This blog features observations from Randy Turner, a former teacher, newspaper reporter and editor. Send news items or comments to rturner229@hotmail.com
Saturday, July 02, 2011
NEA President calls on educators to keep up the fight for public education
2 comments:
Anonymous
said...
wow. scary. that guy isn't engaging in class warfare much, is he? I read an article yesterday that said Wisconcin is saving a boatload of money since the collective bargaining for state workers was eliminated. One of the biggest savings was in health insurance costs. It was interesting because under the collective bargaining agreement with the state employee union, the state had to purchase health insurance from a specific provider. It turns out that one mandatory provider was actually a company created by the state employee union. I was shocked. I hadn't read that in any of the articles about the debate. Well, since the state can now shop around for the best insurance deal, the company created by the union significantly lowered its rates. Imagine that. Who would have thunk? The state stayed with that provider for the next year, but is paying a much smaller premium for the same level of coverage. I think there is significant money to be saved across the country if all of the other states pass similar laws against state employees collective bargaining. I'm not saying people shouldn't have the right to organize, but in the case of local, state, and federal govenment employees, collective bargaining shouldn't be allowed. It is it bad form because the unions give a lot of money to politicians, and then end up in negotiations with those same politicians about pay and benefits. There's no blatant conflict like that in private sector unions, but it is convoluted in the public sector. Not only are they negotiating with an employer who may have received campaign money from them, they are publicly framing their arguments as "us against the government," when they are, in fact, "the government."
2 comments:
wow. scary. that guy isn't engaging in class warfare much, is he? I read an article yesterday that said Wisconcin is saving a boatload of money since the collective bargaining for state workers was eliminated. One of the biggest savings was in health insurance costs. It was interesting because under the collective bargaining agreement with the state employee union, the state had to purchase health insurance from a specific provider. It turns out that one mandatory provider was actually a company created by the state employee union. I was shocked. I hadn't read that in any of the articles about the debate. Well, since the state can now shop around for the best insurance deal, the company created by the union significantly lowered its rates. Imagine that. Who would have thunk? The state stayed with that provider for the next year, but is paying a much smaller premium for the same level of coverage. I think there is significant money to be saved across the country if all of the other states pass similar laws against state employees collective bargaining. I'm not saying people shouldn't have the right to organize, but in the case of local, state, and federal govenment employees, collective bargaining shouldn't be allowed. It is it bad form because the unions give a lot of money to politicians, and then end up in negotiations with those same politicians about pay and benefits. There's no blatant conflict like that in private sector unions, but it is convoluted in the public sector. Not only are they negotiating with an employer who may have received campaign money from them, they are publicly framing their arguments as "us against the government," when they are, in fact, "the government."
Greed...it's all about greed. The state employee union should be ashamed of what it did...but I'm sure it (those who devised that scheme) won't be.
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