- Joined
- Aug 27, 2005
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The main thing that hamstrings the public sector with unions is being forced to lay off based on seniority rather than merit. That's the biggie. That's it. When unions agree to accept lay offs based upon merit, the war will be over. Unfortunately, that means that seniority teachers (and others) who would not even be able to pass the teachers' exams that the current teachers must pass, who have records of performance mediocrity and ineffectiveness, must be kept.
In California, every budget cutting effort that tried to avoid lay offs has been taken to court by the unions, and in many cases overturned by judges who have no choice because of the tightly-locked union contracts that give unions the right to force lay offs (based on seniority) rather than allow budget cutting by furloughs, wage freeze or other methods.
The contracts have draconean clauses that make it impossible to make any cuts to union costs without the union's permission. Who ratified these draconean union contracts, with California public sector employees making more than their counterparts around the country? The overwhelmingly democratic legislature that depends upon union votes and union campaign contributions to keep their cushy jobs.
This is totally backward, tail-wagging-dog fiscal strategy based upon partisian politics and greed. It's got to stop sometime. Maybe this finally is the time.
The reason for any seniority system is so that, when someone is close to being vested for pension, they cannot be laid off in order to kill his or her pension benefits. Without seniority, you see that kind of tactic employed every day. When I was let go by Texas Instruments, back in 1985, I was only 2 weeks away from being vested for pension. In spite of that, I still value my time with Texas Instruments more than I value the time I spent at my previous job with Lear-Siegler, where I was in the UAW, and where I hated every moment that I worked there.
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