Teachers Union Thinks It Blocked Online Classes...But It Didn't
from the acted-like-assclowns-to-boot dept
I've always struggled with the concept of unions and collective bargaining. The realist in me knows the history of employment in the early days of this country and how woefully employers treated their people. Early labor unions also had a heavy hand in social reforms for ideals like free public education. Yay, unions! On the other hand, we're all aware of the stories of waste and corruption among big union leadership, the inefficiencies they create in the workforce, and the potentially detrimental effects on the economic competitiveness of America in a global marketplace. Damn you, evil unions!And so it's under this same conflicted backdrop that I read what SD sent in, a story about the University of California's teachers' union gleefully celebrating the blocking of online courses. More specifically, the union is saying the language in the contract would allow them to block any online course that would result in lessening employment statistics for the school's lecturers, which make up a hefty percentage of the teaching force. Let's tackle a couple of things relating to this story.
First, examine some words from Bob Samuels, President of the union and possible jerky-quote-producing-android-automaton:
“We feel that we could stop almost any online program through this contract. We feel we got something that the university didn’t really understand."The article goes on to note:
"And stop it they would. Regardless of any data administrators trot out to argue that students learn just as well online as they do in the classroom, the union would do whatever it could to block the university from moving courses online if it decides the move would make life worse for lecturers, says Samuels."Now, perhaps you're like me and any time you hear someone say something that so clearly dismisses anyone else's well-being aside from their own, your brain shuts down your ears for fear that your entire faith in the basic providence of humanity would be vanquished in an angry mind-fire. So let me break this down for you. Samuels, President of a union of teachers, is saying that they'll block online courses regardless of any evidence as to their efficacy if it results in even one less lecturer on campus. Learning? Rising costs in education for students? Technological progress? Unimportant, fools! This is where I think back to the union leaders of old, who pushed for social reforms effecting those outside their union members, and wonder where it all went wrong.
(Fun side note: Samuels recently wrote an article for the Huffington Post suggesting that we forgo Obama and the Tea Party in favor on an online activist party. WHAT!!??? And put all those businesses that spring up around both the Obama campaign and Tea Party rallies out of work!!?? You know who disagrees with Bob Samuels? Bob Samuels!)
And here's the really fun part. The University reviewed the langauge Samuels is referring to and promptly chuckled something close to, "what the duck is he talking about?"
“They do not have the power to block the university from implementing new online programs,” says Dianne Klein, a spokeswoman for the Office of the President. The most the [union’s] bargaining unit could do,” Klein says, “is provide written notice saying, ‘We don’t like this.’ ”I think what's most amazing to me in all of this is that apparently there aren't any Public Relations teachers willing to give Samuels a hand. If you want to gain public support for limiting online classes, it's possible. You come out with some kind of study or research suggesting the benefit of lecturers to the actual education process, you make your argument to the school and the public, and we find out who wins. What you don't do is misinterpret legal language in a contract as saying you have power you don't and then gleefully provide quotes in articles that essentially amount to, "We got one over on a higher education institution and now they can kiss our collectively bargaining asses."
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Filed Under: california, online education, teachers, unions
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This guy has been an idiot, because he's an ordinary guy, not a heavily coached, carefully coiffed and manicured snake oil salesman.
Always a disadvantage for unions.
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Painful Stupidity
Unfortunately, I was reading this article when my brain panicked. My ears shut down, but alas, I was unable to stop reading Samuels' pithy remarks on how beneficial the union has been to itself. I was able to finally stop reading when I voluntarily refused to accept the signals from my eyes, but it was too late! Samuels had left me speechless with his obtuse aspirations of noble elitism. I had become deaf, dumb, and blind. It took nearly a whole ten minutes of running around in a uni-sensed world, screaming for liberation from my ignorance constructed cage and attempting to read my LCD screen in brail (didn't work as planned) to break the shroud of Samuels. When I finally came back to the land of sound, sight, and speech, I apologized to the officer at the door (damn neighbors) and sat to collect my thoughts. I realized that my response to Samuels was moot as for all his gloating, he has buried himself in a pit of cognitive dissonance. Its most fitting that a representative, such as Samuels, of a union of luddite educators should fail to understand the reality of the situation posed. That such a supposedly astute collection of individuals could misconstrue the ability to deliver annoying emails and fliers as a form of absolute administrative power suggests their incapacity to fulfill the duties to society they profess would be otherwise abdicated. I'll end this tale of inconsequential tragedy with a quote that sums up my thoughts on Samuels:
"Mr. [Samuels], what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent [statement] were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this [world] is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no [internets], and may God have mercy on your soul. "
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Re: Painful Stupidity
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins
There needs to be a balance between different groups of society. When one group attains too much influence the rest suffer. Like a pendulum, it swings ... maybe.
