Do you think teachers should be allowed to unionize?

Topic. So recently, abad teacher in my school district was fired because students andparentsalike were complaining, rightfully so. She was part of the teacher's union however, and the union got her job back and a year's worth of pay (she was gone for a month). This isn't the first time this has happened in my school district or anywhere else. Personally I believe that teachers should not be able to form unions. I don't want teachers to be taken advantage of, but I also don't want the education of my peers and Ito be screwed over because bad teachers are allowed to stay in school. Besides, teachers should be worrying less about money and more about the education of their students.

Unfortunately yes, they are underpaid as is, and damaging unions would damaging their wages.

Unfortunately yes, they are underpaid as is, and damaging unions would damaging their wages.

CaveJohnson1

[QUOTE="CaveJohnson1"]

Unfortunately yes, they are underpaid as is, and damaging unions would damaging their wages.

comp_atkins

Depends on how you see if it and there are pros and cons to each choice....

Cons: As you stated above, a lot of bad teachers get into the system and can stay in the system due to unions fighting for them.

Pros: Unions allow for a collective force to counter those who control them. Teachers are underpaid and without unions, the pay will only go downwards. With a such a low wage, the position of teachers will be very unattractive to skilled workers. As such, you still get the bad people in to fill the jobs.

In addition, for Public schools (esp. in Republican-controlled Florida) they are always blaming teachers for everything and are stripping away teachers pay. They treat them as slaves, instead of nice workers trying to improve the education of society's students.

I'll say, yes they should be allowed to unionized. A divided force is much easier to be exploited then a collective one.

All public employees should be barred from unionizing and any other form of collective bargaining.

Depends on how you see if it and there are pros and cons to each choice....

Cons: As you stated above, a lot of bad teachers get into the system and can stay in the system due to unions fighting for them.

Pros: Unions allow for a collective force to counter those who control them. Teachers are underpaid and without unions, the pay will only go downwards. With a such a low wage, the position of teachers will be very unattractive to skilled workers. As such, you still get the bad people in to fill the jobs.

In addition, for Public schools (esp. in Republican-controlled Florida) they are always blaming teachers for everything and are stripping away teachers pay. They treat them as slaves, instead of nice workers trying to improve the education of society's students.

I'll say, yes they should be allowed to unionized. A divided force is much easier to be exploited then a collective one.

ShadowDeathX

People already whine about bad teachers getting through the system (a very difficult one I might add) but how many do they think will get through if the majority of the pool is unskilled to begin with? that's exactly what will happen if there's less money incentive.

All public employees should be barred from unionizing and any other form of collective bargaining.

QuistisTrepe_

I'm pretty sure that is against the law...

Depends on how you see if it and there are pros and cons to each choice....

ShadowDeathX

This, absolutely. The trick would be to see which outweighs the other. And, though the Unions could use some good reforms, the pros have it imo.

From a more fundamental perspective, though, forbidding teachers from forming unions would set a horrible precedent. I'm sure some people would applaud it, but when they started firing teachers every five or ten years to hire new ones so that they didn't have to up the pay of teachers with more seniority as they climbed up the payscale, or eliminated any sort of meaningful payscale at all, then that 20/20 hindsight would probably start to kick in. Especially once the idea started spreading.

All public employees should be barred from unionizing and any other form of collective bargaining.

QuistisTrepe_

All workers should be allowed to unionize. As Ronald Reagan (of all people) once said, "where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost." -Sun_Tzu-

This. Well posted.

Yes! The strong contempt the Right has for working people in this country is really sickening, especially when it is directed at teachers of all people.

I believe unions are needed but in their current state they are too powerful.

Yes they should. For YEARS I've seen my mother suffer through a lot as a teacher and even though she doesn't often involve her union in anything, she'd be much worse off if there was no union there at all. You can't punish all teachers because there are some bad ones. Plus, at least in our state, the union won't save the teachers from getting totally screwed over by the government in terms of pay and retirement.