In a message dated 8/11/2004 4:51:53 PM Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< Fine, if the responders to my challenges want to talk unions, then let's do it: the unions in government need to go because the voters need to have a more direct control over how their employees get paid. Remember, it's different from the private sector, because no one is making big money in government--almost everything government does loses money. >> No one in gov't is making big money? What about six figure salaries for Minneapolis Public School principals? Perhaps we should have a local referendum that replaces the cap on the supt. salary and cuts the salaries for MPS mid-to-upper management jobs. I am for labor unions, in both the private and public sector, and at least one working class party. Since late 1960s we have seen steady productivity gains and a fairly steady decline in wage rates, adjusting for higher living costs and taxes. We shouldn't ordinary wage earners be organized to get a piece of the action, and to limit the discretion of supervisors in the public and private sections to engage in favoritism, nepotism, etc. In my opinion, one of the reasons that the Minneapolis Public Schools is going to hell in a hand basket is that the public employee unions, especially the teachers union, are not doing enough to keep the administration in check with respect to layoffs and reassignments. Overall the teachers are going to be a lot less effective at teaching in the coming year than they were last year because so many were assigned to new jobs. Not only are you unnecessarily moving individuals out of jobs they know how to do and into jobs they will have to learn how to do, the district is breaking up teams of teachers that will have to be rebuilt. The district doesn't fire many of its worst teachers because it doesn't have the mechanisms in place to properly identify and correct performance deficiencies. The district is asking for more discretion to terminate the contracts of teachers. We have just seen the administration go out of its way to "realign" higher paid elementary teachers out of their jobs. And the administration is advising those teachers to dump the licenses they need for their new positions, which in most cases will put an end to their employment with the district. The district is not obliged to find a job for a teacher who fails to keep their license current (the one that is needed for the job to which they are assigned). And the district is not required to bump anyone from their job, even probationary teachers, in order to create a job opening for teachers who dump the license they need for their current assignment. The district merely has to offer a teacher the opportunity to bid for open teaching positions. However, if the district is accurate in forecasting a further decline in enrollment over the next few years, there will not be many teaching jobs coming open. -Doug Mann, King Field www.educationright.com REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
