tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772207203831744995.post2831958018275441336..comments2023-08-10T08:32:28.650-04:00Comments on The Carlson Salon: Where-Oh-Where Did the Working Class Go?Meganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01005371358407418741noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772207203831744995.post-30658601485748570342020-10-08T18:31:47.335-04:002020-10-08T18:31:47.335-04:00Can I get your number?Can I get your number?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06128593410540921340noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4772207203831744995.post-35570468313501878762012-06-13T17:11:40.383-04:002012-06-13T17:11:40.383-04:00The unions have become their own elite, and it'...The unions have become their own elite, and it's hurting them. The only industries where they retain a strong hold are in government and in government bailed-out industries like car manufacturing and construction (to a lesser degree in both bailout support and unionization). If there's a pattern there, I think it's one of unsustainability. Along with bankers, unions have come to represent an oppressive, parasitic class to a lot of people.<br /><br />The CTU just voted to authorize a strike (by >90% of tallied votes) if negotiations with CPS are unsuccessful. The current CTU demand is a 30% raise (that's right!) in response to CPS' request for a 7-hour elementary school day and 7.5-hour high school day. These increases would increase teachers' in-school time by 85 minutes and 39 minutes, respectively. Anyway, CTU contends that this warrants a 30% raise.<br /><br />The CTU seems to be blind to the fact that threatening to strike over such a ridiculous demand is extremely angering to most people. This is exacerbated by the fact that the median CPS teacher salary is $74,277.97. That excludes part time, vacant positions, 1.2FTE, and undefined FTE level teachers. 1.2FTE and undefined FTE salaries are over $100,000 by the way. (I calculated this myself using the numbers available here: http://www.cps.edu/About_CPS/Financial_information/Pages/EmployeePositionFiles.aspx )<br /><br />Anyway, a 30% raise would set the CPS median salary at over $96,000/year while most people in Chicago make less than $60,000/year, and they have worse benefits. Threatening to strike while the city is broke, unemployment is high, and most people have seen pay cuts is not winning the CTU any favors with the rest of us.<br /><br />As far as the unions themselves go, the corruption you mentioned in places like Chicago just contributes to people's dislike of the unions. There are multiple former teachers or city workers (and politicians, not that they're unionized) who are drawing pensions in the hundreds of thousands per year. Many of those people also served as union officials and used extremely high union pay to spike their teacher pension (or wherever they worked). On top of this, there are a lot of stories of union officials raiding and abusing their own constituents' pension funds. To many people on the outside, myself included, this sort of behavior is unacceptable.<br /><br />In the end, it does still come down to class to some degree. It's just that the unions are now seen as part of the oppressive class.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05467266315906788666noreply@blogger.com