Rarely do voters in any state get to confront the arrogance and greed of public employee unions at the ballot box.
When taxpayers get that chance, as in Wisconsin (the birthplace of government worker unions), they vote to defeat government of, by and for the staff and re-institute government of, by and for the people.
Such an opportunity is now before the voters of Ohio.
Issue 2 on the Nov. 8 ballot is a referendum by WeAreOhio.com of Senate Bill 5, which was championed by Ohio's new Republican governor, John Kasich, and passed last March by the new Republican majority in the Ohio Legislature.
S.B. 5 removes pension and health issues from collective bargaining while retaining collective bargaining rights for wages and hours for about 400,000 government workers in Ohio.
S.B. 5 prohibits public worker strikes, prohibits government unions from charging "fair share" dues to employees who opt out of union membership, and authorizes increases in government employee contributions (up to 15 percent) for health insurance and pensions.
A "yes" vote will keep S.B. 5, and a "no" vote will repeal it.
A similar reform effort in Wisconsin resulted in a nationally televised confrontation but has resulted in "unexpectedly" balanced budgets in school districts and city governments. School teachers have not been fired, cops are on the beat, firefighters at the ready.
Wisconsin has fallen out of the national media because Gov. Scott Walker and the Republicans were right and the unions were wrong. Reform has saved teacher jobs that were in jeopardy because of falling tax revenues.
Showing posts with label teachers group. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teachers group. Show all posts
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Food for Thought - Something to Digest
by Ann-Marie Murrell
My husband had a business trip in the Palm Springs area so we decided to make a mini-vacation out of it. Thanks to an amazing Groupon deal we stayed at one of the nicest places we’ve ever been to in our lives: The La Quinta Resort and Spa, a Waldorf Astoria Resort. All the rooms are exquisite with gigantic Jacuzzi bathtubs in every room, 41 exquisite swimming pools and 53 Jacuzzi’s scattered throughout the lush, floral-covered grounds.
We got there on a Thursday and were in Heaven. The resort was virtually empty so we had entire swimming pools all to ourselves all day. We went from pool to pool like little kids, staring at the mountains and palm trees surrounding us. I seriously wanted to cry from happiness.
I need to remind my readers—this is not the type of place we would ever normally be able to afford to stay. We got it through a combination of Groupon, work trip (aka write-off) and making a deal with each other to only eat bread and water the rest of the month.
Still, we decided we just had to stay another night—Groupon or not—and called the front desk. Immediately we were told us the resort was booked the entire weekend because of a huge LA Unified teacher’s conference. (Cue sound of spa music screeching to a halt)
TEACHER’S CONFERENCE? My mother was a public school teacher for over 44 years and I couldn’t imagine her—much less her school district– being able to afford such swanky digs for a weekend conference, especially here in broke, almost bankrupt Los Angeles! How could those poor, hard-working LA teachers afford to stay at the ultra-expensive, ultra-luxurious La Quinta Spa and Resort of all places? Why aren’t they having their conference in a more affordable place?
Oh yeah—all the eucalyptus leaves must have caused me to temporarily forgot where I lived. Strike yet another win for the real owners of the entire state of California: Unions.
As we were (sadly) checking out, there they were—lots of angry looking teacher-types arriving with their bags and ID tags around their necks. Then we saw the signs welcoming them to the United Teachers of Los Angeles 2011 Leadership Conference.
My husband had a business trip in the Palm Springs area so we decided to make a mini-vacation out of it. Thanks to an amazing Groupon deal we stayed at one of the nicest places we’ve ever been to in our lives: The La Quinta Resort and Spa, a Waldorf Astoria Resort. All the rooms are exquisite with gigantic Jacuzzi bathtubs in every room, 41 exquisite swimming pools and 53 Jacuzzi’s scattered throughout the lush, floral-covered grounds.
We got there on a Thursday and were in Heaven. The resort was virtually empty so we had entire swimming pools all to ourselves all day. We went from pool to pool like little kids, staring at the mountains and palm trees surrounding us. I seriously wanted to cry from happiness.
I need to remind my readers—this is not the type of place we would ever normally be able to afford to stay. We got it through a combination of Groupon, work trip (aka write-off) and making a deal with each other to only eat bread and water the rest of the month.
Still, we decided we just had to stay another night—Groupon or not—and called the front desk. Immediately we were told us the resort was booked the entire weekend because of a huge LA Unified teacher’s conference. (Cue sound of spa music screeching to a halt)
TEACHER’S CONFERENCE? My mother was a public school teacher for over 44 years and I couldn’t imagine her—much less her school district– being able to afford such swanky digs for a weekend conference, especially here in broke, almost bankrupt Los Angeles! How could those poor, hard-working LA teachers afford to stay at the ultra-expensive, ultra-luxurious La Quinta Spa and Resort of all places? Why aren’t they having their conference in a more affordable place?
Oh yeah—all the eucalyptus leaves must have caused me to temporarily forgot where I lived. Strike yet another win for the real owners of the entire state of California: Unions.
As we were (sadly) checking out, there they were—lots of angry looking teacher-types arriving with their bags and ID tags around their necks. Then we saw the signs welcoming them to the United Teachers of Los Angeles 2011 Leadership Conference.
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