Without Labor Unions, We’d Have no T.G.I. Friday’s
Thanks to labor unions, the United States has what is commonly known as “the weekend.”
If it weren’t for the awesome things unions have done, you wouldn’t hear things around the office like, “It’s Friday, let’s go to happy hour,” and you wouldn’t hear people ask, “Is it Friday yet?” on all the other days of the week.
Without unions, you’d be working all day Saturday and Sunday along side your little nieces and nephews, hoping that no one got sick because you wouldn’t have any health insurance.
Unfortunately, and mostly due to the incomprehensibly demoralizing movie, Waiting for Superman, many Americans seem to think that teacher unions are the enemy, that their primary purpose is to prevent bad teachers from being fired. The Waiting for Superman-ers believe that if we could get rid of unions, we could get rid of those horrible teachers that are ruining America, hire some new ones (preferably trained by Bill Gates himself), then *poof* everyone would be ready for college.
The Waiting for Superman-ers think that charter schools are a good idea when, in fact, charter schools are statistically no better than public schools. (I know, I know, the charter school your kid goes to is awesome.)
But, charter schools don’t provide their teachers with union representation, and that’s kind of a big deal.
Today, teachers in charter schools have to do things like work extra hours (on top of the extra hours they already work) for no pay, take on extra administrative duties that they aren’t trained for, or work in buildings that have no windows. What happens if their medical benefits are cut? Or they’re suddenly faced with an oppressive or discriminatory supervisor? What happens if their “good” teacher rating turns “bad” one year, as often happens with the Value-Added Model?
More than likely, he or she will get canned, then replaced with one of the thousands of unemployed teachers in Southern California who, at this point, are probably willing to do even more work for less money. This cycle could continue ad infinitum, but the LAUSD would remain the second worst school district in the country because the real problems haven’t been addressed.
To all the teachers out there who are struggling to get all your grading done before Monday, don’t work too hard. To the rest of you, have a nice weekend.
Julie T-G replied:
Hey Beth
I’m def pro union, but need help understanding something, or at least how to talk to others about it. I have no union. There is no desk job spreadsheet monkey union. My employer changes the health plan yearly. There’s a culture of sexism at the company that I can’t do anything about. Thank goodness the clients love me so much or I’d probably be out on my ass for working the exact expected hours, and not a second more. Oh, and having the audacity to pump at work, but that’s a whole nother blog. Tell me why some industries need unions but others don’t?
March 16, 2012 at 12:26 pm. Permalink.
oneteacherleftbehind replied:
Hi Julie,
Please start a blog about pumping at work. I feel your pain.
Personally, I think all industries need a strong union and I’m not sure why only cops and teachers get them (please chime in, union historians who happen to be reading this).
But even with UTLA “protection,” my workplace was full of sexism, nepotism, favoritism, union reps who were unavailable and said things like, “she just needs to take one for the team.” Plus, LAUSD teachers only get paid for working 6 hours a day and we get those shameful looks if we try to leave on time.
March 16, 2012 at 7:44 pm. Permalink.
kidelectric replied:
Glad you are putting my old domain name to good use!
I, too, am a California teacher and I had originally registered the domain name “One Teacher Left Behind” a while back for a purpose just like this — to highlight how frustrating being a teacher can be, and how much we are just dumped on and blamed. Unfortunately, I didn’t really have the time to do so, and fortunately, my situation as a teacher started getting better and better.
By the way, I just recently watched a screening and Q&A up here in Napa Valley of “TEACHED”, a short series of “documentaries” by “filmmaker” Kelly Amis. You should check out this piece of propaganda… it’s basically just an amateur version of Waiting for Superman, harping on the same old tune: blame the teachers, blame the unions (ironically, one of her pieces is called “The Blame Game”)
When I piped up and asked her how she thinks it is okay to compare public schools — which are mandated by law to teach EVERY child they are given, and a kid must pretty much commit a felony (or two) to be expelled — with independent schools (private and charter), who are allowed to establish their own standards of academic and behavioral conduct, and to remove students who do not meet them.
Of course, she hemmed and hawed and had no response. To this day, I have not heard a single person be able to answer this question. Private and charter schools have the luxury of just saying “See ya later… go to public school” if kids do not meet their behavioral or academic expectations. Public schools do not have this luxury. So how people can even think of comparing the two without addressing this issue is beyond me.
April 26, 2012 at 6:13 pm. Permalink.
oneteacherleftbehind replied:
I’m glad to hear your teaching situation is getting better. You must be funded by Gates!
Thanks for reading, and I’d love to hear more of your opinion since, clearly, you’ve got something to say.
What part of California?
May 1, 2012 at 7:28 am. Permalink.
kidelectric replied:
NorCal — I switched careers from computer programmer to being a teacher during the dot com bust. I started teaching in San Jose Unified, but lost my job at the end of the year since the budget got cut and I was low man on the totem pole.
Then I couldn’t find another teaching job (too many applicants, not enough positions, and nobody wants a rookie teacher), so I subbed for a while… when I subbed at Jerry Brown’s charter school, Oakland Military Institute, they really liked how I taught so they hired me on full time… the principal wanted to expand my role, and offered me promotion to more classes and responsibilities. One month later, they got a new superintendent and he decided they needed to double math and English (and do away with any arts, electives, or computers, which is what I was teaching), so I was unemployed again.
They ended up calling and asking me to come back and teach there, but by that time I had moved on… to Maryland — back to the school district I attended as a kid (Montgomery County Public Schools). THAT’S when things got better… when I left California, and actually found stability. Not that it was easy — I had 8th graders reading at a 2nd grade level, and I was physically assaulted by a 6th grader (and this school tried not to suspend or discipline any kids because it “looked bad” … kid brings in an buck knife and threatens someone? No problem, just sweep it under the rug and ask him not to do it again…)
I was actually doing very well there, and working my way up the ladder — I got poached by another school who heard of what I was doing and really wanted me on-board… it was a much better school, wealthy students, good test scores… no teacher assaults. And yet the pay was the same. So who wouldn’t make the switch? They also hired me to design the entire computer curriculum for all middle schools (there are 200 schools in the district, over $2 billion annual budget… quite a different story than most of California! my current district has a total of 2 schools)
But I did end up moving back to California (Napa Valley), because my wife (who is from the Bay Area) got a job opportunity out here that was good enough that I needed to take the sacrifice and pay cut (landed a half time position only — I had to get my foot in the door with SOMETHING to complete my ridiculous BTSA. Yes, even with 5 years of teaching experience, I still had to complete BTSA).
Everybody likes to talk about the education budget problem in CA, and there certainly is one, but I don’t know why people think it’s okay to have so much overhead — so many redundant administrative positions, due to the tiny fragmented school districts we have in much of the state. That’s way more HR people, accountants, and superintendents than we need.
May 1, 2012 at 4:40 pm. Permalink.