union realizing it.
Stupid union.
As an aside, how much do CCEA leaders make?
From the LVRJ:
In 2009, the last year for which a required Internal Revenue Service report is available, more than a third of the union's $4.1 million budget went to pay just nine leaders. Each earned between $139,785 and $208,683 for a total of $1.5 million, according to the Clark County Education Association's report to the IRS.
John Jasonek, then executive director, got $208,683 for running the union but also received $423,863 from two affiliated organizations -- the union's Community Foundation and Center for Teaching Excellence -- making his total pay $632,546.
In addition, union-created Teachers Health Trust CEO Peter Alpert was paid $546,133.
Current union officials refused a Las Vegas Review-Journal request for more recent figures. The nine workers are singled out in the report because the IRS requires the union to list officers, key employees and anyone making at least $100,000 a year.  http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/education/leaders-clark-county-teachers-union-see-big-jump-pay