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Philly schools cancel Teachers' union contracts

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!, Oct 6, 2014.

  1. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    Coming together to find a way to prevent further job loss is one thing. Unilaterally taking away negotiated benefits is a very different thing.

    Teacher's unions in many of the districts around here have renegotiated existing contracts to save jobs. In some cases, the school districts didn't play nice. I know of one that they actually sent out letters to the teachers whose jobs were going to be eliminated. But at least there was a negotiation. That is not what happened in Philadelphia.
     
  2. JC

    JC Well-Known Member

    Stop being rational!!!!
     
  3. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    There have been 21 months worth of "negotiations."
     
  4. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    Good use of the quotation marks, there.
     
  5. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    The allies of the Governor are trying to provoke a teacher's strike in the hope it will somehow win him the election. Likely won't work. Good luck getting future teachers, Philadelphia! If they're dumb enough to think it's a good place to work, they're too dumb to teach your kids.
     
  6. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/10/06/philadelphia-school-district-cancels-contract-with-teachers-union/

     
  7. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    The state takeover law prohibits Philadelphia teachers from striking. As in, if they do it, their certification can be revoked.
     
  8. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    AFT President Randi Weingartern saw through it.

     
  9. Morris816

    Morris816 Member

    I don't buy that argument. Government employees can fall victim to nonsense that they had nothing to do with, just as much as private employees can. Elected officials do things they shouldn't from micromanaging to not bothering to read budgets, and the people who they directly hire can do things they shouldn't from mismanaging funds to going on power trips.

    And for all the talk about how governments don't have endless funds and are dependent on how well the economy does, that isn't that much different from private companies. The only difference is the general public doesn't elect those who run private companies, or have those running them hired by people elected by the general public.

    Whoever government employees report to, those people need to accept the fact that negotiations with unions are going to make headlines.

    It shouldn't have been that difficult for those in charge of Philadelphia education, at the time they negotiated the last contract, to say, "Look, we can't make good on a promise that you never have to contribute money to your health plans... we can negotiate the amount you contribute, but you need to contribute something." It may have drawn headlines, but in the end, I suspect it was likely they would have reached an agreement that wouldn't have put them into the position they are in now.
     
  10. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    As I noted earlier, I doubt very seriously this is about a piddling one-half to one-and-a-half percent decline in net compensation. Years-long-negotiating impasses do not obtain over such trivial sums. This is about who's going to manage the health plan.
     
  11. Hokie_pokie

    Hokie_pokie Well-Known Member

    Read the WaPo link that Cranberry posted.

    Corbett and his ilk have slashed needed school funding, but can come up with hundreds of millions for a new prison? How do they do this shit with a straight face?

    I have voted Republican as often as anything else, but the determination of many in the GOP to eliminate public education for the poor and minorities makes me sick to my stomach.

    To then turn it around and pin the fiscal problems on greedy teachers is unconscionable.
     
  12. They are. But government has NO incentive to cheat its employees... which is kind of the whole reason for the creation of unions.
    The idea of a teachers unions to protect its employees - state employees - from the state is ridiculous. But it's the same rationale that deemed Corporations people.


    BTW: Are you trolling me tonight for a reason?
    Some special wad in your panties?
    Kind of odd, that's for sure. I suspect you might be the fellow on a bender.
     
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