Union Top Lawyer Says "It's Not About The Kids"

I find it fascinating that you give the quote where he said: "These are the goals that guide the work we do." That the union must be guided by the closing acheivement gaps, reducing drop out rates and improving teacher quality, etc. It is indeed about the kids... Yet, as an attorney, this man is concerned about more than just the kids... What do you expect of an attorney? For him, the whole thing is about the law... He knows that when you attack collective bargaining, due process and employee rights you make it impossible for the teachers to do their jobs let alone to do them well. Collective bargaining deals with lots of issues like class size (trying to prevent overcrowding in the classroom) and trying to make sure that there are enough chairs, books and other materials for the students. Collective bargaining gives the children a voice when the governors and others seek to take away more and more funds from the classrooms... It is not just about wages and pensions for the teachers. It also deals with subjects like lesson planning, etc. which are vital to the educational process. Due process should not be gotten rid of... Do you even understand what it is? http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Due+Process+of+Law defines it as: "A fundamental, constitutional guarantee that all legal proceedings will be fair and that one will be given notice of the proceedings and an opportunity to be heard before the government acts to take away one's life, liberty, or property. Also, a constitutional guarantee that a law shall not be unreasonable, Arbitrary, or capricious." Do you really want to dispense with it for teachers? Should you want to dispense with due process for anyone? You might as well strip yourself of your own constitutional rights. Of course the rights to due process are important to an attorney. That makes sense. It is not about power or dues. It is about simple fairness. How about his valuing employee rights... Well, again, of course he does. He is an attorney for the union... The union is an association of employees who do have rights... And thank God that we have had labor unions in this Country as without them we who work, even people like myself who do not belong to a union, would not have rights either. Laws against forced child labor, laws protecting workers against injury in the workplace, laws that provide for lunch breaks and for other breaks in the work day, laws that forbid exploitation of workers, etc. were all enacted because of the efforts of labor unions. You can be sure that were it up to the corporations no one who works in any country would have any rights. It is always the labor unions who have protected employee rights first and then those of us who do not belong to labor unions who have gotten them next and often taken them for granted. What the attorney said made perfect sense given who he is. He is concerned about the law most. This concern for the law does not negate his belief that the children are important but for him, as union attorney, his role and function and his dharma are to act first in accord with his role and function and second to act for the childrn. If a teacher who happened to be a union member spoke, she would have stressed the importance of the students and would have spoken about the need for the law to be upheld after that... It is frankly logical to think this would be the case. It seems to me that you took this one attorney's statements out of context and tried to paint a bad picture of all union workers with it... You responded to what he said out of your bias against unions.

This is a miss quote from a video that another member of mylot tried to blow up to mean something different he is referring to what gives the NEA power which is it millions of Members. That is what gives any Union its power is the members that it has the more members it has the more power it has. The Union needs to be able to Collectively Bargain on the Behalf of its workers and in many cases the workers need a Union to be their to support them. He is right the lose of rights is a huge price to pay our country as a whole is paying for this price. The Bill of Rights has been stripped away slowly by the acts of the Federal Government. So of course Unions are defending their rights which is to collectively bargain and well Wisconsin and other States thinking of doing the same thing better tread carefully as if the Private Unions get involved you will see a great Depression if the Millions of workers in some of the most vital industries stop working. The Economy of this nation would tank so quickly you would see the Stock Market hit a low unseen in history. This whole mess could get ugly. But like I said in that post by that user on here. Nice try but you shouldn't link to a video if you are going to miss represent what the subject manner of the Video is or miss represent the Context of which you are quoting. I mean really he is talking of what gives the Union power which it should be that much surprise that it is the Members of the Union that give it power and not the acts for which the Union or its members do. He was saying that the Creative Ideas and the Care for the Children is not what gives NEA power it is the millions of members paying their dues that gives NEA power.

Did I see Chicago in that address anywhere? Of course Unions are all about money and power. They are a political organization and have nothing to do with anything else. Anyone Ostrichy enough to think anything else must be an American. Americans are so dense and have their heads stuck so deep in the sand that they have dirt in their navels. I am really sick of all of this. Just fire the bunch of them. There are plenty of unemployed teachers who would be glad for the work. And there are plenty of would be politicians who would be glad to step in for the schmucks who are hiding from their political duties because they did not get their way.

Does this really shock anyone? Who really believed all those teachers at the protests screaming "it's for the kids". Not many. What the union seems to forget is this....they are working for a company. Those teachers are state employees. They get paid with tax dollars. This is not a company that makes profits. Which means when the union comes in making demands...they are really making "demands" on the tax payers. Not CEOs. Not the government. Us average citizens that pay our taxes. Also all this "power" that the unions have with state employees means THEY have more power than the voter when it comes to influencing our elected officials (do what we say or we strike). Does that seem "right" or "fair" for the unions to be able to come between voters and their government? Think about it...when those teachers went on strike....who were they protesting? The voters of that state. You employ them with your tax dollars. State employees work for the people of that state. Same with federal employees. Unions have their place....but NOT in with government workers who are paid off of tax dollars.

SO...that's what its all about! The union members on the picket line chanting "it's for the kids" must not have been at the annual meeting. If you say a lie enough it becomes the truth. That's why, IMO the members can get up there and chant that it's for the kids. Because they've been lied to by their union. I wonder if any of them were to read this, if it would matter to them. If their eyes would open, or if they'd stumble away and continue believing the lies told to them?

It proves what I've been saying all along about the unions, but I'm really surprised he had the guts to actually come right out and say it. I also like the way he said, "...3.2 million people who are willing to pay us..." WILLING??? I'd bet most of those 3.2 million pay them only because they are forced to pay them. It's either that or they don't work. If it's a closed shop, the workers don't have any choice when it comes to paying union dues. They pay or else. THAT'S the only reason unions have so much power and money.

Well anyone with half a brain already knew that, but it's nice to see some blunt honesty from this guy. Unions don't care about kids, grades, budgets, government, or deficits. They care about money, money for themselves that is. The best way for them to get that money is to make sure the teachers get good pay and benefits. If it means striking, shutting down schools, and making kids and parents suffer, so be it. All they care about is getting the most they can for the teachers so they can keep collecting dues. Anyone who says this crap going on with democrats in Wisconsin and Indiana is about the kids is lying through their teeth. The kids are best served when teachers do their jobs, not when they go on strike because they want free health insurance and pensions.