Welcome to Illinois
Share this article
ADVERTISEMENT
(comments below)
Comments
Comments
109 responses to “Welcome to Illinois”
-
Those anti union laws need to be repealed.
-
Brother James,
“threatening to refuse to work”. Dude, be fair, teachers did no such thing.
Further, in reviewing Code of Va, looks like the ‘old-white-dude disease’ strikes again – can’t wait till the next gen/s are running things and we can, once and for all, eradicate the legacy problems in VA of misogyny/racism/Lost Cause bs, etc.
“HIS employing agency or any other governmental agency, strikes or willfully refuses to perform the duties of HIS employment, shall, by such action, be deemed to have terminated HIS employment…”.
Looks like the ladies can strike! Hahaa
-
Call the Washington Post, which did the interviews and wrote the story.
From the Washington Post, “Teachers in Fairfax revolt against fall plans, refusing to teach in-person,” June 26, 2020:
“A day after one of the nation’s largest school systems announced its proposal for fall learning, teachers within Fairfax County Public Schools rose in revolt and refused to teach in-person, as the (previously announced by the school board) plan demands, until officials revise their strategy.”
It worked.
-
Jim – surely you don’t believe that lying liberal rag do you?
Everyone and their dog knows they lie every time they open their mouth – seen that said here almost daily, in fact..
why do ya’ll still read WaPo in the first place if you think they are lying sacks of dog-doo?
-
Jim, be fair, you said “refuse to work”. They did no such thing.
Just in case, somehow, you’re missing my point, teaching virtually IS working. It’s also called the future for OVER half of the planet’s workforce. The rest will be fighting over jobs with robots. We are NOT paying attention to the things that REALLY matter in this country, but that’s a much longer blog post…
-
Splitting hairs. The Superintendent announced a hybrid plan where half the students would be in class for two days and the other half for two different days. The teachers, as described by the Post, did refuse to teach under the protocol publicly announced by the Superintendent.
Teaching virtually is work. However, it is widely seen (as practiced in Fairfax County) as materially less effective for in-class education for K-12 students than in-person education.
-
Granted DJ, but it [teaching virtually] keeps people alive until, if, and/or when, we have a government who can lead us to a safe/safer future. We’re nowhere close yet.
Maybe now, with more than 24 hours notice, teachers will be able to put together a better experience for the/our new reality – virtual educations (not Europe’s, but, well, see above para.). Appreciate the comment.
-
-
-
-
Yeah, the next gen gonna’ fix it alright. They’re gonna’ fix it just like the preceeding generations tried to fix things, and get it good and hard in the process
Atleast GenX knew it was screwed
-
Code of Virginia
§ 1-216. Gender.
A word used in the masculine includes the feminine and neuter.Hahaa!
-
-
If it were only Fairfax, Jim might have a point. The reality is that many school systems – unions or not – are doing what Fairfax is doing.
One can call it a revolt or whatever… but in the age of the internet – telling teachers they cannot collaborate and effectively act as a group – is not dealing with the realities. In this day and age – you really don’t need an “official” union to associate as a group and take actions as a group.
And this gets back to being a Republican in Virginia. This is how you’d deal with teachers and still expect to get elected or stay elected?
Republicans in Virginia have to have a different mindset if they expect to be a viable party.
-
What they did is illegal and will still be illegal when the new laws go into effect in 2021.
The teacher’s unions are welcome to present their views. Under the current and future (2021) laws of Virginia, they are not welcome to threaten a job action – refusing to work – if they do not get their way.
Don’t you agree, Larry?
Ignoring, as you do, they laws of Virginia, which you see as unrealistic, you completely ignore the basic point that public employee unions have a completely unfair advantage over the public when they “negotiate” with elected officials that they have bought on the open market.
-
Jim – I think in the internet era – traditional unions are an anachronism.
In the age of social media “meetups” – teachers can and do “organize” and then they act as individuals – all doing the same thing…
If they get together on social media (and they do) and they all agree they’re not going to agree with the school proposal – how can you stop that?
You can’t stop it.
The “right-to-work” stuff has always been on the edge of being unconstitutional in my view.
-
Any public employee who in concert with two or more other employees to engages in work stoppages, strikes, etc. is “deemed to have terminated his employment…” In other words – he quits when he strickes.
