BM> From the November 20 1996 Newsletter of the Virginia Beach (Virginia)
BM> Education Association
BM> (1) VBEA Opposes Adding More Teaching Days to 97-98 Calendar
BM> As the calendar committee began the process of creating the 97-98
BM> calendar, the tone was set by the declaration that the school board
BM> would not approve a calendar with less than 182 teaching days.  Other
BM> committee members agreed that the minimum number of school days was
BM> not enough for for the children of Virginia Beach.  To complicate
BM> matters, some of the committee members have argued that it is not
BM> necessary to pay teachers full pay for any additional days they would
BM> be required to work.
    Welcome to the modern workforce that most employees of large employers 
work in.
    GM just went through a bitter strike over mandatory (though paid) 
overtime it was using as a strategy for cutting fringe-benefit costs.  
"Downsizing" firms generally end up with the fewer remaining workers each 
doing a greater amount of work.
    Teachers, like other American workers, need strong unions to hold their 
own in today's job market.  That means unions obsessed with pay and working 
conditions issues, not unions that are obsessed with "outside" political 
issues like abortion and gay rights.
BM> In one quick administrative stroke, superintendent (Timothy) Jenney
BM> has overturned years of tradition for Virginia Beach school employees
BM> by denying Meet and Confer rights for any group of employees that 
BM> does
BM> not have 50% plus one membership in the organization that represents
BM> them.  This new policy, scheduled to be implemented next school year,
BM> means that without substantial increases in membership, Teacher
BM> Assistants, Custodians, Interpreters, Psychologists, Social Workers
BM> and Visiting Teachers will not be represented at the Meet and Confer
    Again, you need a strong union interested in _workplace_ issues.
BM> ++Meet and Confer is the same thing as union negotiations in an 
BM> otherwise
BM> normal state without the clout of a union++
BM> ++Virginia is a "right to work" state.  Public employees are
BM> prohibited by statute from engaging in strikes or work slow downs++
    Pennsylvania allows collective bargaining and strikes by teachers in 
public schools, due to union political clout there.
    Think how much better-off Virginia teachers would be if their union had 
concentrated on pay/workplace issues instead of extraneous outside politics.
--- Simplex BBS (v1.07.00Beta [DOS])
---------------