Public Service Unions Operate Like Plantations

No wonder Obama loves public service unions. These unions offer nothing of service to the public, and their management runs them like plantation owners. They take money from their slaves, with no repercussions.

According to a study referenced in the Free Beacon, fewer than 600 of Pennsylvania’s 105,000 teachers have ever had the opportunity to vote in a union election.

It must be nice to be able to force people into the teachers’ union without them having ANY say about it. That’s certainly how we seem to get most of our legislation under Obama, as we did with ObamaCare. So what you don’t want it, you will get it regardless.

As as the Free Beacon goes on to report,

The Commonwealth Foundation, a state free market think tank, found that less than one percent of educators were teaching at the time when their school district unionized. Once a union is elected, it retains the right to represent workers unless an attempt is made to decertify the unit. More than 99 percent of teachers have inherited their union rather than actively voted for them, according to an analysis of about 430 school districts.

That’s right, teachers have “inherited” a system that takes their money without them ever having voted on it.

“Imagine the backlash if we were to end regular political elections and tell Americans the party in power now would stay in power for the next four decades,” he said in a release. “The outcry would be deafening. Why are public sector labor unions allowed to ignore this basic principle of democracy?”

I recall when Christie discussed the teachers’ union in New Jersey, and he said that you pay 100 percent if you want to be in the union and 75 percent if you want out. Can you imagine any private-sector organization trying that type of Gestapo tactic, and staying out of jail.

This problem has existed for decades and it was intentional. The report noted that only 17 of the 24,000 teachers working in the state’s 20 largest school districts have ever voted in a certification election. So in the case of Philadelphia, teachers voted to join the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers more than 50 years ago and no election has been held since. Only two Pittsburgh educators were employed by the school district when it voted to join the union in 1973.

How would you like to get a job and know that a portion of your check is going to something you don’t necessarily want. Oh wait, we already do that with Social Security.

Anyway, the Pennsylvania state Senate is considering a bill that would allow for regular re-certification elections “no less than every four years” or when collective bargaining agreements expire. That’s the least they can do. Unions should be STRICTLY voluntary, and protection from unions strictly enforced.

Matthew Brouillette, president and CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation and former history teacher, said that teachers in the state should be given the opportunity to affirm their representation in regular re-certification elections. More than 50 percent of public sector workers in the state are unionized, compared to just 12.7 percent of private sector workers, according to the report.

“Perpetual union representation without elections flies in the face of democracy and workers’ rights,” Brouillette said in the release. “Just as Americans are guaranteed the right regularly to go to the polls and elect their representatives, workers should be guaranteed the right to re-elect their union at least every four years. It’s time to end government unions’ exemption from democracy and give public employees the opportunity to choose their workplace representation.”

Democrats know that without forced union representation, most teachers would opt out, preferring a merit-based system.

For the record, you can directly tie the demise of the American education system to the formation of public service teachers’ unions.

 

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