#29 - Unions
Unions are not good or bad. They have a legal right to exist and people are free to be a part of that group or not. It’s their choice.
What are Unions?
National Federation of Teachers (NEA) = Professional Organization. You would join this kind of organization to improve your skills and knowledge so you could be more professional.
American Federation of Teachers, AFL/CIO (AFT) = Union. You would join this group to take advantage of collective bargaining for better pay and benefits.
Both act like unions, though. While they talk about students, education and learning, they are primarily interested in teacher’s salaries, benefits, perks and protection. Unions also have considerable political strength and are not afraid to wield their influence.
Both espouse to help students, but their main concern still sounds union-like - better wages, more benefits, more perks, more power. There’s a lot of flowery statements about helping the oppressed and taking teaching to higher, unheard of levels. But statistically, education has not been doing a good job. The US was once number one in the world in things like reading and math. Today, we’re underwater.
Pro-Union:
Wages, benefits, security, and support are some of the reasons employees prefer a union environment. Some estimates indicate union workers earn on average $200 more per week than non-union employees. Additionally, union workers tend to receive medical benefits more often than non-union counterparts.
Anti-Union
Even if the unions are not corrupt, they tend to cause negative effects. For instance, they are almost single-handedly responsible for causing price inflation. They tend to negotiate for unreasonably high wages even though there is no corresponding increase in productivity.
Political Activism
Since 1980, AFT and the NEA have contributed nearly $57.4 million to federal campaigns, an amount that is about 30 percent higher than any single corporation or other union. About 95 percent of political donations from teachers unions have gone to Democrats.
In 2008, AFT provided a campaign contribution of $1,784,808.59 to Hillary Clinton and $1,997,375.00 to Barack Obama.
Parents (and Teachers)
The only organization supporting parents is the PTA - Parents Teacher Association. Its name suggests a focused interest in academics, but its history and public statements are of a more general nature regarding the welfare of children like child labor, child nutrition, juvenile justice and driver safety.
Students
Maybe it’s because they are under-age or they are not adults, but there really isn’t a union-type organization for kids. Students are underrepresented. Parents and adults seem to be logical proxies for kids and numerous “authorities” give us a boat load of advice form their authoritative point of view.
Summary
Maybe we should de-emphasize NEA, AFT and PTA and go after a solution that supports kids in a union-like way. Unions might be good for teacher. Teachers, theoretically, get more by being part of the union. While it may benefit teachers, we also get things like tenure or we can’t use merit as a criteria for pay or advancement. With unions, we get a lot of interference topped with a lot of opinions. We also have to put up with their demands regarding how the school is run.
Bottom line: We shouldn’t have to, but we have to stay engaged, watch and participate.
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