What's on Katie's Mind? : Tag : collective barganing rights

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Republican Right Wing…..You Don’t Need No Education!

Posted on February 22, 2011 at 2:49 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUASiDg-kg4

Just let Pink Floyd play while you read my post!

Those right wing pundits must not have been coddled enough by their school teachers. Let’s take Rush Limbaugh who couldn’t seemingly tackle college and dropped out after two semesters. Glenn Beck’s post high school education consisted of taking a theology class at Yale that he ended up dropping. Were they worried about mind control or were they just not that good at schooling? Why am I bothering with this? I’m bothering with this because these are the two big guys that push the right wing media agenda. I even have family members that listen to their bullshit and truthfully these two guys don’t know much about anything!

Even Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker couldn’t quite “cut” getting that little old college degree. He dropped out! My sister loves the statement, “To know something is to know nothing, and to know nothing is to know something.” It really says a lot. These guys don’t know much about anything, but they all know how to manipulate their audiences and make tons of money doing it. These guys have nothing in common with the average working “Joe” but many of those average working “Joes” think these guys know what’s going on with everything from politics to religion. I include Governor Walker in on all of this because he is so over the top with the right wing agenda, that he supports pharmacist not filling prescriptions for contraceptives because of religious or moral grounds.

Well, Rush and Glenn both have come from troubled personal lives. They both wrap themselves in religious metaphors and both have been married more than once, Rush too many times to bother counting!

In my opinion, Glenn Beck is simply dishonest as this video shows:

Rush always tends to add “fuel to the fire” with his outrageous “OxyCotin” laced tirades. Here is Rush saying teachers feel entitled to be “freeloaders”.

Here again is Glenn Beck feeding his special form of “hatred” to his fellow countrymen.

From my point of view, there are bad guys all around that have done much to destroy private sector unions and the right for people to belong to any union. Now the right ring of the Republican Party is going after the public sector unions. Even President Obama has done much damage to the teacher’s unions. Here in Michigan we have signed onto legislation that ties evaluations to student test scores that really is rather senseless. This opinion piece is well worth reading and basically says what I’ve been thinking about.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/race-to-the-top/the-irony-of-obamas-help-for-w.html

So what can you do? I think everyone needs to get educated about the subject matter as eventually the bargaining rights of all Americans could be in jeopardy. We, the working people of America, need to stand together or everyone will lose all bargaining rights.

So, stand together or FALL together!

If you do nothing else today, read this bit and definitely watch the Jon Stewart video placed here from last night! By the way the “liberal’ pundit, Jon Stewart, has a college degree! Imagine that!

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/02/22/jon_stewart_wisconsin_scott_walker

I will leave you with this last bit from Paul Krugman:

You don’t have to love unions, you don’t have to believe that their policy positions are always right, to recognize that they’re among the few influential players in our political system representing the interests of middle- and working-class Americans, as opposed to the wealthy. Indeed, if America has become more oligarchic and less democratic over the last 30 years — which it has — that’s to an important extent due to the decline of private-sector unions.

And now Mr. Walker and his backers are trying to get rid of public-sector unions, too.

There’s a bitter irony here. The fiscal crisis in Wisconsin, as in other states, was largely caused by the increasing power of America’s oligarchy. After all, it was superwealthy players, not the general public, who pushed for financial deregulation and thereby set the stage for the economic crisis of 2008-9, a crisis whose aftermath is the main reason for the current budget crunch. And now the political right is trying to exploit that very crisis, using it to remove one of the few remaining checks on oligarchic influence.

So will the attack on unions succeed? I don’t know. But anyone who cares about retaining government of the people by the people should hope that it doesn’t.

I just had to come back in here and post Rachel Maddow’s video. It is long but so thorough. It is a “must see” video! You must watch the whole thing and by the way Rachel is a Standford grad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7e4bj5rrd8

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Solidarity and Why Wisconsin Matters

Posted on February 20, 2011 at 11:27 am

I’ve been watching the protesting going on in Madison, Wisconsin with great concern. Many believe, just as I do, that Madison is a test case for the rest of us. I believe there has been a constant push to divide workers in our country and around the world. All people that work for someone else need to pay attention to what is happening in Madison.

Unions have become the target of business and we, the American people, have been duped by the corporate propaganda machine. Unions have been blamed for everything from the current economic condition to why businesses are choosing to manufacture goods in other countries. However, what most people should be thinking about is how workers are being treated around the globe. We were lead to believe that NAFTA and opening up normal trade relations with China would help raise the standard of living around the world. http://articles.cnn.com/2000-10-10/politics/clinton.pntr_1_wto-membership-china-global-trade-regime?_s=PM:ALLPOLITICS

What is really happening is a growing divide between the very wealthy and the rest of us. We, the American people, the real laborers of our country, have not understood how we should all be banding together in solidarity. We should be insisting on good and fair working conditions and benefits for everyone from the person that sweeps the floor in the factory to teachers, doctors, waitresses and anyone else that is an employee in this country. Instead we sit back thinking only of ourselves and our particular circumstance.

