Why We Need Unions

The man pictured above works five 12 hour days every week.  He doesn't have to do this.  He could choose to work six 8 hour days instead.  What a choice?  He needs the job to support his family and it is one of the most coveted jobs on the island of Jamaica.

He doesn't complain about the long hours or the almost 2 hour commute he has each day on public transportation.  He reports to work daily with a smile and seems to always be so upbeat.  He hides the hardships of his life well.

Too bad there are no unions here.  The hotel owners get rich while the workers get by.  Not fair.

Inner Circle Of Unions

My husband just told me the new contract can't be bad because NYC union leaders, 20 out of 22, gave their blessings to the new contract.  (Only fire and detective unions voted no because of health care concerns.)  My husband is not a union member and is sometimes too easily swayed by the media.  He is bright, informed and has lived for over 40 years with a NYC teacher and still doesn't get it all.  No wonder others don't get it either.

These 20 labor leaders voting yes does not make it a good contract.  They are all part of the inner circle brothers club.  Mulgrew is one of them.  They wouldn't think of opposing him.  The people that give them their jobs, pay their salaries and keep them where they are mean nothing compared to "family."

Union Should Stick To Defending Teachers







 



When a person hires a lawyer, the lawyer does not decide whether the person is guilty or innocent.  The lawyer just defends that person to the best of her ability.  That is the job she is paid to do.  She might know in her heart the person has committed the crime, but guilt or innocence is the function of the court and the jury.  The same goes with the union. Members pay to be defended. The union should not decide who deserves representation and who does not. Randi must be getting big bucks from somewhere to sell out her members like this.  She should be impeached.

Unions Help Everyone



Let's face it.  The union's job is to protect its members.  That is the reason we fork over those big bucks paycheck after paycheck.  But, union protection is something teachers need to be able to help their students and do what is best for them.

First and foremost, while most outsiders like to forget, TEACHERS ARE PEOPLE!!!  They want the same things out of life that everyone else want:  decent homes, nice clothes, occasional meals out, vacations, etc, Teachers are parents, people who need to earn a good living to provide for their own children.  How can teachers be expected to take care of others when their own families aren't being taken care of?

Secondly, and probably most important to the general public, people who don't care that teachers are people, is that teachers can't do their jobs right without some sort of protection.  And, here is where I will make this post personal.

Being on the front line I often saw things about my students that the people in charge did not.  For example, there was an incoming ninth grader who did not score well on her placement exam.  She was relegated to a remedial class.  I quickly realized she did not belong there.  When my assistant principal refused to move her, I went behind his back, convinced another teacher and a guidance counselor to change her program.  (She went on to successfully complete AP calculus.)  Without job protection, no one would have helped this girl.  If my supervisor had found out what we did, and had the power, our jobs might have been in jeopardy.  Another term, I was told to fail a student because of his attendance.  Unfortunately, the young man's father was dying at the time and was under a lot of stress.  The AP let me pass the boy, after a fight, but told me he would hold me accountable for the regents grade in the next class.  While I had faith in what the boy knew, I had no clue as to what the next term would hold but agreed.  I knew there was not a thing he could do to me if the boy didn't succeed.

Everyone should be entitled to due process before losing a job.  The union's job is to guarantee this happens.  It is the job of the supervisor to offer proof of incompetence, not the unions.

I walked the picket line in the 70's, lost 2 days pay for every day I was out.  I missed many days of school during the '68 strike.  I know the strikes helped me and  helped future generations of teachers and it helped students.  The gains we got kept quality teachers in the classroom and encouraged others to join the profession.  Kudos to the Chicago teachers.  Their sacrifice is for the children as well as for themselves.

Effective Bonding

Building the subway system took lots and lots of labor, both skilled and unskilled.  When crap was pulled on the workers, the joined together and struck.  After only one week, there was a union victory.  Subcontractors were not exempt from union rules either.

Good things happen when everyone works together.  I am afraid this will never happen again. Most people are just too concerned about their own issues to make it work.

Bad Teachers--Part II



The series on Bad Teachers who didn't need union protection to keep their jobs continues here.



Zoo Keeper came to school every day smelling like the cages he cleaned early every morning.  His clothes not only smelled the part, they looked the part too.  One day he wore one with all the buttons missing.   I stapled it shut to hide the raggedy tee shirt he had underneath.  The term I had the misfortune of following him into a room had me carrying a can of air freshener.  The kids refused to enter until the air was cleared.

Smell was not Zoo Keeper's only fault.  He was a lazy bastard whose daily lesson consisted of ripping a page from a book, photocopying it and handing it to the kids to do.  The ones who didn't cut were afraid of him and sat quietly and worked, learning next to nothing.  The AP knew he was bad but was too afraid to start with him.  The principal, too, left him alone.

