UAW, completely out of their minds!

They get health insurance?

 

To whom are you referring?

 

Need to correct that=Started grad school at 76 and ended at 48= Spent two years tracking "urban" bears at all hours. Taught a Jungle Ecology class in Belize and Guatemala two weeks after getting my BS.


“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, “Wow what a ride!”
― Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967

 

"I can’t speak for everywhere, but in California there are lots of options. There are two public university systems here, and also a system of community colleges. They are much less expensive than a private university. But there is competition to get in. A common track for those who, how shall I say it, didn’t maximize their high school opportunity, is to enter a community college, take classes there for a couple of years, and then transfer into the university system and finish off their degree. The community college is practically free, so in the end the degree has cost half as much to obtain."

Or, simply can't afford going directly to a 4 year school. I lived at home for junior college and then the Army got me as well as 25+ years in the private sector before I went back! Two years @ LBCC, then (25 years later) private school for my BS and Cal State for my MS.

 

And we've got a strike!

 

The risk there is an issue of timing. Being used up and worn out with another 20 years left on the clock.

 

The workers? I didn’t get health insurance until I was like 35. I just started flossing my teeth.

 

From what I’ve read, which is sketchy, UAW workers get health care, and plans vary based on the auto companies, which provide the healthcare. Plans for UAW retirees are provided by the union.

ETA: In my pre-union days, which comprised about ⅔ of my career, I bought my own health insurance through a group plan offered by the NASE ( National Association of the Self-Employed). It had a high deductible, but it was cheap and I was young and healthy. This was before the days of “wellness visits” when young people only went to the doctor when they were, you know, actually sick.

 

Just saw the new agreement. Like 20% raise. And some other stuff.

 

There’s no agreement. It’s a proposal which UAW has said no.

 

There’re using my fiber optic ring.

 

Unions had their place but now they're just greedy and lazy. And let's not forget that it was unions that killed the native British car industry. Anyway, I'll do my part by continuing to not buy anything made by these socialist union hacks.

 

Mary Barra makes $29M a year. That is a seriously obscene discrepancy between the laborers and the CEO.

 

A radiologist makes 1M per year.
your point?
Everyone gets paid according to the value they bring to a company and how in demand their skill is. 1. Not every worker can do what Ms Barra does, 2. CEOs like her don’t necessarily grow on trees. Hence the compensation.

 

WOW!! What a long and interesting Thread. And some great Posts and responses. I for one don't really have an issue with unions in the PRIVATE sector of the economy, if that's what the majority of workers want and vote for. But not the PUBLIC sector (government workers at all levels). Because there is no one sitting at the negotiating table representing the taxpayer.

 

With schools, the school board is representing the tax payer at the table.

 

Oh piffle. The relationship between school boards and citizens is totally adversarial.

 

Usually, but not always!

 

Okay. Granted. But it’s a huge conflict of interest that the teachers’ union can donate to the campaigns of the people who decide teacher salaries.

There’s a repeating pattern in my town. The news will have a story about police and firefighters getting a raise “Police and fire have been being paid the same as other public employees but their jobs are so dangerous they deserve to be paid more.” And then a couple of years later the more vague story will come out: “SEIU employees receive pay raise to bring their salaries in line with other public employees” And so it leapfrogs in a cycle.

 

I'll agree teachers unions are not about the kids. And, as I've related before, I have found that the requirements to be a teacher are minimal! I have horror stories about candidates from when I took the CBEST in order to sub teach! And teacher seniorities do not promote good teachers and the unions steadfastly try to prevent any merit rewards. Teacher of the Year are popularity contests.

 

Sing it, brother.

