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My problem is with the teachers union. They use the members dues to donate to political parties. They make the teachers "volunteer" time for political causes. The rank and file go along for fear that next year the will be teaching the class from hell in a grade that they haven't taught before. The union reps get all the plum jobs. The have the jobs with no set schedule or class. They get paid extra for being a rep. Because they have the good positions they teach longer and get bigger pensions. They are also privvy to inside info. One year there was as buyout package that none of the reps took. If it was so good why didn't they take it? Unknown to their fellow union members there was a big raise on the horizon. It was better not to take the buyout.
In response:
(1) We are forced to donate to parties because money goes from our dues but you can opt out of being part of the union. A woman in my husband's school does this, but you are taking the chance of becoming a pariah. This especially annoys me because I am hard right politically and the unions donate to liberal causes.
(2) I have never had to volunteer time for a political cause and have never even heard of this before. If you have any examples, please let me know.
(3) Being a union rep doesn't decrease your teaching load or have anything to do with what you are teaching. My husband is a union rep at his school and gets 1k a year to take care of all of the union bs and go to meetings every month for a few hours. But, there is a lot of bs to deal with if you are a union rep, it takes a lot of his time. He has a full teaching load just like everyone else and doesn't have a choice. He actually was teaching four different classes at one point, it was horrible, that is not a "plum" assignment. What kind of secret information do you think he has access to? You are way way misinformed with this.
I don't know where you are getting your information from but I will try to clarify since we are both actively teaching and my husband is a rep himself.
This is actually the opposite of how it works with lawyers. If I were to spend an hour writing a letter, I would bill it out at .25 hrs.
Guess you will never be a partner at BigLaw with those billing practises.
So what about the attorneys that bill two clients for the same hour? Let's see...travel for client, bill one hour, bill same hour while big butt is sitting in train or plane and doing work for another client. Mechanics aren't the only ones that bill for hours not worked
You have a JD, MBA and now apparently a master's degree and you are seriously asking this question? Have you ever heard of "overhead"? I'll refer you back to OhBeeHave's post which I think explains it nicely.
I think you are just trying to stir the pot and have been since you joined this forum. That's called trolling and it's agains the Terms of Service.
Giving accurate information is trolling? The only reason I joined was because I did some google search, found this site, saw the teacher thread and saw all of the lies and misinformation and felt the duty to post. Wow. If that's trolling to you, pretty sad in my opinion. I guess I should just go with the "teachers are horrible, make too much money, and everything would be better if we could get rid of unions" bandwagon and then I wouldn't be a troll to you since I would be of your opinion.
All those degrees and you should've been a mechanic.
I have a ton of respect for mechanics but I can just do basic things. I would love to work with cars all day. This is why I teach physics anyway- I love engines, how things work, etc. But, I'm not good enough to be a mechanic. Someone wants to teach me, by all means.
This is actually the opposite of how it works with lawyers. If I were to spend an hour writing a letter, I would bill it out at .25 hrs.
Guess you will never be a partner at BigLaw with those billing practises.
So what about the attorneys that bill two clients for the same hour? Let's see...travel for client, bill one hour, bill same hour while big butt is sitting in train or plane and doing work for another client. Mechanics aren't the only ones that bill for hours not worked
I used to work for a "Big" law firm in NYC. This is how it worked. I'm by no means saying attorneys are all ethical, this is why I left anyway, I couldn't deal with the dishonesty. That's completely wrong if they do that and would anger me as much as it angers you.
Giving accurate information is trolling? The only reason I joined was because I did some google search, found this site, saw the teacher thread and saw all of the lies and misinformation and felt the duty to post. Wow. If that's trolling to you, pretty sad in my opinion. I guess I should just go with the "teachers are horrible, make too much money, and everything would be better if we could get rid of unions" bandwagon and then I wouldn't be a troll to you since I would be of your opinion.
Join the club. I got sucked in by the police threads. I lurked around for about a month, posted on a few other subforums and threads, and finally had enough of the garbage posted about cops that I finally said something--and look what happened!
I will say, though, that this might be the most civil and informative conversation about teachers' unions I've seen.
Join the club. I got sucked in by the police threads. I lurked around for about a month, posted on a few other subforums and threads, and finally had enough of the garbage posted about cops that I finally said something--and look what happened!
I will say, though, that this might be the most civil and informative conversation about teachers' unions I've seen.
If you are a cop, you are endangering your life every day and are worth double what they are getting paid, you actually can't put a dollar amount on it. People don't realize this- you kiss your husband goodbye and he might not come back because he got killed on the job. I have tons of respect for cops.
I just want to put out information since I am in the system, to correct the misinformation that is out there. If it's the truth, I will say that too.
One instance of volunteering had to do with Hilary's campaign. Members were expected to make phone calls to gather support for her. It totaled a couple of hours after school. You were right about feeling like a pariah.
The inside info concerned a "buy out" that suddenly came about one March (first buyout in many years) during a contract year. Teachers who qualified were given less than a month to make a decision. None of the reps were interested. A month after the deadline passed new pay scales were announced. It was the first pay raise for top pay in 6 years. The new rate was very good and taking the buyout would have been a big mistake. It's difficult for me to believe that the reps did not have knowledge of the new rate before anyone else did.
One instance of volunteering had to do with Hilary's campaign. Members were expected to make phone calls to gather support for her. It totaled a couple of hours after school. You were right about feeling like a pariah.
The inside info concerned a "buy out" that suddenly came about one March (first buyout in many years) during a contract year. Teachers who qualified were given less than a month to make a decision. None of the reps were interested. A month after the deadline passed new pay scales were announced. It was the first pay raise for top pay in 6 years. The new rate was very good and taking the buyout would have been a big mistake. It's difficult for me to believe that the reps did not have knowledge of the new rate before anyone else did.
I've never been asked to make calls. Maybe it depends on the district.
If anyone knows anything about anything they will make sure everyone knows. Union reps as far as I've experienced don't do stuff like that. I can't speak for your example since I wasn't there, but I can say that being a union rep does suck. My husband will be the only one next year at his job since no one else wants to do it (he will get paid the same and will have to do the work of five people).
I agree it can be a thankless and time consuming job, especially when you represent a point of view that you disagree with. I think that every district on LI is it's own fiefdom. Like most business the entity reflects the personna of the chief executives. Good luck and enjoy the summer!
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