It's About The Children!

Something very interesting is going on in the Workers' Utopia a little to the south...  the Chicago Teachers Union has voted to go on strike.  90% in favor.  "The vote not only exceeded the 75 percent required by state law, but some school networks voted 100 percent to authorize a strike, the union said."  Because, as always, it's about the children.  You know, the Chicago children with the 50% graduation rate?

Why?  I think I'll just give you the exact words of union president Karen Lewis to avoid any confusion or sense that my sarcasm and supreme annoyance is getting in the way of actually just reporting what's going on:

"They asked for a 20 percent increase in our school day and year, so we asked for a 20 percent concomitant raise to that. They stole four percent of our raises from the last contract, so we asked for that. Then we asked for a five percent raise," said Lewis.

Personally, I couldn't be more excited, and I'm serious.  For the Chicago teachers to pull this stunt right on the heels of the resounding "ENOUGH!" spoken by their neighbors to the north just last week, well, to say it's rich is an understatement.  But it's good.  CTU apparently has little sense of context, irony, or pretty much anything outside of their demands du jour.  And at this time that is a very good thing.

The spotlight is on you, public sector unions.  Think about your situation.  The gravy train has left the station.  In fact, the gravy train has pretty much jumped the track; it's gone and it's not coming back.  What you've got you should be happy with, because unless I'm reading Emmanuel wrong, it's what you're getting.  If you were smart, you'd hunker down and lay low until the economic storm passes (assuming that it will).  Instead, you jump up with a golf club in your hand, waving it in the sky, daring the lightning to hit you?  It's still a free country, sort of, but do you really want to do that?  Lighting just struck here in Wisconsin, and they said it was impossible here too.

If you'd climb out of your bubble, you might notice something.  The only people singing "Solidarity Forever" anymore are you guys, and your numbers are dwindling.  People of conscience are simply worn out and tired of trying to ignore what they're affiliated with...  and they're leaving.  Union membership anywhere there's still freedom is falling rapidly.  And the rest of us out here in the real world, frankly, are simply fed up with your whining and demanding.  ENOUGH!

Let me tell you about a real job in the real world.  In the real world, when there's more work than workers, the boss says, "You're going to need to come in on Saturday", (and maybe Sunday too) and you do.  No overtime, no extra time, nothing but lost time.  And many of us out here are salaried employees.  The phone rings at 3AM, I have to get up and go fix the problem.  I don't get an extra penny, I don't get to make demands, I don't get to say anything except to give an ETA as to when I think I'll have the task completed.  I've been on call 24/7 for 9 years straight.  I work through all my vacations and frequently lose vacation days at the end of the year because I couldn't take them or just had so much work that I never got around to it.  My children know that when we are on vacation, there's a good chance that I'm going to miss out on part of it because I'll be stuck in the hotel room on the computer while they're off having fun with their mother.  And it's use them or lose them; I don't take the vacation days, I don't get a lump sum for them someday like you guys.

Hmm, what else?  Well, I have no company-paid-for pension I can retire on, and then go double or triple-dip the system.  I'm grateful for what they have given me, but frankly it would cover pretty much my funeral and burial expenses at this point and that's about it.  After 9 years. And as for health care, I have to take out $4,000 a year to put into a flex account to cover co-pays and such...  and that's after what they're taking out of my salary to cover the health plan.  Be glad I don't have THAT number handy, because it would shut up your mouth.  I sure don't get summers off to bum around or take a fake class or two so I can get a sort-of Masters Degree so that I can demand more money.  In fact, I can't demand anything, ever.  If I did, I'd be outside with a cardboard box containing the few things here that actually belong to me.

But you know what?  I am not complaining.  I am immeasurably blessed and extremely grateful to have this job.  I know how many people are out there who wish they had this job.  It humbles me that I'm the one who does in this economy.

You see, teachers unions, you have been lied to by your union leadership, and rather than check the things they tell you against reality you just buy it all because you want to.  You don't want to check if it's true because if you do, you'll be forced to see that your constant complaints and demands about a deal that's incredibly sweeter than anyone out here is getting (short of executives) are tone-deaf, selfish, and have made you look as though it really IS about the children...  it's just that we initially misidentified who the "children" are.  You've been brainwashed.  Your union leadership enables you to believe that you are the oppressed class, always put upon, never adequately compensated.  The truth is that for awhile now you have been the privileged class, and your constant demands for more and more serve only to anger those of us who you apparently think only exist to support you at the expense of the support of our own families.  

Guess what?  Things are tough.  The rest of us out here are fed up with paying more and more taxes to support your preposterously selfish demands.  Be glad you have a job.  Be glad you have retirement.  Be glad you have healthcare plans.  Remember who is paying for them...  through the nose.  And if you can't do that, then at least have some common decency and sit down and shut up!  Be glad you're not in the private sector, where you'd probably be canned simply for making the insane demand of a 30% increase just because your company needed more work done and you felt put upon.  And be glad I'm not in charge, because I'd privatize the entire education system, terminate any relationship with the union whatsoever and let you re-apply for your jobs individually based on your merit...  with a private sector corporation like where so many the rest of us who currently have to pay for your parasitic insanity actually work.


[Quotes are from NBC News 5 in Chicago "Nearly 90 Percent of Teachers Authorize Strike"]