Philly schools cancel Teachers' union contracts

An effort to help?

This is all there is to the story. No info on why the union-administered fund needed to taken over. Or if it needed to be taken over.

 

Philly schools taken over by state government years ago. This is last effort to impose cuts in benefits by Republican administration trailing very badly in polls. I'm sure it'll hit the courts before close of business today.

 

Wouldn't we all like health insurance that didn't cost us anything.

 

Yes, we would. And if we had a contract giving it to us, we'd go to court if someone said, "sorry, we lied about that."

 

Aren't Pennsylvania teachers the highest-paid in the country?

 

The lack of responses by certain board members makes me think there must be a rash of espresso machines needing repairs today.

 

I'm about an anti-union as they come on this board, but a contract is a contract. If the teachers' union negotiated this deal, that stands.

If my station came to me tomorrow and said, "we're cutting your pay 25%", damn right I would raise hell. Now if there were concessions for the future (a longer term, perhaps, or much higher pay in two years), they could be some wiggle room.

 

Then go negotiate yourself one.

 

If teachers were truly committed to students, they wouldn't need health insurance. Or pay.

 

Exactly. Why resent people who actually stick up for themselves?

 

It's funny, I read a similar argument on a higher ed forum a couple of years ago. It came from a humanities faculty member arguing that STEM faculty aren't as committed to teaching/scholarship because they won't work for the salaries that humanities faculty will.

 

I'm sympathetic and I'm not.

The article said the district has closed 31 schools and cut 5,000 jobs. They said they're not cutting wages, but they want them to pay in a small amount for their health care.

There's the union contract and I get that, but if they don't agree to it, more people are going to lose their jobs.

During a time when so many school districts are losing money or going bankrupt, it would be nice to see people work together to come up with a plan that will prevent additional job loss.