Having been on both sides of the fence as both a union worker and a non union worker I can attest to the fact that in this day and age there is no need for organized labor unions to be involved with any governmant run agency. I am not even so sure we need them in the private sector anymore.

The labor unions and the majority of their membership have things turned upsidedown. The public school system is not a mechanism to employ 1000's of workers, rather its primary function is to facilitate the instruction of our youth. It seems to me that the teachers unions feel education is just a byproduct of the educational system, first and foremost we should focus on teachers salaries. The administration is yet another crazy part of this system. I really wish we could get effective leadership in this country. Actually I would settle for effective state and local leadership.

Not one leader that I can remember has effectively tried to take on any of these over zealous unions. All any politician of late has done is try to convince the public that somehow they can make the broken system work better than the last guy that failed.

The way I see things, when a person enters the workforce there are two options, public or private sector. The private sector offers better salary than the public sector. But that is not without cost. Often times the benefits are substantially less, there is often no retirement system unless you are lucky enough to work for a company that offers a 401K, limited vacation time and in many cases no "sick pay". Further in this day and age there is no such thing as job security. On the other hand a person can enter the public sector. The pay will not be as much in most cases. But, there will almost always be better benefits, vacation, sick leave, cost of living adjustments. There is usually a retirement plan in place. Finally in most cases there is job security.

I feel like the unions are demanding private sector wages with public sector protection. What they need to do is really look at the entire picture rather than just the pay or medical benefits part of their compensation. In the last job I worked that was union, most of those workers would not have lasted 90 days. They were too spoiled by the protections of the union and the agency I worked for suffered and continues to suffer today.

That is my take, I know that there are those that will disagree. That is just the way it is.

By the way, the union is not solely to blame for the woes of the US automakers. That being said, they are not completely innocent either. They have had a huge hand in making US automakers less than competitive with foreign rivals. It does not take organized labor to have good pay, benefits and happy workers. In fact I would say that non union auto factories are probably better places to work overall I have no proof I am just guessing based on my union experience. The unions had a place in time where they were desperately needed. Like so many other things in modern times I think they have served their purpose and are desperately clinging to the last shred of life left in them.

Oh, my... where to start? 

Why doesn't Moto need to read more history to know that unions can be disasterous influences?  Because he understands Economics.  Besides, the only arguement I've ever heard in favor of unions from a historical standpoint is, "Oh my GOD!  Are you kidding?  Without unions our children would still be working in sweat shops!"  Yeah, maybe in 1910.  Not anymore.

Dusty: You've finally met an educator who is going to defend NCLB.  I am a credentialled math teacher. I love my job, am thoroughly dedicated to my students, and believe that our profession is noble and of the utmost importance to the future of our society.  I have been involved in public education (which is superior to private education, by the way) in one way or another for the last 9 years. 

NCLB has some ridiculous clauses.  For instance, 100% CAHSEE passage by sometime next decade is not going to happen... and the legislators know that.  These are just political tools for campaign speeches.  I will not say that NCLB is anywhere close to perfect.

Here is why it is a great thing:  Before NCLB, students arriving in high school were years below grade level in most subjects.  The longer NCLB has been in effect, the better the new arrivals have been every year.  As a high school teacher, I would love to point to the great advances in secondary education as the sole reason for our improved student performance (our kids are doing great, despite what you read!) but that is not the only factor.  Primary school teachers, God bless 'em for being able to do what they do, needed standardization and a gun to their heads to get them to perform their jobs adequately. Our students are still not coming in where we need them to be but they are leaps and bounds better than just a few years back.  Standards and accountability have caused  all levels to take the effectiveness of their trade seriously and make improvements that actually show up in student performance, not just in educational theory.

And this only makes sense... what happens in other (non-unionized) industries when someone's work does not show effectiveness?  They get fired or demoted.  We simply needed that same set of consequences in education.  It has caused miraculous improvements in education.  Unfortunately, like most federal acts, it has several ridiculous clauses attached to it.