§ 40.1-55. (Effective until May 1, 2021) Employee striking terminates, and becomes temporarily ineligible for, public employment.
Any employee of the Commonwealth, or of any county, city, town or other political subdivision thereof, or of any agency of any one of them, who, in concert with two or more other such employees, for the purpose of obstructing, impeding or suspending any activity or operation of his employing agency or any other governmental agency, strikes or willfully refuses to perform the duties of his employment shall, by such action, be deemed to have terminated his employment and shall thereafter be ineligible for employment in any position or capacity during the next twelve months by the Commonwealth, or any county, city, town or other political subdivision of the Commonwealth, or by any department or agency of any of them.Code 1950, § 40-65; 1970, c. 321.
§ 40.1-55. (Effective May 1, 2021) Employee striking terminates, and becomes temporarily ineligible for, public employment.
A. Any employee of the Commonwealth, or of any county, city, town or other political subdivision thereof, or of any agency of any one of them, who, in concert with two or more other such employees, for the purpose of obstructing, impeding or suspending any activity or operation of his employing agency or any other governmental agency, strikes or willfully refuses to perform the duties of his employment shall, by such action, be deemed to have terminated his employment and shall thereafter be ineligible for employment in any position or capacity during the next 12 months by the Commonwealth, or any county, city, town or other political subdivision of the Commonwealth, or by any department or agency of any of them.B. The provisions of subsection A shall apply to any employee of any county, city, or town or local school board without regard to any local ordinance or resolution adopted pursuant to § 40.1-57.2 by such county, city, or town or school board that authorizes its employees to engage in collective bargaining.
-
re: ” for the purpose of obstructing, impeding or suspending any activity or operation of his employing agency or any other governmental agency,”
would LOVE to see that play out in court with all the Fairfax teachers as defendants…
this is what the GOP would do , right?
-
Larry,
“this is what the GOP would do , right?”
1) I don’t have a clue what the GOP would do because I am not, and have never been a member of that party.
2) I DO know that since “the GOP” lacks the power to enforce the laws of Virginia your question makes no sense.
-
Geeze Wayne – what do you think the GOP does when they own the GA and the GOvernorship?
Will Virginians vote for that if they know how the GOP feels about issues like this?
See – there is a certain cause and effect here with voters and who gets elected…right?
-
-
You find traditional unions to be an anachronism. The actions of the Fairfax County teachers unions are illegal yet you don’t find that a problem because they themselves are anachronistic.
You clearly find our republican form of government as guaranteed in the Constitutions of Virginia and the United States to be anachronistic if the laws just passed by Democrats at every level of the state government are certified by you to be anachronistic.
You indicate you would rather be ruled by public employee social media apps (certainly not anachronistic unions) than by the laws of the Commonwealth passed by legislators that the unions have bought fair and square.
All kidding aside, I am utterly appalled.
-
oh no… I’M APPALLED!
You cannot keep teachers from “organizing” these days on social media… Do you know what a Facebook Group is or a group email?
If the school system OFFERs the choice of in-person or remote – that’s not “walking-out”.
right?
If the school system says ” we are operating normal school “in-person” and someone says “not me” -they are fired, right?
so, what’s the truth here? Is it REALLY a “union” ?
Did they directly bargain with the school system?
-
-
“The “right-to-work” stuff has always been on the edge of being unconstitutional in my view.”
In what way? Please be specific.
-
Because workers should have the right to organize and bargain for working conditions, training, and fair treatment, etc.
Unions that operate apprenticeship programs benefit workers and employers.
-
You said ” on the edge of being unconstitutional in my view.”
Tie your argument to the Constitution, please.
“Unfair” does not equal “unconstitutional”.
Now, it would be unconstitutional if workers were prevented from seeking employment elsewhere if they did not like their current job.
-
The ability to organize and bargain…as a group… would seem to be Constitutional – who says you cannot organize and strike?
-
Larry, the laws of the United States and of Virginia say that neither federal employees nor state and local government employees in Virginia can strike.
-
And Jim – that is sufficient to protect the public interest. On what basis would you oppose their right to organize and negotiate?
-
Because, as I pointed out in my post, Virginia by letting the Fairfax teachers unions successfully threaten a strike without legal consequences has signaled clearly that it will not enforce the no-strike law.
