Wisconsin teacher's union, June/July 2011. 'nuff said.
Couldn't have thought of a more sterling example.
The union was willing to make concessions with the governor but he refused on what I assume are ideological grounds. He couldn't touch the police or firefighters because it was too politically risky (and it is a sad statement about our country when teachers are viewed as so dispensable). Meanwhile, tax breaks for the highest earners are kept in place. I can't think of a more pernicious plan to raise state revenue. If there was no teachers union this would have probably just slipped under the radar with the teachers having no recourse.
And to the poster who equates low education with union benefits, many teachers have higher education degrees.
Teacher's Unions have their own issues. They protect crappy teachers from getting fired. I read a news article recently that in the past 10 years, the state of NJ has only fired like a handful of teachers for poor performance. Really? 10 years in a densely populated state like NJ and you only fired 23 teachers or whatever?
They are often against standardized tests, or having the teachers evaluations based on the performance of their kids test scores. Why not?
If I am in sales, I am graded by a quota which is determined by how many of my customers buy from me. If I had the Teacher's Union behind me, I could claim that it is ok that I am at 27% of quote because it isn't my fault that the customers are not buying....
It defies logic. Not that there are not a couple good things in Unions these days, but on average, they hurt more than they help.
When I was in the IBEW, I was working in a factory in NJ doing valve assembly work one summer. They hired me on as full time and I got 2 promotions in 90 days, with raises. Then I became a Union member(by force, it is mandated that everyone in the plant must join the union and pay dues, office employees had a choice if they wanted to join...).
I never got anything from them but a payroll deduction. And as I worked on my next promotion and was moving from assembly to the electrical department and QC and Testing, I have several union workers approach me because they were pissed that I was getting into jobs that they had wanted for years. I had people telling me to slow down, take it easy, I am in the Union now and they can't fire me, etc...
I was blown away, and thinking, this is why you are sitting in the same chair assembling the same valves for 4 years and wishing you could get promoted.
The Unions attract, and encourage that kind of behavior, and it wasn't isolated incidents, it was blatent and rampant.
When they decided to go on strike and handed me the schedule to picket, I said I would not be joining them. They looked flummoxed and asked why. I said that the company was offering a 3% raise, you are fighting for 5%. So I am going to lose a few week's pay for 2% of $7.05 an hour, part of which will go to Union dues... So if I lose just 2 weeks of pay, I will have to work the entire year just to make up for that loss, and what if the company caves and gives that raise, and then 6 months from now lays 10 people off to cover that cost and I or one of my friends is one of the 10?
They told me that I had a poor union attitude. Not that I was wrong, not that what I said didn't have merit or make sense, but that my actions were not in the best interests of the UNION.
Because that was all that it was about. The union looking after itself under the guise of helping the "little guy", even if it meant that we would actually lose money in the long run, or possibly be laid off...
I gave him my notice and walked out the door and had a much better job in 3 days for almost double the money, better benefits(without a union), etc...
