Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Detroit teachers unions opposing the very reforms that have vastly improved New Orleans public schools after Katrina

As if it needed to be documented any more thoroughly, organized labor is killing America. Teachers unions are engaged in a ongoing conspiracy to deny a quality education to America's children. Kids in the poorest, most crime-ridden neighborhoods in the nation, who could benefit the most from a good education, are hit the hardest. Even President Obama is working with teachers' unions to shut down a popular and effective school voucher program in Washington DC that has been helping underprivileged kids in our nation's Capital obtain a quality education and a more promising future. Union jobs are more important to our President than the future of our kids.

In Los Angeles the teachers' unions have recently been successful in thwarting an effort to broaden the use of charter schools which have been PROVEN to deliver a better education than union-staffed public schools in L.A.

It isn't just in education. Unions have nearly killed off the American auto industry, and the airline industry has been on life support because of unreasonable union contracts for years.

California's fiscal crisis can largely be traced to the outsized influence of the public employee unions (teachers, police, firefighters, prison guards) who have extracted from the weak-willed state government compensation systems and especially retirement benefit schemes that are overly generous and totally unsustainable.

How has this happened?

The unions used to have a lot more members, so being pro-union was a good way for politicians to get votes. Most unions used to have a lot of public goodwill, that they used as leverage to "guilt" politicians into being very generous once in office. Teachers still do this very effectively, and nobody is better with the "guilt" card than firefighters and law enforcement.

Today, although memberships have shrunk, unions still have a lot of money to invest in the political process, which they do to great effect. In the era of Obama we are also seeing unions (most notably the Service Employees International Union, SEIU) becoming more actively involved some very ugly "political" activity, namely voter fraud, intimidation tactics, and physical violence.

Look at our failing public schools, at our auto industry, at our fiscal crises both nationally and locally. Now ask yourself: Can the unions really be expected to be part of the solution to our problems? Or are they really the biggest part of the problem?



Detroit teachers unions opposing the very reforms that have vastly improved New Orleans public schools after Katrina

4 comments:

SubwayDomer26 said...

I'm glad, as a strong member of USW Local 715, that I am killing America. I'd hate to think that that it could be anything / anyone else.

OC Domer said...

Subway - USW was a STRONG supporter of Obama's presidential campaign, and the USW (like most labor unions) generally support and finance the Democrat party, which in turn stands in the way of meaningful education reform nationwide, as well as thwarting meaningful fiscal reform in the various states (like California).

Maybe USW Local 715 opposes the typical union positions I call out here, and if so I apologize for lumping you in with them. But if your union dues are being used to lobby against reforms that would improve the lives of underprivileged kids in places like Detroit and Washington DC, then you need to own that.

Anonymous said...

I live in Michigan, unions are destroying our state. Michigan is not a right to work state, so we have a powerful teachers union, government workers union and of course the UAW. The UAW started it all with the willing help of the prior Big 3. When Detroit could sell every car it made in the 80's and 90's the UAW demanded such things as 95% of wages while laid off. The Big 3 gave it to them along with fantastic benefits because the car companies didn't want a shut down because of high sales. Now Michigan is reaping what the car companies and unions hatched.
Toyota is finding out first hand what a powerful lobby the UAW can be now that they own a piece of GM and Chrysler.
Those of you who are not so familar with MI, please don't judge the entire state by what you read about Detroit.
If you draw a line down the middle of the state passing through Lansing, you will find the left side more consrvative and hard working, The city of Grand Rapids is a mecca in this land of famine.

TBoneND

Unknown said...

Mr. Obama is a boil on the butt of the American people. Liberalism is a mental disorder. Sorry I am off topic but in a sense, they are all inter-related to each other.