The state should permanently de-certify all three of those Fairfax unions from ever representing teachers in collective bargaining. Failing that, it is open season on the public purse and public policy.
-
… but, if don’t want to represented by your union, I don’t have the right to work?
Don’t give me the free-rider crapola, etiher! I didn’t ask for your little group to represent my interests. Compensation is between me and my employer.
-
-
How is right to work – where an employee has the right to join or not to join a union unconstitutional? As a young lawyer, I did some labor relations work in both Iowa and Nebraska, both right to work states. If people couldn’t join unions in Iowa and Nebraska, why would the Communications Workers of America been involved in the matters on which I worked? People made a knowing choice to join or not based on their views of unions and whether they thought collective bargaining was a good idea. I knew a guy who like collective bargaining but hated the Democratic Party. He didn’t join the union.
Now in Minnesota, I had to join the union or pay fulltime union dues to work at Montgomery Ward in high school and college even when I worked part-time or was laid off. Because I couldn’t afford to pay a $75 reinstatement fee, I had to stay a member when I was laid off and when I came back often received paychecks for $0, between Social Security and back union dues.
I hate labor unions with a passion.
-
Thanks, TMT. I was about to do the same as you to point out to the “Larrys on the blog” just what right to work is, and especially what it is not.
Too bad the law has always had the misleading moniker “right to work”.
-
I don’t hate or love unions – they are what they are. But I do believe that workers should have the right to organize and to negotiate for safety and fair treatment and I firmly believe that the anti-union types are also the ones who hire illegals precisely because they can mistreat them on wages and work rules.
There are some corrupt unions, yes , just like there are some corrupt mayors or corrupt cops –
Most of us deal with unionized people a lot – we just don’t realize it. If you fly – the pilots belong to a union. If you buy from Amazon – chances are good a union worker helped get that package to you.
The folks who make this all about “right-to-work” use that as proxy to oppose unions in general – like TMT does.
Workers should have the right to organize and negotiate with employers. It’s better for both in the longer run. It’s about the “freedom” of workers to do that.. this is an individual freedom issue.
-
-
-
-
So Larry, are you saying Democrats can only get elected because of their pandering and cash giveaways? Since when was it not job #1 for public servants to “serve the public”? Tell me why Virginia won’t become the next Illinois and please don’t try to say Illinois isn’t all that bad.
-
well – they get elected in a competition – right? Are you saying the GOP does not pander? 😉
We’re not about to become another Illinois… if I thought we were, I’d be on your side… 😉
-
Having lived in Chicago with two sons living there now and a wife who grew up in Chicago … we’re already another Illinois. A generally centrist state shifting hard to port as the metropolitan areas veer toward socialism. One party rule with a philosophy of pandering to government employees while raising taxes to the sky. There hasn’t been a Republican mayor of Chicago since 1931 and I doubt you’ll see another Republican governor anytime soon. The urbanites outgrew and outvoted the rural and small town people. Sound familiar? The Democrats constantly raised taxes. Sound familiar? And now, in the next stage … the Democrats pandered to the special interests in their base – especially unions and public sector employees. Do you see the parallel?
The net result? People leave, in droves.
-
I’ll take this ‘pandering’ over the pandering to Dominion by the racist Lost Cause’ers while D collects guaranteed forever-returns on the backs of ratepayers to destroy our planet.
Maybe there wouldn’t be “one party rule” if the Dead Party had had a better product. Party is history.
-
@Craig, do you read this blog?
-
-
-
Illinois isn’t all that bad because, unlike Virginia, it doesn’t have an economy that mostly depends on Federal spending.
-
I’m sorry to relate that two major credit ratings agencies, Standard and Poor’s Global Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service, in May dropped the credit outlook on Illinois’ BBB- credit rating to “negative” from “stable” on expectations that economic fallout from COVID-19 will strain state budgets.
Both currently rank Illinois bonds just one notch above non-investment grade debt, also known as “junk” status. The Prairie State has the lowest rating among states across all three agencies.
That is the result of the Democratic/public employee model of governance that Illinois has perfected. Illinois has over $130 billion in unfunded pension liabilities
-
Well, we don’t have to worry about any of that in Virginia, so long as the FedGov continues to print money.
-
-
-
-
Democrats in positions of power are just as duty-bound to enforce state law as are republicans in positions of power. Are you saying democrats would violate their oaths of office in order to pander to a labor organization?