Lastly, none of this has to do with the real issue here:  DUESTA (Delano's Union) is smearing it's own district as a bargaining tactic. 

I don't like unions, I don't belong to ours, but I do understand why others might choose to join them.  I certainly understand contract disputes, I've had a few of my own at times.

I do not understand making your entire district look like a bad place to work and warning good teachers away.  There is no way that the union's actions are beneficial to the students.  Which tragically points out something I've told my coworkers all along:  the union is not here to help students, it's not here to help teachers, it's here to help themselves.

 Googolplex ,

Hey Man! You must be one of the few REAL Teachers left. Glad to hear you chime in here. Welcome Aboard.

There are an awful lot of NO LOADS in the classroom out there, who are making the entire profession look like Jugheads. I think it's really sad. In your opinion, what will it take to lose the losers and replace them with REAL TEACHERS, who actually have a passion for educating the kids?

Tony

Okay...first and foremost Mr. Kotch does not speak for all of the Delano Union School District employees. I am a teacher in the Delano Union Elementary School District and a member of the teacher's union. I am very happy with the district and would highly recommend any new teacher to join our team. The district provides a large amount of support for not only new teachers, but veteran teachers as well. Often to boost moral, the district sends goodies or lunch to the sites and offers incentives to ensure a happy work environment. The district, including our superintendent, has put every effort forward to create a positive work environment. If anything, the union has been the lowest point of my employment and in my opinion increasingly creates a negative work environment.  The large amount of propaganda e-mails from our union officials make me question their work ethic. The statements made by our superintendent, Mr. Ron Garcia, are true in my opinion. The union is using these as bully tactics. But is it the right thing to do? What about the students of the district? Has Mr. Kotch thought about the impact this would have on teacher employment in an outlying district? I do not believe he has students' best interests at heart, but a vengefulness against our superintendent that he chooses to fulfill at the cost of our students. Mr. Kotch and the other union representatives have not even closed the our '05-'06 contract. Negotiations should be done by now...but the inability to set down negotiation dates and keep them has been a huge problem. I know for a fact that the district has scheduled several dates and the union refuses to take them. I know as a teacher, I would want to end negotiations and return to my classroom to teach my students instead of spending so much time out in meetings. The demands that our representatives have for our district are outrageous! They often protest that negotiations fail because of the inability of the district to settle...is that really the case? I don't think so. It seems our district has not had problems with negotiations until Mr. Kotch was president.  Our union's motto is "Every child deserves to learn and no child succeeds alone". When our local union president is discouraging teachers from coming to our district and providing a quality education to our students, is the Delano union really in it for the students as the motto suggests or are they in the teaching occupation for other reasons?

Sandcracker,

Well put.

Thank you.

"Besides, the only arguement (sic)  I've ever heard in favor of unions from a historical standpoint is, "Oh my GOD!  Are you kidding?  Without unions our children would still be working in sweat shops!"  Yeah, maybe in 1910." 

Historically speaking unions were instrumental in not only ending child labor but also:

-- bringing us the 8 hour work day, workplace safety standards, better wages, and health insurance just to name a few.

Are all unions bad? Of course not but actions such as that of the Delano union are wrong.

I'm delighted we have some teachers stepping up here and hope to hear from more.  I also hope that each of you will encourage teachers in your families or in your circle of friends to contribute because that's where we find out what's really going on.

Yeah..Me too, Mom..Hey everyone, meet two of the people I was talking about and who I got information from. google and sand..The point of this blog was not to bash unions in general, but to point out the flaws in the tactics THIS union is using. The UAW analogy was just a way of pointing out how unions can create more problems than they solve. If someone wants to get off on a tangent on Unions themselves, OK, but I won't get involved at this time.

