Teacher union membership is dwindling. In fact, it has dipped below 50 percent nationwide, down from a high of almost 70 percent in 1993.The number will drop even further if Friedrichs v. CTA goes our way.
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Minority Majority
As a teacher who is not a union member, I'm a tiny minority in California but a majority in the overall United States:
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4 comments:
I admire your blog in so many ways, but you are naive when it comes to teacher's unions. I can almost guarantee that there is a liberal administrator who would love to fire you but is prevented because of the union due process protections. Without a union, it is legal for an employee to be fired for no reason at all.
At this stage in our society, EVERY employer has developed contractual language to ensure due process for the employees, union or not. Contrary to your comments, I am pretty sure that even "liberal administrators" will not desire to fire a good teacher in ANY subject matter without a series of events showing the teacher is not fit to be in a classroom. This would be true even if the Admin is conservative dealing with a Liberal - Good teachers need little protection other than the true "due process".
In right to work states employers routinely have contracts with a clause stating that they are an "at will" employer and that employment at the school or business can be terminated at any time.
Last year we saw educators lose their jobs because of an ill worded letter, defending free speech, and . . . nothing at all, but the football team demanded he leave because he wasn't liberal enough. For every high profile case there are thousands of ordinary teachers who are dismissed. Most of the high profile cases involved individuals who were actually liberal themselves but committed some trivial offence against political correctness. What do you think would happen to a teacher publicly derided sensitivity training, extreme anti rape policies, and affirative action?
I believe in unions. I believe in due process. I don't believe in arbitrary hirings or firings.
I'm against forced unionism, or making unions legally entitled to my money. Every right-to-work state has teachers unions, so I reject your implied dichotomy of "either union or chaos", "either union or no protections at all".
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