ivan

I admit to being bewildered by your distinctions. in pure democracies all questions are resolved by a vote of the entire citizenry. this obviously is a pain in the ass for most day to day decisions, but truly important for major life-or-death type one. in pure republics every X number of people get a representative who goes and makes decisions in their name - they make those decisions as part of a deliberative body which go by a wide variety of names: town councils, legislatures, assemblies, parliaments, dumas, congresses, rep councils, ad nauseam in both systems, to quote Jefferson, "governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed" - that is, all governments derive their authority to rule from the willingness of the people to be ruled - this Jeffersonian ideal operates irrespective of the form of government: monarchy, communist, plutarchy, theocracy, etc. my union's form of government is like that of our nation - it mostly uses republican (representative) approaches to resolving problems, but does occasionally call for all members to get involved (to approve contracts and labor actions for example)

what does that even mean? as a union leader, I have zero interest in defending shitty teachers - said teachers generally speaking do things which come with consequences I couldn't "save" them from even if I wanted to - not showing up to work, showing up wasted, touching or tormenting the kids, not co-operating with evaluation, working w/ colleagues, actually grading papers, etc. etc. - when members do these things, everybody wants them to go away as jim says, the union's in large part present to protect us from the capricious behavior of administrators, whose preferred solution to many problems is simply to get rid of everybody around them. also agree w/ jim on/ his analysis of teachers interest in unionism - it's extremely similar to their willingness to participate in any other political activity at any other level - the majority of the membership is apathetic and self-obsessed, which is understandable as that's just how the human-monkey seems to roll - like any political community, they tend to need some combination of fear and anger to move at all I find most members don't care about the union until they've needed it, and then they're suddenly very appreciative - not unlike folks who are indifferent to the police until the wolves are at the door

not true, for several reasons: 1. no one has to be part of the union if they don't want to, they can "opt out" - my district has several "agency fee payers" who pay no dues, but do have to pay a yearly fee for the contract negotiation we do on their behalf 2.most of what a local union does is non-political (at least as it is commonly understood) - we negotiate a contract - we oversee the implementation of the contract - we deal with issues between members and management - we run a scholarship program for kids - we have social events - we put on professional trainings 3. the political part of the union (called WEA-PAC) is an "opt in" situation - this is the part that hires lobbyists, puts out political ads, interviews candidates for elections, and issues recommendations to voters on how to vote - folks who don't to be in the union at all don't pay for the politics part - members who don't want to be involved politically don't pay - just members who choose to be involved are part of WEA-PAC (about 75% of my 400 members)

so, in theory, it's fine for a union of private-school teachers to go on strike? is it extortion to demand that a legislature honor the will of the voters that their kindergartens not have to compete w/ 30 other kids for attention? maybe i've watched too much of the sopranos, that's just not how i understand that word.

why do you assume rich folks who run governments are going to be more enlightened in their relations w/ labor than the same folks dealing in their private businesses with their employees? if the latter justifies unions, why wouldn't the former? i know i've given up on you long ago, i just can't for the life of me see how you fail to grasp that basic logic... most teachers have kids in public schools as well and have no more interest in seeing them harmed than in their professional charges who's using kids as shields? the current testing regime requires autistic children w/ zero awareness of the outside world to submit to hours and hours of meaningless assessments in order to honor the conservative pipe-dream of "accountability?"

shocking conclusions yeah, monica stonier, total union cigar smoker n' hater of kids, you got that pegged man - ole lizzie's a true lady of the people

yup, if history's taught us anything, it's the clear need to break the back of workers ability to get redress south carolina has plenty of space for pricks such as yourself, and a long, rich history of sneering at uppity slaves too, you oughta consider re-settling?