 

Singing out of tune. Seniority retains experienced teachers. I have young co-workers who amaze me at their use of technology in the modern classroom as well as technology in general but it takes years of experience to develop the skills needed to diffuse difficult situations, problem-solve student behavior issues on the fly, find multiple ways of connecting with students who are otherwise shut down and learn to communicate positively with parents who often have more needs than their children. Is my union concerned about protecting me from capricious decisions from administrators who have no classroom experience? You bet they are. Is my union pushing back against using single-day snapshot scores from companies like Harcourt, Houghton-Mifflin, Pearson and the test they create for my evaluations? They sure are, and I pay them well with my own money that I earn, after taxes. I don't know what bug people have up their asses about public sector unions- do you care if public sector employees donate money to churches, police organizations, the United Way or any other organization? What does it matter if those dollars go to the organization of my choice, which happens to be a union?

 

There are likely hundreds (if not thousands) of people who can do her job. What special skills does she have? A radiologist has a specific skill set, with years of training. She's a pencil pusher, nothing more. We all own vehicles produced under the watch of Akio Toyoda, who earns about $4.6 million. Why the disparity?

 

Speaking merely from experience on both sides of the coin, together with a wife who left teaching (voluntarily) because she saw incompetent teachers retained over good teachers with fewer years. She taught private schools and public schools. She also, as a student teacher, had her car vandalized because she crossed picket lines (she was required to do so for credit). As I stated earlier, graduate school in education only required a "C" average to get in. Some states do not even require a bachelor's degree to teach. In my experience, high school teaching is baby-sitting. I left private sector for public service, where accomplishments were under-rewarded, but there was opportunity for advancement if you earned (at least at the lower & medium paygrades. I started as a GS-7 and made GS-12 in 3 years, then I was pigeonholed for irritating supervisors with "seniority".

After all, what does it matter if my dollars go to (incompetent) teachers (and their unions), instead of the kids! The CBEST was "dumbed down" from Algebra to 8th grade math (no Algebra or Geometry was needed any longer, nor fractions). I wasted so much time reviewing quadratics and Calculus. I took CBEST and passed all 3 sections on the first try; one girl was taking it for the third try (you're allowed 3 attempts) and still had not passed the "What I did Last Summer" essay portion. The way it works, you have 6 hours for the 3 tests; once you pass one section, you do not have to take it again. Therefore, she had 6 hours to write a simple essay.

I had to take a writing exam when I entered grad school (to prove I did not need remedial English), take one after I graduated (despite a thesis reviewed by 4 PhDs and subsequently published.) This was in COLLEGE! THAT IS HOW GOOD OUR TEACHERS ARE!! I needed a GPA greater than 3.0 to be even considered for grad school (Mine was 3.65, and I graduated with a 3.94 GPA in grad school). BUT, I graduated high school in 1968, when teachers still knew what they were doing, and college in 1996 and 1998. How SADLY things had deteriorated.

 

That disproves your premise that seniority and higher pay is deserved by teachers based on experience and "OJT". CEOs, CFOs, COOs have the OJT skill sets (many of them shared with teachers) that you emphasize. They also have skills learned in college (I have 55 units in business electives). Need we even mention Jill Biden's "PhD" in education?

 

lol, come on. A line worker is responsible for himself. The CEO is responsible for the entire company. Not exactly an apples to apples comparison.

 

Very fair point, but the discrepancy between line workers pay and CEO's pay is far bigger today than it was in the 60's, 70's, etc. I don't know if it's even a problem, but it does make people angry.

 

No serious objection to your statement. However, I just don't see anyone making the comparison between what a 1st year teacher makes and the district superintendant or a character actor compared to an A-list superstar or a GS-1 Federal Employee compared to a Senior Executive Service Level 5 or an entry-level union line worker at UAW and the UAW President.

People tend to get angry but it always seems to be selective anger. I have no idea what that CEO does, neither does anyone else on this forum. Being pissed at that individual and not hating on every American that makes a buck more than then other guy seems a tad disingenuous (IMHO.)

 

Clearly being a CEO is massively more difficult and more important than a line workers job is (since almost anyone can be easily trained to work on an assembly line), so it should be far higher paid. I'm just not sure it's worth 300 times more.

 

eh, I'm not sure either. I just won't put down the CEO and call them a paper pusher...just like I won't put down the line worker and call them an entitled, lazy slob.