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In going for the short-term gain for their members they're pretty well fucking them in the long term.
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Sweet spirits, I hope that was sarcasm.
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Re: Re:
Probably not - there are some (crazy) people attempting to remove the child labor laws.
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Occupy Reality
Double-dipping state and city employees, UAW workers demanding more after being saved, educators who "claim" to be for the students, but are not (see above and the numerous stories on this site) and my favorite, the rioting workers in Seattle who took hostages.
Economist Thomas Sowell asked Samuel Gompers, the legendary labor leader, "What does organized labor want? And Samuel said in one word,
More!" "When they (Unions) say 'fair share', they mean More." - Sowell
Union membership has been declining so expect to see the Unions capitalize on the OWS movement because they're recruiting and will Not stop until they have
More.
Uh, I mean, More!
Wait�wait, MORE!
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Damn you, evil unions!
I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't know what to think about them.
I don't have any real data to work with, but my current hypothesis on unions is that their quality varies based on their leadership. So some unions with excellent leadership would behave professionally and try to have a positive effect on the world, and other unions with poor leadership would try to get money for nothing and throw rotten eggs at people they don't like.
Unfortunately, good leadership tends to be in short supply these days.
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Leadership is what makes an organization balance its needs and principles with external and internal (individual) needs and expectations.
I think a lot of folks feel as though many existing organizations seem to think that the only way to achieve their objectives is to do it at the expense of others and without compromise--leading to extreme positions and no consideration of other perspectives.
Its not that simple, of course, but its how I rationalize it.
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Vulnerable Workers Are Still Vulnerable
The reason for the existence of unions is because certain (not all) categories of workers will end up being unfairly exploited in such a freely competitive situation�that is, they will end up making less than subsistence income, which is deemed inhumane. Fine, I can accept that.
Except that unions then sometimes use this excuse to become overtly protectionist, so that it�s no longer about fairness, they now want to stifle any level of competition at all.
How do we draw a line to ensure that unions can achieve the former without being tempted into the latter?
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Re: Vulnerable Workers Are Still Vulnerable
A union's main purpose is based on protecting the inadequate at the expense of the skilled. A union would have Steve Jobs and (channeling Sanford & Son) a "dummy" working side by side for the greater good of "the union".
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Re: Re: Vulnerable Workers Are Still Vulnerable
112 people died in that construction project.
http://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/History/essays/fatal.html
The pay was low, the police was ruthless against unions, living conditions were horrible.
That is why they gained power, but the government by making the life easier for them may have corrupted them.
The same way laws that allow certain things to happen without consequences also create corruption.
Early unions were forged out of suffering they were challenged constantly and they had did whatever they needed to do to get things done, but at some point they crossed that line where you battle for essentials and start to ask for more and it is hurting workers even though they support those demands, it is like the MPAA or the RIAA those are forms of unions too.
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The point was that unions didn't appear from nothing they appeared to satisfy a need and when that need was satisfied they become something else.
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I think what he means by lectureres losing jobs
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Re: I think what he means by lectureres losing jobs
The real problem with a union or a school blocking the expansion of online classes is that it's just not competitive. There are students who work, live out of state or live abroad that can't attend in person. There's also students who go to on-campus classes and wish they were somewhere else. Some of them end up dropping out. If one school doesn't embrace online classes their decision won't stop another school from doing it.
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Degrees
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When you have the union guy playing nasty cop then you can play nice cop with management (who you are going to have to work with afterwards). "Do a deal with me or I'm going to have to call him in and you know what he is like".
If the union negotiator is conciliatory then you end up with nice cop/nice cop and the management will walk all over you.
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This is why I dislike unions; they poison the air with an "us" vs. "them" attitude. In Canada, Air Canada employees strike all the time. Heck, just last week, the police had to be called out to a managers house because some employee drove by his house with a gun. Westjet (our next biggest airline) never has these problems -- they aren't unionized.
A smart businesses know that having happy employees improves the bottom line. There is no need to have unions. At a minimum, we need to get rid of _mandatory_ collective bargaining.
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Teacher's Union
Yes, when I first started working, I belonged to a union, and it did some VERY good things - made the employer stop discriminating against women wearing shorts that were okay for men, made the employer stop firing people based on race, etc. Most unions today are, yes, evil. So, like you, I am
very conflicted; but I agree with you completely.
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Those dastardly unions
Henri
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Ah, unions...
Unions... sending American jobs overseas for 100 years...
Truly our loss.
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Re: Ah, unions...
Henri
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Film at 11.
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