FDR making a comment opposed to public employee unions in the cartoon: "The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted to the public service."
There was a cartoon in the Chicago Tribune in which a man wearing a red “Wisconsin Teachers Union” tee shirt says, “Must be some Nazi!”
He’s referring to Democratic Party President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1937 comment,
“The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted to the public service.”
Indeed most Federal employees are not in unions. Those in the Post Office are and we know the problems that declining institution has.
In Crystal Lake, perhaps elsewhere, the clock in the service area disappeared a couple of years ago. I note that if one came to the Post Office near closing time, one could tell if the doors were locked early with a clock on the wall. Not so easy now that it is gone.
Is it postal union(s) inflexibility that leading to the decline of the Postal Service? I’m not close enough to the situation to know.
There are two aspects of public employee unions that aren’t discussed much.
Let’s categorize them as
- Two bites at the apple and
- Sitting on both sides of the bargaining table
State employee unions negotiate with those representing the Governor.
What happens when they don’t get what they want?
They can make another pitch to the legislative branch.
If the bill passes, then they have their collective bargaining accomplishments, plus the additional benefits conferred by a new state law.
Let’s move down to the school board level.
The teacher unions do their best to make sure that local school boards are controlled by those favoring raising teachers’ salaries and benefits.
Consider the Grayslake Elementary School District 46 School Board.
Mary Garcia is its President.
Mary Garcia is also President of the Northbrook/Glenview Elementary District 30 teachers union.
No conflict of interest, of course.
Perhaps a convergence of interest, but you can comment on that below.
She complained to the Daily Herald after three Tea Party opponents had their web site links sent out via Twitter that, according to the reporter,
“she follows the Illinois Education Association union philosophy of doing what’s best for students in a financially responsible way. Garcia said she isn’t political in her union role and remains nonpartisan on the District 46 board.”
From this example, you can see how the Grayslake IEA local union has a rather powerful ally on the other side of the collective bargaining table.
Don’t think similar teacher union allies don’t serve on local school boards.
The goal of the Illinois Education Association is to control both sides of the bargaining table.
And when reading some union contracts, one might guess a couple of them.
Rest assured there are others.
Cal, have you looked at the Crystal Lake 155 and 47 teachers contracts to see how much of property taxes go to paying for the teachers pensions?
It’s like Wisconsin in Crystal Lake. None of the Crystal Lake teachers pay a nickel into their pensions. At 9.4 percent of their salary it explains why property taxes to the schools are so high in CL. Before it ever can go “for the kids” the unions skim it off for what the teachers are supposed to be contributing to their pensions.
I guess if you wrote an article about this, then Saturday detention time might become a commonplace activity in your son’s life.