My problem is the amount of poorly written contracts. Probably the majority of them.
Well the company agreed to them. It's not like they are FORCED to sign it. They can refuse to sign it and hire non-union labor (called scabs). There is no law, as far as I know, that forces all businesses to recognize and agree to the demands of any and all Unions.
Also tenure.
Tenure basically means that a teacher is no longer on probation. Their methods are sound and they do not require constant evaluation. Are they evaluated every few years? Yes they are. Or should be anyway. As with all administrations such evaluations aren't always done on schedule.
Most businesses have a probationary period. Few are as long as 3 years.
And how does one even know if a teacher is a good teacher or a bad one? There are only two ways. The first being to catch them doing what they shouldn't be doing. The second is through the students. If kids complain that their teacher doesn't teach them much or well, that'll prompt investigations (or should). However, it is my experience that the easier a class is, the less complaints kids give. And in grades 6-12, how often do think students will go to the office and complain that they don't get enough homework or enough material to study?
So please, don't look at tenure as being the end all of teacher protection. It isn't.
http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2011/03/08/5_reasons_unions_are_bad_for_america1) Unions are severely damaging whole industries
Again, a contract agreed upon by the car companies. I guess they didn't have the foresight to see that in 30 years they wouldn't be selling as many cars.
I'm sorry but a Union may have negotiated that contract but the business still has to honor it. Even if you were to eliminate all unions right now and forever, those pensions are still going to be paid because that's the contract that was signed. Or are you going to honestly claim that one shouldn't pay it's debts when times get tough?
2) Unions are ruining public education
Epic fail on this one.
Do you wanna know what the #1 need of funding is for schools to improve? Smaller class sizes. In my school there are 9 periods in a day. Of those, each teacher is required to teach 5 of them. 1 for lunch, 2 for planning (grading papers, preparing lessons, meeting students who need extra help, etc...) and one "duty". The duty is usually either study hall or monitoring the cafeteria or hall.
Of those 5, the average teacher has about 30 students each. That's about 150 students a day. Now can you tell me how 1 teacher is going to effectively teach and help 150 students a day? Kids go home when that last bell rings and few stay for extra help. Not only that but each teacher needs to cover a certain amount of subject material every day to ensure that all the required material is covered in a given year. The more kids need help, the less they can cover. Since they can't cover less without fucking up the state testing, they are forced to rush faster than they should.
Result: less effective learning.
And as resources dwindle in school budgets (which are largely made up of state funds) Teachers get laid off. When that happens, class sizes increase. Add to it increasing population and the problems only multiply.
You also have the school board, which is elected by the people, and vote to give HUGE raises to administration then in the next sentence, cut teacher positions. Voter apathy on school board elections allow such people to remain in power for decades.
As for Unions preventing bad teachers from being fired: No, they simply argue for the best contract they can get and, sadly, some people are able to keep their heads above water even though they should be fired. It's the same reason why some students who should fail are able to squeeze by with that 66. When you set the baseline, you have to adhere to it.
As for merit pay: Horrible, horrible idea.
Here I'll demonstrate:
Wardogg, your pay is now based on the amount of insurgents you kill. If you don't kill 20 insurgents a month, you're dishonorably discharged. Also, you can't chose the missions. Oh and kills must be recorded on this sheet. You don't have to prove that you killed them, just write it down here.
Merit system is this:
Dave, your pay is now based on the amount of kids who pass. If you don't have 20/30 passing kids a month, you're fired. Also you can't choose the subject you teach. Oh and grades must be recorded on your grade book. You don't have to prove that they got the write answer or show us all their papers just write the final score down here.
The corruption would be rampant. Hell, there's already enough "passing kids who shouldn't pass" due to bitchy parents as well as preventing massive over crowing.
) Unions are costing you billions of tax dollars: Let's put it plain and simple: Government workers shouldn't be allowed to unionize. Period.
Why?
Because you elect representatives to look out for your interests.
It's obviously in your interest to pay as little as possible to government workers, to keep their benefits as low as possible, and to hire as few of them as possible to do the job.
Let me rephrase what he's saying:
All government jobs should be done by with the lowest quality employees we can get and barely enough of them.
Is that how a business should run? Or should we strive to hire the best we can hire?
Also, I don't know of ANY government job that pays more than an equivalent private business job.
Mercenaries get paid more than marines, right?
4) Unions are fundamentally anti-democratic : How in the world did we get to the point where people can be forced to join a union just to get a job at certain places? Then, after they're dragooned into the union, they have no choice other than to pay dues that are used for political activities which the unwilling dues-paying member may oppose.
Add to that the fact that the Democrats and the government unions collaborate to subvert democracy at the expense of the taxpayer and it's not a pretty picture. Worse yet, unions have gotten so voracious that they even want to do away with the secret ballot, via card check, so they can openly bully people into joining unions. The way unions behave in this country is undemocratic, un-American, and it should trouble anyone who cares about freedom and individual rights.
Always depends on the Union but simply put, you can apply this to any organized group. Watch:
Christianity is fundamentally anti-democratic: How in the world did we get to the point where people can be forced to join Christianity just to get a job at certain places? Then, after they're dragooned into Christianity, they have no choice other than to pay dues that are used for political activities (in the church) which the unwilling dues-paying member may oppose?
Add to that fact that the Pope and the various churches collaborate to subvert democracy at the expense of the taxpayer and it's not a pretty picture. Worse yet, Christianity has gotten so voracious that they even want to do away with the separation of church and state so they can openly bully people into joining their religion. The way Christianity behaves in this country is undemocratic, un-American, and it should trouble anyone who cares about freedom and individual rights.
See?
Any group who has power will ultimately elect or put in power a leader who is power hungry or easily corruptible. It happens with any and every group of enough power or influence that has ever existed. You might as well say "Democracy is ruining Democracy".
5) Government unions are bankrupting cities and states
Again, Pensions. I'm sorry but no one forced the government to agree to the contracts. They simply thought that it would be fine. 30 years later, it wasn't. You can't just ignore those pensions. It would be like if the US government decided Social Security was going to be abolished and anyone who paid into it has lost all the money.
Of course, you have a pension do you not? If, 20 years from now, the Government said that your pension is going to be revoked due to budget cuts and you won't get any money back, how will you feel?
Frankly, everything that guy said is either misinformed ranting or basic "Times suck but we still have bills to pay" crap. No one bothers to think about when times are hard. No one bothers to plan ahead. Contracts are happily written with the belief that the good times will keep going. And it's not like Unions don't keep up with the times. Pensions aren't as grand as they once were. The problem is that you don't see the results of smaller pensions until the employee retires, which is likely not for another 30 years.