When is it okay to strike?

I want to start with the fact that I come from a family of teachers and am surrounded by MANY friends and acquaintances who are teachers.   I fully respect the jobs that teachers do, and acknowledge the fact that they are many times under-appreciated.


With that being said, I don't always agree with the stance teachers unions - and many unions for that matter - take.   But now that I said that, I ask you to hear me out, because I am bound to surprise you in the end.

I think many teachers and their unions need to recognize that much of the workers in America are not unionized, we don't get to just demand what we want and strike (or picket if you are in a school district that is not allowed to strike) to help fight our cause.    For those of us who are lucky to have decent jobs, we still get underpaid, and pay a boatload of money to have health insurance.   For many others, they are drastically underpaid and don't even get offered health insurance.  

I recognize as teachers that although school hours are 9-3 (or whatever they may be), many of you still work more than that so you can grade papers, complete lesson plans, etc.   But I also recognize that many of you get paid more to do after-school activities.    I work 8-5 on a good day, many times my hours average out to more like 50 hours a week - and I don't get any overtime or comp time.

You get breaks throughout the year that add up to more vacation time than I can think of - and I'm not including summer break in that at all.   Im talking about your winter break, your spring break, all the holidays schools acknowledge that most businesses don't, etc. 

Then you talk about summer break, where you get two months off.    Or if you want to teach in the summer, you get paid good money to teach one of those months - typically for just a half day - and still get the other month off.

Many teachers get paid more than I do once they've been doing it for a few years because automatic raises kick in.   And then if you go out to some of the suburban schools - those teachers can reach up to six figures.   Back in 2000, my match teacher was in the six figures.

In the 5 years that Ive been at my company, I have endured one year with a pay cut (that we haven't and won't get back) and 2 years without any raises whatsoever.   And the year that raises did kick in I got a promotion with a measly 3% raise (from a salary that was less than I started at).    I get 2 weeks vacation and 8 paid holidays.    I spend at least a quarter of my weekends working and don't get anything for those extra hours.   If I want to take a day off after a long, enduring work trip - I have to use a vacation day.

With all that being said, teachers are the ones who educate our kids (when the government and their "No Child Left Behind" acts don't interfere) and they do deserve certain (limited) dalliances/benefits that some of us others might not get. 

Image taken from 6ABC-WPVI website

There are some teachers unions out there that I have a lot of respect for, because they do recognize the concept of finding a middle ground.   There was the one a couple years back - I believe in West Chester, PA - that took a paycut to save teachers jobs.    But specifically, the one that spawned this blog entry that I have respect for is Neshaminy Federation of Teachers in Bucks County, PA. 

They have been operating on an expired contract for 4 years and during that time, had never gone on strike.    Just this week, they decided to finally go on strike because the Neshaminy School Board wasn't working with them.   And you know what the boards reaction to that was?   We aren't going to negotiate with you while on strike.

Even if you don't agree with the teachers union, refusing to negotiate with them isn't the way to go - you are just fueling the fire.   That's just like the republicans in the House who refused to pass a short term extension of the tax credit because they wanted to pass the bill they had in mind (that would have continued to hurt our economy as the republicans have already done for so long).

I don't know everything that the teachers union wants and the opposing views of the school board - but I know that we are slowly working our way out of the depression the Bush administration and his republican buddies helped put us in, and with that, its time to work out a new contract that provides some raises to those teachers who have waited patiently these past 4 years.    I do agree that compromise needs to happen on both sides, but I also feel that you can't go from 0 to 60 in 1 second, everything needs to come in time and small increments.    But the only way to get to a resolution is for the school board to get back to the table.


Please Note: These are solely my own opinions - you take the good with the bad.   I have absolutely no relationship with anyone on the board of the NFT Union, nor am I related to anyone within the NFT Union - although, as I mentioned I know many teachers, including at least one in this school district.  Additionally, I am a taxpayer in this school district, and recognize that our taxes could rise with a negotiated contract, and accept that change as it comes with being a homeowner.

Israel

For the few (if any) readers out there who don't know - I'm Jewish.   I'm quite proud of my religion and the history of my people.   I had the opportunity to visit Israel the summer of '99 and it was awesome!   I can't wait for the opportunity to go back again, but this time take my husband, who has not seen the beauty the Jewish state has to offer.   

I used to always say that if I had the physical abilities to serve in the military - I would have done it for Israel.   (When 9/11 came, my view was swayed slightly - but it makes no difference, because I'm not physically able due to asthma, herniated discs and piss poor eyesight/eye issues).

For those of you living in the deep depths of oblivion and don't pay attention to any sort of news - it has been expected that Palestine would ask the UN for recognition of statehood.   The thought being that maybe the US could work a border deal out with them.   They never worked a deal out and Palestine did ask for recognition.   And this article pretty much sums up my whole reasoning on why it should not be granted.

Don't get me wrong - the Jewish people have their own recognized country, and I would be willing to recognize Palestine with fair borders/land being offered given that a) peace comes with it and Israel isn't in a constant state of war and b)its agreed that those are the borders - done, end of story, nothing else, zip, zero, zilch.   But as you can see - there are still too many people (with too many guns and too much violence) to allow that occur. 

I know there will be a lot of people out there who might not agree with this post - and I respect your right to have your own opinion - but this is my blog, so I get to say this: I just don't respect your opinion.

Wishing all Jews all over the world, and especially in the Jewish State, a L'Shana Tova.   And stay safe!