Zoo Keeper taught the lowest level classes in the department and for this, the other teachers were grateful.  They didn't have to deal with these children.  Zoo Keeper claimed he didn't know the higher level math and that was all he could handle.  Even when it came to marking regents, Zoo Keeper claimed ignorance and got away with doing nothing.

In addition to his smell and his lack of teaching, Zoo Keeper took a week off every year to go to Florida.  He always had some family member's funeral to attend to.  No one bothered to check whether this was true or not.  No one wanted to deal with his wrath.

One day, the big bad boys in Albany decided that high schools would no longer teach remedial math.  This  meant Zoo Keeper would have to start teaching.  There was only one thing left for him to do and that was retire.

The union didn't protect Zoo Keeper.  The administration did.  He got away with behavior like this his entire career.

Stop Blaming Unions



In my over 35 years of teaching, I can remember three really bad teachers.  Were there more? Of course, but isn't it true that every profession has its share of bad workers.  The union's job is to make sure every members gets due process, but if a member commits something really egregious, no union should be able to save that person's job.  Here is the story of one.

XXX was a wild woman who marched to her own beat.  In the 70's, she was featured on the front page of a major New York newspaper, in the hot pants she taught in (she had a sensational body), walking down a major avenue in the city.  Everyone knew to stay away from room 223 in the morning because she was always in there having unbridled sex with her married boyfriend.  She showed up at work when she wanted to and left when she felt like it.  This activity went on for many years until there was a change in the administration and she was brought up on charges.  The CL went with her to the hearing, after all, that was his job.  As they got ready to go into the meeting she said, "You stay here, I can take care of this by myself."  Thirty minutes later, she emerged from the meeting, lipstick smudged, hair disheveled and smiling from ear to ear.  All charges had been dropped.

XXX eventually left teaching on her own accord.  She has gone on to do some pretty powerful things with her life and has even appeared on Oprah.  The union had nothing to do with her tenure in the classroom or her successes outside of it.

If I Was A Billionaire



If I was a billionaire.

I would open my own school and take in kids like Rosie, Billie and Nutjob, good kids but kids that don't function like everyone else.  I'd put them in small classes, classes with maybe 5 or 6 students where they could not get distracted and had to show up.  I'd nurture their strengths and provide help for their weaknesses.  I'd provide and environment that would encourage their growth.  There would be rules, but rules they could live with.  I'd provide their teachers with good salaries, benefits and encourage them to join the union.

If I was a billionaire I wouldn't spend my money on pretty advertisements and television ads telling the world what a great job I was doing.  I'd use my money to do a good job and it wouldn't matter if the only ones who knew were Rosie, Billie and Nutjob.

Obama Aims To Energize Unions Before Midterm Elections

Funny, he applauds the firing of all the teachers in Rhode Island, he promotes non unionized charter schools and blames the teachers' union for many of the problems that ail education today and now he wants our support? The teachers union doesn't count, I guess.

(Newsday only gives article access to subscribers so I will post the entire article here.)

Obama aims to energize unions before midterm elections
August 4, 2010 by BEN FELLER. The Associated Press /

WASHINGTON - Rallying a pivotal part of his base, President Barack Obama pleaded with labor leaders yesterday to energize their members about the upcoming election, depicting a choice between those who fight for the middle class and those who are "not lifting a finger to help."

Obama's political speech to the AFL-CIO's governing executive council underscored the stakes of the November midterm elections, in which his Democratic Party is trying to hang onto its majorities in the House and Senate. Democratic loss of control in either chamber, or even a major erosion of seats, could deeply hamper Obama's agenda.

The president tailored his message to the interests of the union leaders, citing such priorities as fair pay, enforcement of trade laws, tax breaks for the middle class and safe working environments.


And he took a shot at the two-term Republican administration of his predecessor, George W. Bush, saying that for eight years the government held "a profound animosity towards the notion of unions."

Speaking of Republicans and repeating the White House's key talking point of the campaign, Obama said: "They want to go backwards; we want to move America forward. And that's what the choice is going to be in this upcoming election. And all your members need to understand it."

Obama also described the plight of the unemployed in personal, labor-friendly terms.

"That pain goes beyond just the financial pain. It goes to who they are as a person," Obama said. "It hits them in their gut. Having a conversation with your spouse and saying, you know, 'maybe we can't afford this house anymore, maybe we're going to have to give up on being able to save for our kid's college education.' That goes directly to people's identities, to their cores."

Millions of people remain out of work in a deep, enduring recession. The toll has soured the nation's mood and Obama's public approval along with it.

Republicans, out of power in the legislative and executive branches, are eager to seize on the same voter sentiment for change that helped propel Obama to office.

The president, however, is casting the prospect of Republican leadership as a return to failure. And he is devoting larger chunks of his time to do so.

Wednesday he reprised his tale of Republicans who drove the economy into a ditch and warned them that voters won't allow them to do it again.

As for his own efforts on the economy, Obama said: "I'm here to tell you, we are not giving up, and we are not giving in."