I may be confused about unions

[PurgedVoter]

Some unions are a lot better than others. For example a police union will be right there for an officer if he shoots a child.
A teachers union will stand back and watch the school fire a teacher for the lewd comments their friends put on their face book page.

[RandySF]

1. Police unions leverage political support to gain ridiculous concessions

[Midnight Writer]

2. And a good legal system allows defense for anyone accused of a crime, no matter how heinous.

As a union steward for 30 years, I had to hold my nose sometimes when defending an employee who may have been an odious person, or who may have been guilty of what they were disciplined for.

I also defended a lot of people who were set up and screwed by malicious managers or victimized by overreaching workplace rules.

I won some, and I lost others.

The alternative to a system that does not allow an accused to use an advocate to defend themselves? I'll just say it is not a system I would want to live under.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. .

A teachers union will stand back and watch the school fire a teacher for the lewd comments their friends put on their face book page.

Context?

Unions aren't perfect. What they do is provide a framework for management and employees to resolve disputes in a way both sides agree to. Sometimes it works the way some people want. Sometimes it doesn't.

[canuckledragger]

4. Also, a union is only as good as it's members.

it's also up to the the individual members to get themselves involved in a useful, meaningful ways to improve the union.

[PurgedVoter]

9. I agree entirely

I paid into the TSTA for years. Since Texas does not allow for collective bargaining if you are a public employee, by law the TSTA is a bit crippled. In addition, Texas conservatives are well represented in education. The folk that control text books to the local school boards and teachers, are conservative more often than not. There are a lot of intelligent and compassionate educators in Texas who vote straight Republican.

A conservative Texas teacher is quite capable of being fair and supportive in class and still vote for someone who wants to reduce funding to the branch of education they work in. As a result, if Texas teachers were to vote on what they wanted their union to do, the odd are good that the result would end up shooting them in the foot.

The expectation for a teacher to start early, work late, take work home and support after school activities, makes it hard for them to get involved unless the administration strongly supports the teachers getting involved.

Pity the Texas educator, they are forbidden to serve on the school board even after retirement and their administrators most likely have criminal science degrees and have never taught a class. They may not strike and collective bargaining is not an option.

[multigraincracker]

5. I fought with the company and fought

with my union. The one thing I had was the contract. I kept one in my locker and study it.

[walkingman]

6. You have to realize that in some States it is illegal to strike. They can lose their

teaching certificates, right to be rehired, and even pensions.

But even worse - the public is much more likely to support the cops than teachers. I personally think teachers are the most unappreciated and underpaid profession we have in America. They basically raise our children and put up with a lot of BS.

[Scrivener7]

7. Yes. You certainly are confused about unions.

Because you don't seem to know anything about them.

[LudwigPastorius]

8. Hard to comment on the conclusion you've drawn about unions without...

knowing more the specific instances that led you to it.