-
NEVER! but do they pander? do bears do it in the woods?
How about the GOP? do they pander? see above.
-
-
Interesting perspective. Apparently you are the beneficiary of a new online law degree. Hopefully you learned more law in that process than Fairfax County’s children learned through the horribly flawed virtual teaching conducted this Spring.
-
-
I don’t suppose the Commonwealths Attorney in Fairfax would step up to enforce the law. Or was that one of those bought and paid for by George Soros? Wouldn’t want him to serve the people rather than his paymaster.
-
So, we miraculously go to Soros? Could that be anti-Semitic? Blame the international Jewish conspiracy?
-
You are slipping, Peter. Really. You are better than that comment.
-
So too with his comment about repealing so-called “anti-union” laws. All without any supporting facts.
-
you know, those laws they don’t enforce anymore, right?
and the GOP would promise to do if elected… which is why they don’t….
-
-
-
Those anti union laws do not need to be repealed.
-
The unions saved this country from communism by empowering the very people who would have benefited from communism in the 1930s and kept a popular Revolution in check.
So, what’s happening now?
You want to end the ANTIFA movements and such, you’ll stop trying to kill unions and strike a happy medium.
-
N_N – Please see the first comment in this thread, keeping in mind that by the rules of logic any gratuitous assertion can be just as gratuitously refuted.
I would have expected you, of all people, to understand why I posted that comment.
-
Wayne, sometimes you amaze me. Facetiousness like sarcasm requires a little less subtly.
-
Thank you. I sometimes forget.
-
-
just to warn – Crazy has taken on the job of Troll Police…
-
There is nothing trollish about these comments. Just good, clean. fun.
-
-
-
The unions that you are talking about are private sector, largely blue collar unions, which I strongly support.
Now that public employees unions are in charge of the union movement, it is not clear that the country will remain “saved from communism”.
-
Police unions? I might agree with you. But if you attempt to distinguish cops from the others, you shouldn’t win.
-
What do you intend that to mean? You built a straw man, now explain it.
-
Why is it the police unions are always excepted? Again, ala Wisconsin. That’s all. Whenever a State starts sweeping away previous agreements, the cops always get a pass.
-
-
Did anyone here indicate that police unions are to be an exception to anything? I certainly did not.
-
-
Funny, but true story. A friend was opening a store in a nearby State. The store was full of workers, drywalling, hammering, assembling displays, etc., etc.
He had bought himself an IKEA desk, dragged it into the stock area, opened the box, and began reading the assembly directions.
After awhile, he opened his briefcase and pulled out a screwdriver and began putting his desk together. All the workers stopped, sat down, and watched him. He smiled, went back to reading the instructions, and set his screwdriver down. All the workers turned and began to work.
Once he got two pieces jammed together, he picked up the screwdriver to tighten the locks, and everyone stopped, sat down, and watched him. He put the screwdriver down, and everyone went back to work.
This went on for about 15 minutes before he realized that every time he picked up the screwdriver everyone stopped what they were doing. Every time he put it down, they went back to work.
Finally, the job foreman said, “This is a union State. We can’t work if you are holding a tool. We’ll assemble the desk. You do the paperwork.”
-
Good story.
Try living in New York City and trying to get a kitchen remodeled.
It can take three lifetimes even after taking a year to pay someone to pay someone else to pay someone else to get the permits for all of drywall, plumbing, electrical, carpentry and other work.
Also true story. Close relatives for whom the cost was not a factor gave up.
-
Well, you can get your contracting done by trained, insured, licensed professionals earning a living wage – or you can get it done illegally by ‘illegals’. The latter will actually cost you more in end likely, but whatever. Who needs a country where there’s an actual middle class? In America, it’s all about getting rich and staying that way (inheriting ‘wealth’ aka privilege of some sort, mostly by being born white).
-
“Well, you can get your contracting done by trained, insured, licensed professionals earning a living wage …”
Yes, I can, right here in Virginia – and without having to worry about some stupid union rule that requires workers to put down their tools if I pick up a screwdriver, or which forbids painters from removing electrical outlet covers.
And who said anything about hiring illegals?
-
Well if you’re a worker – Republicans will fear you if you organize.
