:banghead: You can amend contract when you negotiate.
Which, the union refused to do without making major gains that would offset the whole point of saving the money on the health insurance in the first place.
Bottom line, the lost nothing in services while the city saved 40 million dollars.
I really hope the city cuts deep into union jobs to make up that 40 million they’re now going to have to dump back into multiple health plans.
Lets not forget this change was made in 2005, AFTER the contract that specified multiple providers expired and a new contract could not be agreed on.
I can make the argument that the city didn’t make any consessions, they simply said this is how its going to be now sign the contract.
What gains are you talking about? Each side needs to give ground but when the city doesn’t give you any breathing room how can you negotiate?
Bottom line is the city is fucked, too many people making shit money equals no tax revenue. Yet you still want to have people with master degrees who get treated like shit by the administration to do a job that no one really wants and then cut thier benifits.
You make it sound like the teachers are selfish, all they want is the same thing that any other teacher would get.
Maybe a bit off topic but, what is the student to employee ratio in Buffalo school system?
^ Are you even reading what you’re posting?
You admit the city is in deep trouble financially, then say that the city should have to give the teachers concessions to get them to switch to a single health provider providing identical coverage to what they had. If these teachers/union really were in it for the noble goal of educating children they would allow the change to a single provider with no concession needed. They’re not giving anything up, and they’re saving a city that is on the brink 40 million dollars.
It doesn’t surprise me your stance since you’re in the teachers union, but it does surprise me where Joe is standing on this one.
It’s not like it’s costing the union $40 million dollars… It’s not costing them a damn thing to go to one provider. But they see that $40 million in savings and know they can cling to that 4 provider health system and use it to squeeze a little more blood from the stone that is the Buffalo school system. That’s the definition of greedy scumbags.
Buffalo teachers already get treated like shit. They have class sizes twice as big as their suburban counterparts, and the classes have twice as many fuckups. Those of you who say to lay off half of them are idiots. So then their classes can be 60 kids, instead? That’s some education :picard:
Phil could have agreed to this concession when they asked mid-contract as a token of good faith, but why should they have? I mean, the teachers still never got fairly compensated on their backpay issue and they had to fight the district for 10 years on that.
this district has shown that if you give a mouse a cookie…they’re going to start bending you over for more than single provider health insurance. If the district wants concessions, they should either negotiate better at contract time or stop playing hardasses.
i can agree that they cant set the precedent. you dont want people breaking contracts all over the place.
but blocking this just doesnt make any fucking sense.
Joe, blowing 40 million dollars helps “all that shit by you” how exactly?
because if they went along with it then the next move would have cost them something tangible. this was a warning shot. next would have been elimination of positions, bigger class sizes, less benefits, or something along those lines.
I bet if they got a signed statement from the district that the $40 mil concession means they’ll leave their contract alone from slashing anything further they would have signed it.
Unions are a relic of the pre WWII days. You want to see what the power of unions can do? Take a ride along the water front on rte 5 from the Ford plant to DT.
You wanna see what lack of unions can do? Take a look at the pay and benefits for private schoolteachers with masters degrees. It’s disgusting.
Do something else? :gotme: Hmm your off more than you work, stick around for a while and get tenure, set for life. Fuck i went to OP and one of our gym teachers was making 115k a year for handing out dodge balls, coaching football and lacrosse. I have no pitty for them.
EDIT: i just saw you said private school… idk if u edited your post or im blind :D… but all the same, you pick your career path. I think i might teach. Orchard Park/ Williamsville type district and im set
OP = good district, unionized
Buffalo = bad district, unionized
Private = nonunionized
Private school teachers start in the 20 thousands. And tenure? LOL
shit, If I could make enough to live comfortably and get summers off I’d take a paycut to teach lol
i sincerely hope that is a joke.
for those of you who think teachers should make shit money, that would lead to no smart people being teachers, is that what you want?
Your not going to find any teacher making over 100k and if you do they are probably old as fuck on a pay scale set during the 50’s.
I am a teacher, I love my job but its more work than you think. And I don’t know a single teacher that doesn’t work over the summer so you can throw the whole “you get summers off” right out the door.
I think teachers in the public sector get a fair wage. With the christmas-easter breaks. But I will never make more than 70k teaching and yet if I were in the private sector working as a businessman with masters in business I could probably get a job where I would starting out at 50k and work my way up to loads of money.
Teachers in the private sector get paid below poverty level. The average salary in a private school is closer to 18k a year, how the fuck can you explain that?
Cutting benefits and freezing wages will only force more teachers to leave increasing the student/teacher ratio and lowering the already dismal quality of education in the city.
yeah, that is pretty weak. 18K wont get you very far even in buffalo
why don’t they just go into the public sector then? How could they even survive outside of buffalo (LA or NYC)? That salary wouldn’t even pay rent let alone food/water
Cutting benefits and freezing wages will only force more teachers to leave increasing the student/teacher ratio and lowering the already dismal quality of education in the city.
what do you think is the reason for the bad education education rates in the city? It’d be interesting to get a teachers point of view
wow, alot of stupid replys in this thread. I guess thats what happens when you bring up discussions like this on a car forum. Unions are important. Without them people with skilled labor and training would have to live in poverty. Quality control would go down to shit because all the skilled labor would leave the area.
The children are the future, as cliche as it sounds, we need good teachers.
The city has the problems of classroom sizes, lack of resources and extracurricular or elective classes. Many city schools don’t have band or art programs.
Also the home life of many of these kids run in contradiction to school expectations. Since many of the parents or parent or grandparent as the case may be did not receive a higher education and just started working some dead end job right out of school, there isn’t an emphasis at home to succeed educationally speaking.
Look at the drop out rate in the city its close to 40% or something, thats because parents don’t fight with there kids to stay in school.
For me dropping out of high school was never an option, for many freshman, the second they turn 16 they are out.
Also the types of teachers you can see in the city schools varies. Don’t get me wrong there are some amazing teachers in the city schools but there is also some terrible ones. I once met a teacher who was teaching AP American history to 8 seniors and he didn’t even bother to set them up to take the AP exam, those students received no credit for the course in the eyes of colleges and when I asked the students why they simply say they never learn anything so what was the point.
When I substituted for them and talked about the 60’s, they said they learned more in my one class then they did for the whole month. I’m sure they were exaggerating but still.
Buffalo teachers are given the same expectations to succeed but are given twice the workload and half the resources.