The tale of how Chicago’s teachers union beat the Chicago School District, and got their way, is inspiring … if you belong to a union, if you don’t care about costs, if you don’t want to improve the quality of education.
And if you define “inspirational” as inspiring copycats.
That’s happened already, and may break out big time. Illinois’s Evergreen Park District (#124) is now on strike. Lake Forest High School District (#115) teachers recently concluded a strike, with a tentative agreement allegedly being finalized as I type. At least two other district teachers’ unions have declared strikes, and contract negotiations have stalled elsewhere. Add to that, AFSCME bigwigs wrote their 40,000 members that “direct action at the work site” might be necessary. I’m hoping that’s a work stoppage, and not sabotage. (“Direct action” sounds ominous, doesn’t it?)
Paul Kersey, writing on the Illinois Policy Institute website, opines that it “would be unfortunate if union officials chose to shut down key government services at a time when so many Illinoisans are struggling economically, but unfortunately it seems that the results of the Chicago Teachers Union strike may have encouraged many of them to do just that.”
Unions arose in the 19th century as a way to deal with poor working conditions, and, over time, the idea of a closed shop took hold with the specific program of excluding competitive workers. That made it easier to negotiate for higher wages, etc.
While private sector unions fought “evil businessmen” — that’s what I read in school — public employee unions fight … taxpayers. I always wonder how taxpayers feel, being dragooned into the role of “evil” skinflint.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.