perhaps a trifle, but the political action/contribution part of my union (which members have to opt into under state law) is not universally anti-Republican party - here in SW WA we have endorsed several Republican candidates (i've hosted some of them in my government classes)

also, my comment wasn't that there are Republicans and Democrats in the membership (though indeed that is true, albeit w/ an imbalance) - i meant that we use both republican institutions (like deliberative representative councils at the local, state and national levels) and democratic approaches (majority votes of the entire membership on contracts and labor-actions) as part of our scheme of self-government

that teachers are more inclined to liberalism is hardly odd - what avocation isn't accompanied by leanings in ideology? i'm pretty certain most stock-brokers aren't inclined to socialism the fact that locals (like those in the tri-cities) in solid-red eastern washington are joining into walk-outs indicates this is more than just a buncha surrender-monkeys pissed off at the lack of soy-lattes in the breakroom

Any parent who had to use PTO for day care paid a cost that isn't offset in the future. Second you have no way of knowing anyone finances and child care situation so any "hey it just offset later" is simply bullshit. There certainly is a impact on people lives - that was part of the intention. To say there was "No effect" can only be considered either mindless babble or an outright misstatement of fact. I have talked to parent irritated with having to deal with the impact. This irritation is an expressed purpose of the "strike" otherwise it would pass without notice. The impact might not be huge but is exists. a protest that doesn't irritate is hardly worthy of the name - the intent was to offer a protest that would be would sufficient to gain attention, but not enough to cause anything like significant harm - teachers are parents too, you might recall - we also found ourselves needing to take care of our kids on what's normally a working day

sure, COLA is a part of this, but the democratic majorities voting for this are motivated by a constellation of grievances: - testing schemes that are insane (jesus, teachers are OF COURSE okay w/ the idea of testing in general - but why are elementary kids getting 5 continuous weeks of tests thrown at them that require (if you'll allow a wee-bit of hyperbole to simplify the conversation) 9 year olds to demonstrate mastery of calculus (and using said tests to make life-or-death decisions about the teacher entrusted w/ this quixotic task?) - seizure of local communities power to improve their schools beyond what the state offers - class sizes that are nearly the worst in the nation - continual adding of new tasks w/o removal of old ones - massive sub-shortages (the result of the fact that education schools (the source of most subs - kids looking for a full-time job and looking to get into the system) are seeing huge decreases in enrollment given the pointlessness of the profession in current conditions) - the annihilation of bargaining rights - the willful flouting of basic democratic concepts (initiatives, supreme court decisions) - the realization that all of the above will continue and accelerate if the status quo continues

Ha I was thinking how incredibly pompous it was to call it a strike. I imagine many of the teachers saying we are following in this grand tradition. Back then strikers: 1) Gave up pay 2) face politicians bought by the evil company owner 3) company production stopped 4) strikers often got their ass kicked and lost jobs Today: 1) Dont lose pay despite breaking their contract 2) workers have paid off the elected government via campaign donations 3) production doesnt stop 4) workers go back and all is good at work 5) The lowest paid families using the school system face the highest cost of the strike i agree the use of the term "strike" has been inconsistent - i've said "let's be serious, this ain't selma" about a thousand time over the past fortnight - i see folks on your side of the ledger far more eager to roll it out at any rate these rolling walk-outs are a species of saber-rattling to be sure - but the point of saber-rattling is, in the end, to remind an opponent that you have a saber, no? strikes worthy of the name ARE a serious possibility, as the recent show of force illustrates - i am NOT desirous of it, for all the reason's on your little list, but than most sensible soldiers would prefer to only play at war as well i do take issue with #5 on your list - there is no effect on families of any socio-economic level - sure, they paid for childcare today, but they won't pay for it next month when they would've otherwise - ALSO, every local in SW WA today choose this day b/c it's already an early release day for elementary kids, so parents already had early daycare factored into their plans

my state union has 85,000 members - we are both a democratic and republican institution - i was recently 1 of 1200 representatives that (nearly unamiously) called on locals to support rolling walkouts in the spring and open-ended strikes at summer's end if the court's contempt charge stands - the walk-out that my local just did today was the result of a vote of nearly all 400 of our members, and approved by 2/3 of them - the fantasy that a handful of fat-cats at the top call the shots is just that, but i do understand WHY it's a useful fantasy unions are a form of self-government - like all organs of government, they must be checked and balanced - nobody in a union is saying otherwise

how often do gov's hand the people un-funded mandates? i like the irony of that hammer swinging both ways.