Just not good for business…
increased costs. limits ability of employer to
deal with lazy employee, etc.. -
@Craig, I guess you’re voting for Trump… build that wall, huh? Glad to know you think you got it all figured-out. Now, if everyone would just do what you tell them to do
-
-
-
No I am not slipping. I have heard Soros bashing for years. I am laying a reality that BR would like to go unmentioned. Like the atrocity that is Donald Trump.
-
Right Pete, and the other side hasn’t heard Koch Brothers and the NRA for years either, and the liberal’s have nothing but the most morally upright and infallible folks on there side. I hear a lot of them used to party with Jeffrey Epstein and his “friends”.
-
So you are positioning the Republican party, not the progressive left, as the leading anti-Semitic voices today? Seriously? You had better check in with the campuses.
Start with Anti-Semitism and the Intellectuals https://www.wsj.com/articles/anti-semitism-and-the-intellectuals-11592171963?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1
So, yesterday I was watching some news show and a question was posed to a doctor, “Will leaving my mask in a closed car in the summer disinfect it?”
The doctor replied that to clean a mask, it should be autoclaved at 200+ degrees, but that studies have shown that COV2 is killed at temperatures much, much lower, like those achieved in a closed car.
I have an idea for opening schools.
-
Make the children and teachers stay on the bus with the windows closed, right?
😉
I am generally not in favor of public employees having the right to collectively bargain. However, Mr. Sherlock has exaggerated the potential consequences of allowing them to do so with the following statement: “Other states with public employees on one side of the bargaining table and elected officials on the other, have effectively bankrupted themselves….”,
13 states have Triple A bond rating from all three bond rating agencies. All but two of those states allow at least some degree of public employee collective bargaining. The exceptions are Virginia and North Carolina. In fact, until the recent session, only Virginia and the two Carolinas had a blanket prohibition on public employee collective bargaining.
The other states with Triple-Triple A ratings that also allow public employee collective bargaining are: Maryland, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.
In summary, not all states that allow public employee collective bargaining are bankrupt.
-
Apples to oranges.
I don’t believe you will find that the states you list have a history of successful strike threats by public employees over working conditions.
I have not exaggerated the potential consequences of these occurrences, even if you like the outcome.
The overruling of elected officials by public employees has been taking place all over Virginia.
Look at the successful lobbying of the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry by the teachers’ unions to overturn with workplace rules the rules for school reopening promulgated by the Governor and the Virginia Department of Education.
You might not like the results next time. Again, welcome to Illinois.
-
You are moving the goal posts. Your original post equated public sector collective bargaining with state bankruptcy. Now you are trying to limit it to those with “successful strike threats”. I don’t know whether any of the other states with AAA ratings have had successful strike threats and I don’t believe you know either. To determine that would take about at least a week’s work of research and I have better things to do.
-
Who wants to fight gridlocked Fairfax County traffic all the way to Fairfax County public schools for hours all early morning?
Then, after arrival at school frazzled, mad, and frustrated, have to fight snotty, disorderly, vandal students all day long trying miserably to teach, with no backup at all,
Then already exhausted, have to try to fight gridlocked Fairfax County traffic all the way home through road rage and tolls, only to stumble through the front of home, and triple exhausted to bedlam there.
Who the hell is dumb enough to do all that when they can sit home all day in blessed safe solitude in front of computer screen a few hours a day, safe, happy, and hassle free. No Contest.
Fairfax County public school teachers are never going back to those hellhole streets, highways, and blackboard jungle classrooms. That Public school Fairfax classroom and traffic madness is done, cooked, dead and gone.
-
-
Now that the Fairfax School Board has ceded this ground of willful misconduct to the VEA and AFT they will never get it back. Proceed to collective bargaining and do not pass GO.
Packer fan. Or Roger Ailed and a host of other Fox sleazeballs.
Ailed (hate smartphones)
-
Well, he did for a while… …before he died.
-
Ailes. (hate smart asses)
-
Self loathing? First liar doesn’t stand a chance…
-
[insert insincere sheepish grin here]
-
I hate my IPhone
-
It hates you too I’m sure.
Some commenters continue to refer to private sector unions and public sector unions in the same breath as if there is no difference.
As for me, I support blue collar private sector unions – always have.
It is the public sector unions that I, as did FDR, find unacceptable for two reasons:
– their built in power sitting across the “negotiating” table from elected officials, who they help elect; and
– their power to disrupt essential public services.