Anyway, as I sat at home tonite, the two teachers above showed up and we had a discussion about some of the points I made on dwindling elective classes due to overblown contracts. It seems I was right..Hmmm. I like the sound of that..I think I'll say it again..I was right..ahhh...umm..moving on. When a school district has to pay out large contract increases, be they wages or benefit packages, that money is taken from the bottom line. There is no magic fund that is seperate from the money spent on classes. While it is true that government funding is directly related to attendance, payroll still comes out of a districts budget and that budget determines what and how many classes can be offered. If a school offers metal shop and Home Economics, those classes have teachers. If the teachers get a big contract package it is going to affect how much the school has to spend on payroll, and since the aforementioned classes are not part of the lineup that a schools performance is based upon, they wil be the first to go. That was my point where losing classes that may help kids decide to stay in school down the road was concerned.

Schools are more important than unions. If the teachers who constantly complain about their pay are that unhappy, they can take their degrees and go get a better paying job. They may not get the summer off, but at least they would be as poverty stricken as they always say they are.

The Railroad is a bit different in the type of skills required to do the jobs there, but the company realizes that. They have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars per person in our continuing training and are not going to risk losing that investment to save a few bucks an hour. They may be pricks, but they aren't stupid! The electronics training I have in my job would easily cross over into the job market.

Adam. No, my union hasn't done squat for me in 25 years(I'd say 27 years, but I really don't know what they did or didn't do before I started paying attention to such things!. I haven't had a raise in 5 years that kept up with the cost of living increases. Our last contract was negotiated in 1998. It expired in 2003 even though our annual COLAS continued until last January. The last time I had a raise of over 5% over 4 years was in 1992, it was 6%. It's what the company probably would have done anyway. Also, upon the expiration of our last contract, we began paying for a piece of our own health insurance. Don't get me wrong. I am not whining about my wage or the amount I have to pay for insurance. It's still a pretty good deal for a PPO, but the fact is, the union didn't even fight for it. They just told us to take it, just as they have every other concession that has come down the pike in the last coupl eof decades. Another thing the union does is spend a portion of our dues to support liberal candidates, and the mugs of Mondale, Clinton, Gore, Kerry and Edwards, among others, have graced the cover of our union mag over the years(I toss them without ever opening them nowadays). Union letters have always made slurs against Republicans and that is NOT what I pay my union to do. I have nothing to fear from the company, even if i dislike some of the things they do, because I do my job and I am damn good at it. I am very serious about keeping trains on the tracks and your family safe from being struck by a train.

I realize that on the surface some things may appear to be what they are not. The statement that the Delano Union (DUESTA) is asking for a 15% raise is misleading in that it is an accumulation of three years of no raises and the actual amount requested was 12%. The district saw an increase in revenues for 2005-2006 of approx. 5%, 8% for 2006-2007, and an expected healthy increase for 2007-08. The district has taken a very hard stand regarding the capping of the health benefits at an amount below the actual cost for those benefits. Approx. $1500 a year less. Yes caps can be negotiated year after year, but their idea of an increase in the cap is $100.00 annually. DUESTA proposed a settlement for 2005-06 that would cost the district $130,000 less than their proposal AND still pay 100% of the benefits, but they refused. Our fight isn't really about money as much as power. In closing, not all union members are liberal thugs looking to squeeze the life out of the American dream. Stereotyping is a form of bigotry based upon incomplete truths, innuendo, and flat out ignorance.

"...not all union members are liberal thugs looking to squeeze the life out of the American dream."

However, all union officials are dues squeezing thugs.

Goodplc: As usual, those with weak arguments turn immediately to red herrings and insults.  12%? 15%?  Whatever.  Nobody is taking sides in the negotiations.  DUESTA isn't getting along with the district?  Big deal.

What we are saying (and the rest of the world is laughing about) is that the tactics of scaring off good teachers from a district that so obviously needs more of them is detestable.

If you are in this profession for the money, get out.  Be a salesman or a stripper, it pays better.  If you are in this profession to make the world a better place, act like it.