I was contemplating life at a traffic light this morning and started to think about how long I have been working without the benefit of a contract. After a little quality time with Excel's date function, I have determined that for the past 9,807 days I have been employed solely as a result of my job performance.
I also know that there were a few times over those 9,807 days that my employer either was unwilling or unable to pay what I would like to have earned. So ... I got myself another employer who was willing to do so.
In the great free market economy, the law of supply and demand handles this situation very neatly. Employers are willing to pay for the skills they need to operate their enterprise. Employees are free to continue to "trade" employers in an effort to get their desired compensation -- sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
No private enterprise ever functions well (or may not even survive) by being forced to compensate employees without regard to skill level, job performance or work ethic. Anybody been to Detroit lately?
Is the dramatic increase in student enrollment at non-union Charter Schools a coincidence?
I think not.
4 comments:
I agree. Just don't forget the competition to get into the Tech schools and the waiting list at them each year. Does anyone know how many Sandwich students are attending these schools, on average, each year?
How is it exactly that teachers have come to feel disrespected?
At Oak Ridge in 2010, parents through their PTA, respected the schools and teachers enough to spend $10,000 on cultural enrichment programs, $4500 on field trips, $2000 on community focused activities, 1,000 on Library supplies and another $750 for Art.
Parents and the PTA also asked teachers to “name” their own wishes and the PTA responded, including for example purchasing Apple iPads for the library.
All this is done on top of the taxes parents pay (the highest on Cape Cod) to support a very very expensive school system.
For the union president to suggest that this community does not respect it teachers, is both an insult and a real shame.
On the side lines, well said. It is very obvious that the union president is using charged language and not finding ways to honestly represent the situation in Sandwich. She is being judgmental instead of pragmatic and intelligent. It would seem she is very out of touch with the teachers and the families of Sandwich. Very sad situation for all and another case of poor leadership in Sandwich. Attacking people instead of working on relationships doesn't seem to have had a very good result. I don't understand why the union keeps her in the drivers seat. It truly seems like she represents the minority view. I suppose it is common though for enablers to think they are OK and not take responsibility. And of course there is the obvious, based on the past few years history in the community of union activist behavior in our schools, intimidation factor for teachers, parents, businesses and citizens. A sad destructive small town trend that lives on in Sandwich. Wish union leadership would act as smart as I'm sure they are.
Is it safe to assume you are now up to 9,811 days without a contract?
Do you at least get to leave at 3:00 or get 4 months vacation? How about a pension, or generous medical/dental?
Are you protected by a grievance process that prevents you from being fired no matter how irresponsible or ineffective you may be?
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