Laws denying the public sector unions the right to strike are designed to try to redress some of this imbalance.
The events in Fairfax County show that Virginia, at least under Democratic leadership, has no intention of enforcing those laws.
I think you all understand the issues here, but some choose not to refer to them, preferring to use industrial unions as your example because you can find no attractive examples from the history of public sector unions.
That says it all.
-
I support public sector unions for the same reason I support blue-collar unions – with the proviso that public sector unions cannot strike.
I very much support collective bargaining for all employees for the same reason I support it for blue collar.
Just FYI – the “industry” of the 21st century is the knowledge economy as well as the folks who help educate.
One of the big issues Jim – is how teachers can be scapegoated for achievement issues in tough schools. Teachers need to have one set of rules to follow and not be vulnerable to a particular principal or administrator who is trying to evade accountability and pin in on a subordinate.
-
“their built in power sitting across the “negotiating” table from elected officials, who they help elect; and,”
This ain’t their fault. If there needs to be a better system for negotiation then create one, once removed from the elected. But look at it from their point, especially when a Governor can come sweeping into office and set aside previously negotiated settlements, a la Wisconsin.
No. I believe that private and public have the right to organize. Always have. We disagree.
-
We don’t disagree on the right to organize, just the right of public sector unions to collectively bargain and strike.
Public sector unions in Virginia starting in May of 2021 will have the right to collectively bargain in localities that permit them to do so.
I think that is a mistake and I think that will be made clear over the next 5 years. I hope I am wrong, but the results of the debacle in Fairfax County do not give me hope.
-
Why should it be illegal to collectively bargain?
-
You are going around in circles, Larry. In the case of public sector unions, this question was answered multiple times above.
-
-
Ok. We disagree.
So if the Fairfax County School Board was Republicans…what would happen?
Certainly no more pandering or that even nastier virtue signaling, right?
So this is actually an opportunity for the GOP given the anger of parents with regard to opening schools back up and the union-like behaviors of the teachers. right?
Is this clearly not what the voters in Fairfax want?
“That remains true today. Public-sector unions in Virginia will sit across the table negotiating with people they help elect, and not just with their votes.”
The same can be said of private corporations. Instead of negotiating employment contracts, they are negotiating goods and services contracts, regulations, penalties, consent orders, and tax rates. Collectively, they are represented by lobbyists and associations. If it is good for the private business owner, it should be good for the public employee. And if you don’t think companies have great leverage in these days of outsourcing you’ve got another thing coming.
-
differentate larger companies with government granted privileges, from smaller companies without, and I’ll cede your point.
One of things about BR is the conceit of Virginia superiority. I have worked in Illinois although with no children and was impressed with the success of the old land grant system and its high caliber education. I Great night life! I worked in New York and came to love. I was in Cleveland which had great museums and sports. Moscow was a prize — an incredibly green city despite the foreign criticism. At the end of the day, I came back to the Old Dominion.
-
I see plenty of examples every single day about why Virginia is not “superior”.
Fairfax Co. was not the “ring leader” of 100% online learning.
When the Trump administration was recently dumping poop on Fairfax Co. that was because Trump wanted full-time school, and Fairfax was only offering the hybrid part-time option. Then there became wave of online only decisions, eg, PW County, so Fairfax lost support of part-time option. Also the virus keep going stronger unfort, taking the proverbial “rug” out from under the feet of the part-time advocates.
Maybe there is a behind-the-scenes liberal social media think-tank controlling school response to COVID in Fairfax, but it’s pretty hard to shame them when everyone else in the Country is doing same.
Students, I think, want to get back.
-
yup.
” Maybe there is a behind-the-scenes liberal social media think-tank controlling school response to COVID in Fairfax, but it’s pretty hard to shame them when everyone else in the Country is doing same.”oh that won’t stop the poop-throwers… in their mind it’s a leftist conspiracy from those who indoctrinate the kids with all kinds of crap and they DEMAND that they start teaching it again!
-
Larry, I wrote about teachers unions in Fairfax breaking Virginia law by refusing to return to their jobs. I then described the pending ability of those same unions to collectively bargain and the clear and present threat that poses.
How you got to the nonsense you have written here is truly a strange and peripatetic journey.-
Jim – what you wrote was not factual. It was your opinion not an actual violation. For one thing there are no actual “unions”. You just made that up.