Random Thoughts

Just some random thoughts that are going through my mind that I want to share with everyone:

Local (and not so local) Politics
I just read an article about Adam Taliaferro being selected to run for a Gloucester County Freeholder.   For those who don't know the story of Adam, just google his name and you will find it, but the short of it is he played football for Penn State, and as a freshman he suffered a life threatening injury that was supposed to leave him paralyzed.   He fought the battle and the long odds, and eventually walked again, graduated from Penn State, and went on to go to law school and become a lawyer.   He was an inspiration around PA and NJ, and although I never had any interest in Penn State, or paid attention to their football team, I always loved to read updates about him.   

Anyways, I obviously can't vote for him, since I don't live in that county, better yet that state, but for those few people I know who do - I think you should vote for him, not just because he is a democrat and therefore stands for most of the ideals I believe in, but also because he truly has the strength and willpower to push for what he believes.   Additionally, in the story, the leader of the local republican committee said "that while he respected 'the challenges [Taliaferro] has overcome,' he thinks he is on the ticket to wow the public with his personal story and relative youth, rather than experience in government".   Im sorry - but what was Jon Runyan on the Republican ticket for and why did he win a seat as a US Congressman?!?!?   It was for a whole lot less than what you just said.   He was on the ticket AND won because of his time and success with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Hurricane Irene
Im glad that everyone survived it well, and I hope you all have your power back.   Those of us in the Needleman Levittown house survived quite well.   We watched some movies that I bought for $1.99 from Blockbuster (more in the post about that), baked cookies and brownies (maybe a future post), cooked a Sunday night dinner in the crock pot, and I got my eye scratched up by Charger.   And never lost power (knock on wood for future storms), but were quite prepared with a flashlight with extra batteries, a lantern, glow sticks, a battery operated radio with extra batteries and plenty of reading material and shelf-stable snacks.

Movies
Along with many of my other bad, but harmless, addictions - I have an addiction to buying movies.   If you live nearby and ever need free rentals, I am OCD and actually have an excel listing of my DVDs (which I now need to update), which probably is over 200 by now.   Anyways, I continued that addiction at Blockbuster on Saturday in preparing for Hurricane Irene.  I was hoping they would have a 5 for $20 deal on their previously viewed movies, of which they did - but I couldn't find 5 movies I had interest in spending $4 each on.   On the other hand, they also had a $1.99 table, and there were a bunch that looked interesting enough to spend two bucks on.   We ended up watching two of them.  

The first, An Education, I had NEVER heard of - but would definitely recommend.  It was set in the 60's in England, and was about a schoolgirl who was going to ruin her chances at Cambridge if she continued on with her "love affair".   Im not good at giving film reviews, so Ill just leave it at that so I don't give too much away, but it was surprisingly good and kept both Adam and my interest throughout.

The second, Brooklyn's Finest, I had heard of, and would not recommend.   After 2 minutes I was already having trouble following, and by ten minutes Adam had already fell asleep (and it was a hard movie to actually sleep through).   It was all over the place, and the ending was pretty pathetic.   They tried to do the Crash thing where all the story lines that were separated throughout the movie came together in the end.   It worked great for Crash, its worked okay in a couple other movies, but overall - it doesn't work well anymore, and I'm sick of seeing screenwriters trying to sell it again.   But that wasn't the only reason it was bad - it was just bad - and I have an eclectic sense of what I like, which does include action movies, but this will not fall into the like pile.

Weight Loss
I think my sister and I are gonna join Weight Watchers again.   I had GREAT success with it back in 2003 when I lost 50 lbs - and Ive kept it all off.   I lost a bit more after I stopped WW, but unfortunately, have put most of that on since my wedding, and I want to take that back off, plus some more to get down to 150.    Let me know if you are interested in going to meetings with us, or if you just want to follow along together via email, text message, phone, etc if you don't live in the area.

Im sure there are other random thoughts, but I can't remember them, so Im just gonna go to bed now.

uh-oh, Im gonna go there...

"There" is that topic that can be a huge issue.   Its politics.   Well really, Im gonna talk about the economy but my politics clearly play a role in it.   So for those who don't know me that well - Im a democrat (although I do have a small number of views that lean a BIT to the center/right)

Unfortunately, with Adams job situation, the economy has hit us close to home.   I wish the solution was simple and something that everyone agreed on - but Im realistic and know thats not the case.  It is going to take a while to get out of the recession that our previous president Bozo Bush got us into.   I don't care what everyone says about us being out of the recession - we aren't.    We are spending money more and jobs are SLOWLY picking up, but we are just slowly climbing out, but we aren't there yet.

What really got me going on this topic is the recent agreement that was signed last week so we would avoid a debt crisis.   The thing is that the democrats were pretty much backed into a corner and had no choice but to agree to it - otherwise it would be their fault.  And I agree that both sides do need to make concessions - and even though I don't feel that both sides made concessions, I do think that it was the right call to vote on what was decided, because we needed something.

I do agree that the gov't needs to cut its spending, and both sides need to make concessions on those cuts.   But keep in mind that those cuts WILL result in additional job cuts.   What I feel REALLY strongly about is the tax situation.   I'm sorry - but removing a tax cut does not make it a tax hike,   It means that the temporary cut that was instituted (by previously mentioned Bozo Bush) is no longer available.   And lets be honest - the really rich getting taxed appropriately isn't going to cause any job losses - it will do quite the opposite, because it will bring much needed money into our government and will go right back into the economy.   And really - why do the really rich deserve tax cuts that you and I don't deserve - even though we struggle to survive?

Well - I just needed to rant about that, so there is my current political rant - more to come in the future - including the rants that some might think i lean the other way on.