Thursday, December 07, 2006

I Hate Unions

Let's get controversial. After all, it's almost Christmas.

I'll start.

I belonged to the teacher's union for over twenty years and guess what, I wish I'd just flushed the money down the toilet instead of letting 'them' have any of it At least then, I'd have had the fun of watching it swirl. As it was, I got nothing.

What a monumental waste. I begrudge and resent every dime they ever coerced from me.

Union rep: worthless.
Union dues: ridiculously high and very little of it went to anything local.
Union representation: it never represented me in any way. I'm embarrassed to admit that I belonged.
Union backing: nonexistent
Union benefits: what are those?
Union loyalty: say what? Mostly, it backed administration.

I bought a lot of carpet and wall-art for headquarters. I resent that, too.

Sometimes I think back and wonder if I'm being too hard on the union here. Then I remember all those thousands of dollars they got from me over the years, and I think of how I got nothing whatsover back from them, and there is that part of me that hopes those overpaid NEA people get their expensive and fairly new cars keyed on a regular basis.

Oh well. What goes around, comes around. It was years ago, now.

In the meantime, take this advice from someone who found out the hard way: Teachers, don't put much faith in your union. When push comes to shove, it will just push and shove you back.

If I were you, I wouldn't even join. I wish I never had. Waste, waste, waste.

Please, don't anyone start in on me about contracts or insurance or anything like that. School districts would do better to negotiate amongst themselves. The NEA is nothing but a racket. A successful, money-making racket.