No “union” took a strike vote then conducted a strike except in some folks furtive minds…
I agree with you on peripatetic journey but probably not in the way you think.
😉
-
-
Mr. Larry 82% of Chesterfield County parents want 5 days a week in person instruction. 91% of Henrico County teachers say they plan to return to school for in person instruction. Doesn’t matter which side of the fence you are on about open/virtual schools; school board members are going to be held accountable at the ballot box. Many superintendents are going to need to dust off their resumes to search for new jobs. I look forward to this change in leadership.
-
Hey James… do you have cites for those numbers… especially Henrico?
You should post them here … to this point – I’ve not seen a whole lot along those lines. In the Fburg area – it’s all remote or hybrid so far.
In terms of ballots…. you may be correct. I have yet to seen any candidates for school board yet who are advocating “open up now” but perhaps we’re a bit early for elections?
I don’t know about your area but in mine – every year the School Board does a budget and every year there is a donnybrook with the BOS over the numbers…
Good morning Mr. Larry. I found those survey numbers here. I believe the survey’s were generated by the school systems.
https://richmond.com/opinion/columnists/siobhan-dunnavant-kirk-cox-and-carrie-coyner-column-reopening-virginias-schools-requires-shifting-to-how/article_2dce2e95-72fd-5288-b71d-ab9b0416084d.html
-
James – thank you!
So if half or more of the faculty and staff decide to retire or resign in response to the district’s decision what happens then? Such action by the teachers and staff would effectively shut down the district to even remote learning.
-
And that’s why I ask what the plan is to replace staff – if not enough will want to do it or they do and then there is an outbreak.
We know what some folks want – but they don’t see to know or care how it would work. It’s single-minded in what it wants and seems to be a characteristic of the “open up now” folks.
Just take a look at other institutions – like professional sports and see the contortions they are going through to try to “open” and even then they’re not going to be open like they used to.
Airlines are another, Cruise ships are done for now.
This is really not that much about the “kids” – it’s become, like the masks, a partisan wedge issue. Long, long before COVID19 – parents homeschooled their kids, sent them to private academies, paid for tutors, etc.
But none of those are being proposed as alternatives now – nope – the schools have to open up like before – or we’re gonna throw a hissy fit.
-
Bingo, Tom. That is the threat the Fairfax teachers used to blackmail the school board. The threat itself is illegal in Virginia because the action it threatened would be illegal.
The right response would have been to call all school employees to their schools to fill out and sign a witnessed affidavit that let them declare whether they would report to work if the school board decided on in-person instruction.
All the normal caveats concerning age and complicating conditions could be listed and claimed if true. A false claim of a complicating condition would result in permanent termination.
The school board would then have a list of who would do their jobs and who would refuse. Those who refuse would be terminated and could re-apply in 12 months as per state law.
So what if that was a lot of personnel. Hire more. Worst case, the situation would be temporary and that would be the last the parents and children of Fairfax County, where I grew up and once taught school, would have had to concern themselves by a strike by the people they pay to serve them.
If the threat is allowed to work, as it did in Fairfax, then electing a school board is a waste of time. The employees will run the system.
I don’t know your age so I don’t know if you were around when President Reagan fired every air traffic controller for a similar illegal work action. Last time we ever heard of a federal employee strike.
-
Well, on the other hand, would it not be better to have this conversation collectively now, that to have hundreds of teachers individually leave the division in droves? There is a significant teacher shortage as it is, and many have found they can go elsewhere or into other fields which are more lucrative. If they were to leave in droves, where would you find the replacements. I get the legality of strikes and how the threats seem to be a slap in the face of the rule of law, but there could be potentially worse outcomes if this conversation had not happened. Teaching is a tough business, and I think too few folks recognize this fact.
-
re: ” Teaching is a tough business, and I think too few folks recognize this fact.”
Naw.. If you listen to the critics, it’s the life of Riley… and anyone can teach…
-
-
As I’ve mentioned before, when the coronavirus miraculously disappears (as promised by Our Glorious Leader), schools will miraculously open.
Schools should be able re-open where the virus is under control. Everywhere else, there’s no point in pouring gas on the blazing pandemic.
-
Some schools will miraculously reopen on November 4th.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.