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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (53543)	7/30/2002 9:59:51 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

What you suggest, scrapping the system I'm not suggesting that. Sorry that I left that impression. I'm mostly objecting to this scenario we have right now that holds unions up as sacrosanct so they can't be discussed without the impression that one detests people who work with their hands. A case in point is this confrontation over the Homeland Security Department. The Administration wants to designate many of its employees exempt from union coverage. There should be a healthy debate about that, but there isn't because politicians would never be permitted to practice the differentiation necessary to analyze the issue. If Democrats express any ambivalence at all about unions, they're sitting ducks. But there is nothing so useless as a Federal white-collar union except maybe an appendix. They can't bargain for pay like your union can. They get to bargain over things like the protocol for deciding who gets to take lunch breaks when. A reorganization, even a fairly minor one, is typically delayed months, maybe years, while the unions exercise their bargaining rights over trivia. There's not much management can do about it. Even worse, IMO, is that you can end up with a bunch of employees who are stuck with lunch schedules that they don't like and managers who would be willing to let employees take lunch at times more convenient to the employee but legally can't. It's nuts. I'm sure there are unions that are valuable. I merely object to the lack of differentiation. I know you well enough to know how you would react if your union, which is supposed to be on your side, foiled your attempts to be the best teacher you can be and your school from being the best school it can be. I hope yours never does that, but you should recognize that it could and be wary.