Me and My Union
I’ve been kind of at odds with my union lately. It seems to me that in my experience with unions, which includes the National Education Association and the United Auto Workers, that unions can be at worst a reactionary force that turns back the wheels of progress, or at best, mindless defenders of the status quo. I then have to realize that although my union hasn’t done much for me lately, it has the potential to do an awful lot.
Two experiences with my union have soured me a little over the past couple weeks. First, I’ve been dealing with the fallout created by a colleague who, to the detriment of his students and the department has refused to change the way he does business. He’s been doing things the same way for 33 years and, convinced that his is the path of righteousness, he’s not going to change now. He’s not teaching his students what he’s supposed to be teaching them, leaving teachers in later grades to pick up the peices and often dry the tears of his frustrated former students.
However, because he’s been active in the union and knows how to use the union to evade just about any administrative action he continues his bad practices with impunity. I saw the same things happening when I worked with the United Auto Workers. A guy who worked the “C” shift would sleep virtually all night on his job, taking breaks to work occasionally, but more often to read the bible. The guy that worked “A” shift always had to clean up the mess. Because management during the “C” shift is sparse, they couldn’t create a paper trail long enough to even discipline this bozo.
The other issue is that a co-worker of mine is going out on maternity leave. She teaches the same Advanced Placement course that I do, and it would be a lot better for her students if I could take on the extra work for two months and take over her classes; provided of course that I get appropriately compensated. It’s my time, it’s my choice, it’s cheaper and easier for the district and most importantly, it’s what’s best for the kids.
The problem is that the union frowns on such practices to the point that my principal won’t even bring up the topic to them. The union feels that it could set a dangerous precedent, even though it’s clearly the best way to get from point “A” to point “B.”
With all this bitching though, I have to realize that unions are critical, not just in the teaching profession but in every profession. For every incompetent stick-in-the-mud teacher who hides behind the cloak of the union for protection is an excellent teacher who said something an administrator took the wrong way and ended up on a shit list. For every teacher that plays too loosely with the union cannon, there’s an administrator with an arsenal of cannons ready to fire capriciously at a teacher for no just cause.
While I can complain that the union won’t let me take on an extra teaching assignment for extra pay, I’d be complaining a hell of a lot more if my administration had the power to FORCE me to take that assignment. Or worse yet, dump it on the new kid in the department who’s eager to get tenure and afraid to say no.
Yes, unions can be a pain in the ass. What we have to remember though is that the evil we know and are sometimes inconvenienced by is far better than the evil we don’t know that could easily ruin our lives.
In unions, there is strength.
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Technorati Tags: National Education Association, United Auto Workers
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