I732 (teacher COLAs - the question at hand) passed by 63%, hombre - would you say that's not a clear mandate? I1351 has nothing to do w/ teacher pay - on that topic though, if the election rules say you need better than 50% to win, do you really wanna wander down the road of "weeeeeeeeell, this initiative i didn't like DID get better than 50%, but fuck-it!"?

seen a fair bit of humorous arguing over whether the "strike" word is apropos lately too - kinda like splitting hairs between "tussle" "skirmish" "battle" or "Armageddon" - comparing what i saw today to, say, the famous pullman strike is like comparing the first day of a little-league practice to game 7 of the world series

i thought the shitty weather worked in our favor - nobody's tempted to go fucking golfing instead and it made for a fine metaphor: state funding for education is similarly mercurial, but unlike the weather, we actually CAN do something about the legislature

pretty sure that neat little neologism goes both ways, as more than a few conservatives discovered in france, circa 1798

more than 50 locals have now taken this action - all together they teach 1/4 of the state's kids - even locals east of the mountains are joining in - this benign walk-out movement isn't out of steam yet, and it underscores a serious threat at summer's end if ignored olympia called a special session recently and in 5 days gave boeing 9 billion, and they mostly left anyway - teachers aren't going anywhere, and we're half-way through the 30 day session now w/ no end in sight.

it appears a lock now that the legislature is going to give itself a 11% COLA - i appreciate they haven't had one since we stopped getting ours and i see no reason to call them money-grubbing whores - public service shouldn't require taking a vow of poverty - yet why the double-standard when it comes to teachers making the same case (and having the clear mandate of a voter initiative to boot?)

i'd think many conservatives would be opposed to the state seizing control from local school districts? if the voters of your school district say they want to chip in more money to add onto what the state's given, do you really want the state to seize that levy and give it to somebody else? why would voters even continue to support local levies in that case?

jesus, after 2 frantic weeks of work getting ready for today, it sure didn't FEEL like a day off what jim said - yup, it's really a wash, we just gave up a day of summer to make a point, hardly worth getting hysterical over - the only folks really who took a hit here were seniors, who actually lose the day b/c graduation stays fixed - i teach a great number of conservative 18 year olds, and they exemplified the rule that every man is quick to set aside his convictions when he stands to gain by doing so - not a whisper of reproach i tell ye as to it being illegal - uh...like...doing illegal things is often the only way to get anything done - war's illegal yet how many things has it sorted out? black folks sitting in white restaurants was illegal for a long time. all them injuns chucked a bunch of tea into boston harbor once and conservatives today are still enamored w/ it isn't ignoring the results of multiple voter initiatives and a supreme court order illegal too?

i like that british conservatives come off way-less retarded than american conservatives - i don't think the british system is capable of generating a george w? old gee-dub couldn't have lasted 10 minutes of prime ministers question time

A decade ago, I had to take a mandatory LE class called Tactical Communications in Critical Incidents for my CJ degree, due to the then-"rash" of cop-on-citizen deaths. Nope... this shit's been going on forever. Is it getting worse? No.. it's actually probably getting a little better... but coverage and attention are skyrocketing. Just like violent crime rates - perception of increase increases when media coverage increases, even if rates have actually plummeted. I'm not saying there isn't a problem in LE. There is. I'm not a fan of the entire system. But let's be honest about shit. i've assumed this - i figure waves of public-attention, for whatever reason they form, are critical to moving the ball down the field - afterall, southern cops probably weren't being any more crazy racist in the 1960s then they'd been in the 1920s, it's just the media decided to start caring in the 1960s - clearly that level of interest has waxed and waned, and not been even close to totally effective in solving the problem, but it must have been at least a little bit useful?