Some look at teachers and think they deserve this. Part of this is because this whole past year there has been systematic propaganda put out by the corporate media about how bad teachers are because the American student is so poorly educated. We have heard the drumbeat from the president on down through Michele Rhea in Washington D.C. and the video, “Waiting for Superman.” If you are to believe the corporate media, then you would have to think that your own child is getting a poor education. I’m not saying that all students are getting a great education. What I am saying is that the corporate run media has been pushing hard for the demise of the teacher’s unions for the past several years. This should come as no surprise for anyone that can think back over the last few years and especially this past year. The corporate run media wants people to think this group in Madison is just a bunch of cry baby teachers that don’t care about anything but their cushy jobs with summers off. The corporate run Republicans have been taking our government from the federal level on down to the state level and privatizing anything they can get their hands on. This is another area that we have been lead to believe is a better choice. Private companies can do a better job than the government, or so we have been told. This is just another way that politicians have been rewarding those companies that have been giving charitably to their campaign coffers.

Looking around the world this year there have been protests all over the globe. While the banks have been rewarded because they were too big to fail, the citizens of the world have been taken down a notch through the decimation of benefits, pensions, health care, and college education. I remember distinctly this video of students protesting in England and some of them shouting, “Off with their heads.” This video doesn’t play the sound but it did happen. This was in reference to Prince Phillip and his wife. Unions have been protesting around Europe as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zptklj49AYs&feature=related

As a country we need to stop pitting the old with pensions against the young, the union employees against those non union workers, as well as government workers pitted against private employed workers. The workers of the world need to unite in solidarity or they will continue to lose benefits and wages while the wealthy will continue to rake in the money, get all the tax breaks and the CEO of these big corporations will continue to receive unbelievable bonuses. The truth is what is happening in Madison, Wisconsin is the destruction of bargaining. If unions across this county cannot have true bargaining rights, you won’t have them either. If they lose benefits, you will surely lose benefits as well. If they have no strength, neither will you!

If you are my age or older you will remember the saying, “As the Dow Goes, so Goes the Country.” Today as a worker and a teacher I can honestly say I believe as Madison goes, so goes the country. If they lose, so will we! There is a concerted effort by the Republican governors across this country to destroy union’s rights to collectively bargain. Here is a piece from Ohio. http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2011/02/overhaul_of_states_collective.html

I want to play a video from last week that really explains what is going on in Madison. It really is about busting the union and nothing else. It’s a longer video but you should watch the whole thing and listen to John Nichols at the end when he talks about what is happening around the world.

Ed Schultz has done a great job of covering Madison this whole past week. His show is on at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time on MSNBC and he has been spending time there. I found this video of Ed talking to the teachers just before his show the other night. It really is good. Ed understands what’s really going on. It is as he says about what is morally right and fair.

As a teacher I want to add some information that most people don’t realize. Young teachers here in Michigan have to take classes for the rest of their lives. The cost of this comes out of their pockets. I’m currently taking courses and it’s not cheap. The teacher qualifications and licensing has changed drastically over the last twenty years. Teachers used to get a life certificate. I have a continuing certificate. I don’t have to renew my certificate any more. I’m taking my courses to reach a higher level of pay and expertise, not because I have to do so. Younger teachers have to take courses in order to keep their license updated. They also have to pay for renewing that license. I’ve been taking courses throughout the school year, so I don’t have a lot of “free” time. Many teachers take courses in the summer time as well. Curriculum planning is also done in the summer time. I think some people just don’t have a clue how much planning goes into creating a good classroom atmosphere and education for the children of our country. I know what my commitment is as a teacher. I give my all to my students. I know other teachers that do the same. We are dedicated professionals that care about the well being of our students. We go out of our way to do our best to help students reach their full potential. We even buy things to bring into our classrooms and donate for good causes that will likely benefit some of our students and their families. We are not the enemy. We, the American workers, should all stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Madison, Wisconsin.

I would also like to thank the brave Democratic state senators that have chosen to leave the state of Wisconsin so a quorum could not be met to pass this vote. They are true heroes for the working people of America. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/02/19/wisconsin_protests_in_images

Additional food for thought:

Here in Michigan our Republican governor has proposed a budget that would mean a $470 funding cut for each and every child being educated in our K-12 public schools. http://www.michiganpolicy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1018:a-comprehensive-analysis-of-governer-snyders-budget-proposal-for-k-12-education&catid=75:k-12-education-blog&Itemid=132

I’m sure he’ll be looking to see what happens in Wisconsin. We have already faced some changes in bargaining rights based on the Race to the Top program instituted by President Obama. http://www.michiganpolicy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=840:hb-6331-collective-bargaining-agreements-and-performance-based-initiatives&catid=35:k-12-education-policy-briefs&Itemid=117

By the way we haven’t won any “Race to the Top” money.

Here is a good op-ed piece from the Washington Post. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2011/02/scrooge-ism_in_wisconsins_unio.html

This is an interesting website to look at union membership across the nation. The numbers here in Michigan and in Wisconsin have gone down.

http://www.bls.gov/ro3/mdunion.htm

This is good if you like to look at statistics from the Census Bureau.

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/

This blogger has written about wage stagnation and how we have coped. This is interesting.

http://bonddad.blogspot.com/2010/05/wage-stagnation-biggest-threat-to.html

Also if you think this isn’t going on around the world, just look at these pieces and think.