The NEA is all about power and money – in their own words!

Still not convinced from my previous post that this labor dispute with the unions isn’t about money, dues money in particular? Take a listen and hear it direct from the horse’s mouth.

Clear. Concise. To the point. The NEA has its priorities in order and your child’s education is nowhere near the top despite the lip service they give to it. It’s about the power and the money.

That’s precisely what the newest battle is about in Indiana. At issue is the fact that the union wants non-union people to still pay dues absent any rights of representation. Simply put, they want the dues money. They need it to get democrats re-elected and continue the cycle.

History has shown us that the union will raise wages as high as feasible and then switch to benefits for future gains. Take the UAW. The perfect example. Once their wages were tapped out, in down economic times they would then go after the increased benefits. We saw the eventual outcome when GM and Chrysler were driven into failure and went bankrupt because it was unsustainable to pay out the enormous pension and health care costs.

This is why the union will fight so hard to retain collective bargaining rights for benefits. The union strategy is to concede on pension and health care costs, but retain bargaining rights for the future when they have a stronger hand to get them back.

Remember, this budget crunch the states are facing is really a 2008 recession issue. The only reason it didn’t come to a head then was the stimulus bailout money funneled to the states to buy some time. That’s all stimulus ever does is delay the inevitable.

I’ve also stated that all of these battles with public labor unions are essentially pointless, unless the GOP governors completely cave-in on future bargaining rights. None of it matters because the economic reality will be the great equalizer here. The states are broke. Period. The unions will lose one way or the other. Either relinquish any wages and benefit demands or face certain layoffs. It’s not a what-if, it’s a when scenario.

Option B is not a good one either for those that may think any perceived union victories are good. If the teachers win, as it appears they will in Indiana since now ex-GOP sweetheart Mitch Daniels has caved-in on the entire debate, the result will be future layoffs. Then you get what Detroit just got slapped with yesterday. Forced school closings and layoffs leading to increased class sizes. The average class size in Detroit is now projected to be 60 kids. That’s bad news for everybody. But then again, the NEA made it clear that quality education was never their priority.

We have teachers that lie. We have doctors performing unethical acts. We have legislators spitting on the democratic process. We have students that suffer the fallout from all of the above. Yet through it all, the main priority never changes. Political power and greed for money. I, for one, hope that the public-sector unions have finally over-reached and will get their due. It will be an ugly process to transition away from the NEA and the teacher’s unions, but one that will be far more beneficial to our children in the long run.