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On March 11, 2011, after weeks of vehement protests by teachers, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker signed a law which takes away most of the "collective bargaining" rights of teacher's unions. Collective bargaining means being able to negotiate certain terms and benefits of employment as a group.
Without the ability to act as a group, the teachers lose their power. About the only right that's left is the ability to collectively negotiate wages. The bill is anti-union in several ways, requiring for example, that most employees vote every year to confirm that they continue to want their union to represent them. It also limits the ability of unions to raise money by barring the state from deducting union dues from member paychecks (which would then be sent to the union). It also requires teachers to pay more towards the cost of their health insurance and their future pensions (ie: retirement payments).
The Governor stated that the law was not meant to dismantle unions, only to deal with the state's financial troubles. However, union representatives have said that they are sensitive to the state's financial trouble and would have agreed to pay more and generally do what was necessary from a financial perspective. They claim that their offer was ignored, further proving that Governor Walker's actions were not about solving a financial problem. Instead, they claim, it was a way to use a financial problem as an excuse to effectively break the teachers unions. It is also difficult to argue that this bill in not an attack on teachers when one realizes the law does not apply to other unionized public employees such as the police, firefighters, and other safety personnel.
Proponents of the bill have argued that the teachers unions have grown so powerful that they've been able to stand in the way of needed reforms and improvements that will allow the American education system to reclaim its former glory. Examples cited is the lengthy time and high expense necessary to fire an ineffective teacher, and the "last in, first out" rule which protects the most senior teachers from layoffs.
In these incredibly difficult times, with somewhere around 15 million people unemployed, it is easy to look at the benefits teachers have been able to secure for themselves over the last several decades and become cynical. Cynics should consider that for decades people in the private sector earned a lot more than their counterparts in education. Some even viewed teaching as a place for people who couldn't be a success in the business world. Could it be that now, the exhausted hares (corporate employees) are scrambling furiously to make sure the tortoises (teachers) that have caught up and gone by are put back in their place?
Lastly, the case of Wisconsin is just the tip of the iceberg. The state of Ohio passed a law more recently which goes even further in limiting the rights of public employees. Several other states are in the process of enacting similar laws.
Read more at: Wisconsin Senate Limits Bargaining by Public Workers
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