Tennessee County School Board Fires Teachers Union
snipe
2011/02/05 16:15:13
Now this
is more like it. Back in October of 2010 the Summer County, Tennessee
School Board decertified the Sumner County Education Association
(SCEA), the union for county teachers, because it no longer satisfied
the law by counting as members fifty percent plus one of the total
number of employees requiring a teaching certificate. This, school
board officials said, means that the SCEA can no longer engage in
collective bargaining for teachers.
The school board has used this opportunity to immediately begin rewriting the relationship between teachers and schools.
Naturally,
the union is running straight to what is usually the last bastion of
mindless obeisance to union obstructionism, the courts, and is suing to force the school board to accede to union demands regardless of the law.
For
its part, the union says that just over fifty-two percent of the county
schools employees are union members and so they are still in charge.
The school board points out, though, that this percentage actually does
not satisfy the law because the requirements are that fifty percent
plus one of the actual teachers -- those employees requiring a teachers
certificate to work -- need to be in the union, not over fifty percent
of all school employees -- which includes janitors, administrators and
other non-teacher employees.
But the union doesn't care about
the law. SCEA representatives want the courts to force the school board
to deal with them anyway. As State Senator Stacy Campfield says, "I fail to see why anyone has the guaranteed right to force an employer to negotiate with a union if they don't want to. Where else besides government does that happen in the real world?"
The
case will be heard in the courts in the middle of this month, February.
But in the meantime, the school board has quickly moved forward to
change insurance benefits to require teachers to pay twenty percent of
their healthcare insurance instead of the fifteen percent negotiated by
the union.
It is good to see government bodies making efforts to
eliminate public employee unions. These anti-democratic, budget-killing
entities should never have been allowed to exist in the first place.
Public employee unions are antithetical to good government certainly.
But there might be even better news in Tennessee on this subject. Tennessee State Representative Debra Young Maggart has introduced a bill that would make it illegal for any school board to have to negotiate with a teachers union at all HB 0130 would eliminate collective bargaining for teachers in the state.
Of
course unionists are going crazy over this one claiming that the rep
hates teachers and kids! But Maggart insists it isn't an anti-teacher
bill.
If you are in Tennessee you should urge your reps to support it. And if
it does pass it should serve as a model for other states to emulate. It
will be a giant step toward taking back control of our schools as well
as a strike for fiscal responsibility.
Warner Todd Huston
http://rightwingnews.com/#post26219
is more like it. Back in October of 2010 the Summer County, Tennessee
School Board decertified the Sumner County Education Association
(SCEA), the union for county teachers, because it no longer satisfied
the law by counting as members fifty percent plus one of the total
number of employees requiring a teaching certificate. This, school
board officials said, means that the SCEA can no longer engage in
collective bargaining for teachers.
The school board has used this opportunity to immediately begin rewriting the relationship between teachers and schools.
Naturally,
the union is running straight to what is usually the last bastion of
mindless obeisance to union obstructionism, the courts, and is suing to force the school board to accede to union demands regardless of the law.
For
its part, the union says that just over fifty-two percent of the county
schools employees are union members and so they are still in charge.
The school board points out, though, that this percentage actually does
not satisfy the law because the requirements are that fifty percent
plus one of the actual teachers -- those employees requiring a teachers
certificate to work -- need to be in the union, not over fifty percent
of all school employees -- which includes janitors, administrators and
other non-teacher employees.
But the union doesn't care about
the law. SCEA representatives want the courts to force the school board
to deal with them anyway. As State Senator Stacy Campfield says, "I fail to see why anyone has the guaranteed right to force an employer to negotiate with a union if they don't want to. Where else besides government does that happen in the real world?"
The
case will be heard in the courts in the middle of this month, February.
But in the meantime, the school board has quickly moved forward to
change insurance benefits to require teachers to pay twenty percent of
their healthcare insurance instead of the fifteen percent negotiated by
the union.
It is good to see government bodies making efforts to
eliminate public employee unions. These anti-democratic, budget-killing
entities should never have been allowed to exist in the first place.
Public employee unions are antithetical to good government certainly.
But there might be even better news in Tennessee on this subject. Tennessee State Representative Debra Young Maggart has introduced a bill that would make it illegal for any school board to have to negotiate with a teachers union at all HB 0130 would eliminate collective bargaining for teachers in the state.
Of
course unionists are going crazy over this one claiming that the rep
hates teachers and kids! But Maggart insists it isn't an anti-teacher
bill.
Let's hope this bill passes.
"This is not an anti-teacher bill," Maggart said.
"It is an anti-collective bargaining bill. And I think that this bill
serves the best interest for our teachers, our students and our school
systems across the state."
If you are in Tennessee you should urge your reps to support it. And if
it does pass it should serve as a model for other states to emulate. It
will be a giant step toward taking back control of our schools as well
as a strike for fiscal responsibility.
Warner Todd Huston
http://rightwingnews.com/#post26219
Top Opinion
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+31Keep us apprised of new developments in these two cases. If it works for Tennessee, maybe other states will adopt similar methods. What's bad for unions is good for everyone else.
Remember also that every teacher who is fired or who leaves will have to be replaced. All else being equal, where do you think a teacher would prefer to work, in a place where he pays 15% of his own health care or in a place where he pays 20%? What you'll end up with are the teachers who can't find a job anywhere else.
Its all for the children right? So lets get it done.
Speaking as a Resident of Tennessee , that is exactly the kind of teachers we want , we will send the Union clowns Ca or NJ to further bog down your great Progressive states .
Hows those loan request coming ?