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From Twitter 02-16-2011
Feb. 17th, 2011 02:08 amTweets copied by twittinesis.com
Feb. 17th, 2011
It's all personal
Feb. 17th, 2011 12:43 pmThere's a whole hell of a lot of stuff going on in Wisconsin politics right now. The state elected a new governor in the last election and he's making a whole lot of people upset with the new policies that he is proposing and the legislature is (most likely) passing.
The one that has the most people upset is the plan to make Wisconsin a "Right to Work" State and to remove the collective bargaining powers of the public unions.
My views on all of this are extremely personal.
Personal view one:
I worked for the County Government and was a union member until I was laid off just over a year ago. When I was "officially" informed that I was being let go, the union rep was there. Why was she there? I'm not really sure. She didn't do anything for me. Except to tell me that I was completely and totally replaceable and that she would make sure that no union rules were violated when they replaced me. She assured me that all union rules would be followed when they put an existing union person in my position and that "anyone could do my job just as well with just a little training". Nice to know. Really.
At the last union meeting I attended I was told that it wasn't part of the unions scope to help save jobs or provide the county with ways to balance the budget and keep everyone employed. This was stated after someone suggested that maybe the union could offer concessions in order to keep all the employes. This was quickly and soundly shot down. You see, the union's job is to ensure that the wages and benefits that were currently in place would continue for those who were still part of the union. In other words, they didn't care that people were losing there jobs, only that those who remained would be unaffected.
There were two times in this discussion that emotions ran high. The first was when everyone was informed that, because of the layoff and consequentially fewer union members, there would be a raise in union dues. The second was when they were discussing how terrible it was that one of the workers, D, was in limbo because administration was going to eliminate her position -- not her employment, mind, just where she worked in the building. Wasn't it terrible that this poor STILL EMPLOYED person may have to do something different. This was a tragedy.
When they all complained at how hard it would be on all of them when the layoff took place, I may have made the mistake of telling them that I damn well hoped it was. Needless to say, I was less than impressed and am still more than a little bitter about the whole damn thing. The the people in the county government that laid me off and the people in the public who I served when I was working for the 4-H did much more for me, were much more sympathetic and helpful than the union or the union members.
Personal view two:
Right now our current school budget deficit is prompting the school board to cut 10 percent of the MAPS teaching staff -- 35 teachers received layoff notices, entire programs are being cut. The district needs to focus all of its resources on the areas that are measured and tested and used at the guide for federal money in order to keep afloat prompted it to cut most of the technical programs and keep those for college prep, which seems to be the only thing that matters in education these days.
Our school district is one of the poorest in the state. It rivals Milwaukee in the amount of students who qualify for Free or Reduced Lunch. We have been extremely hard hit by the economic downturn. We have ridiculous unemployment -- and a lot of people have dropped off the unemployment rolls already. The problem is our population density isn't high enough to qualify for a lot of Federal and State aid. In addition our low percentage of minority students also removes us for a great deal of funding consideration. Finally, a great many of the new funding sources comes with qualifications that actually make it cost prohibitive to take the money.
Don't get me wrong, we have a damn fine educational system here. We have done extremely well with what little funds we have. We just can't keep it up forever. Especially when faced with the economy and regulatory demands. The only way the board can balance the budget is to cut and, like with the county, when faced with the current contracts and union bargaining, they can't cut pay or benefits, but they can eliminate jobs.
Of course, the teacher's union is just like the union I belonged too. As long as the people who remain employed aren't hurt, they don't care if people get laid off. I'm thinking that for 35 teachers, they may actually prefer taking a pay cut than having no pay at all.
I know I would have.
The one that has the most people upset is the plan to make Wisconsin a "Right to Work" State and to remove the collective bargaining powers of the public unions.
My views on all of this are extremely personal.
Personal view one:
I worked for the County Government and was a union member until I was laid off just over a year ago. When I was "officially" informed that I was being let go, the union rep was there. Why was she there? I'm not really sure. She didn't do anything for me. Except to tell me that I was completely and totally replaceable and that she would make sure that no union rules were violated when they replaced me. She assured me that all union rules would be followed when they put an existing union person in my position and that "anyone could do my job just as well with just a little training". Nice to know. Really.
At the last union meeting I attended I was told that it wasn't part of the unions scope to help save jobs or provide the county with ways to balance the budget and keep everyone employed. This was stated after someone suggested that maybe the union could offer concessions in order to keep all the employes. This was quickly and soundly shot down. You see, the union's job is to ensure that the wages and benefits that were currently in place would continue for those who were still part of the union. In other words, they didn't care that people were losing there jobs, only that those who remained would be unaffected.
There were two times in this discussion that emotions ran high. The first was when everyone was informed that, because of the layoff and consequentially fewer union members, there would be a raise in union dues. The second was when they were discussing how terrible it was that one of the workers, D, was in limbo because administration was going to eliminate her position -- not her employment, mind, just where she worked in the building. Wasn't it terrible that this poor STILL EMPLOYED person may have to do something different. This was a tragedy.
When they all complained at how hard it would be on all of them when the layoff took place, I may have made the mistake of telling them that I damn well hoped it was. Needless to say, I was less than impressed and am still more than a little bitter about the whole damn thing. The the people in the county government that laid me off and the people in the public who I served when I was working for the 4-H did much more for me, were much more sympathetic and helpful than the union or the union members.
Personal view two:
Right now our current school budget deficit is prompting the school board to cut 10 percent of the MAPS teaching staff -- 35 teachers received layoff notices, entire programs are being cut. The district needs to focus all of its resources on the areas that are measured and tested and used at the guide for federal money in order to keep afloat prompted it to cut most of the technical programs and keep those for college prep, which seems to be the only thing that matters in education these days.
Our school district is one of the poorest in the state. It rivals Milwaukee in the amount of students who qualify for Free or Reduced Lunch. We have been extremely hard hit by the economic downturn. We have ridiculous unemployment -- and a lot of people have dropped off the unemployment rolls already. The problem is our population density isn't high enough to qualify for a lot of Federal and State aid. In addition our low percentage of minority students also removes us for a great deal of funding consideration. Finally, a great many of the new funding sources comes with qualifications that actually make it cost prohibitive to take the money.
Don't get me wrong, we have a damn fine educational system here. We have done extremely well with what little funds we have. We just can't keep it up forever. Especially when faced with the economy and regulatory demands. The only way the board can balance the budget is to cut and, like with the county, when faced with the current contracts and union bargaining, they can't cut pay or benefits, but they can eliminate jobs.
Of course, the teacher's union is just like the union I belonged too. As long as the people who remain employed aren't hurt, they don't care if people get laid off. I'm thinking that for 35 teachers, they may actually prefer taking a pay cut than having no pay at all.
I know I would have.
