"For eleven months, I have tried to spur them to listen, care, and take action, but they consider my questions harassment; the strategy they finally said was, 'If you are fired, we will grieve it, shut up and go away.'"
Now I know why so many school boards "suspend teachers pending an investigation" -- if they fired the teacher outright, then the union would be forced to get involved, and neither the boards nor the unions want that -- it would mean less time at Pro-Hamas rallies. This way, the teacher/instructor is effectively eliminated and no one has to do anything; it's all perfectly anonymous and opaque, and there is no recourse.
Depressing. Do we need to form a meta-union whose job it is to convince the union to do its job of representing us?! Am I imagining it, or are our unions now the pigs at the dinner table in the gut-wrenching closing scene of Orwell's "Animal Farm"?
If ever there was a union that deserves the treatment that the Air Traffic Controllers Union got from Reagan (I.e., you’re all back at work Monday morning or you are fired), it is OPSEU. And CUPE, CUPW, as well as the various teachers unions. Even the leftist hero FDR thought that allowing government employees to unionize was a really bad idea.
"For eleven months, I have tried to spur them to listen, care, and take action, but they consider my questions harassment; the strategy they finally said was, 'If you are fired, we will grieve it, shut up and go away.'"
Now I know why so many school boards "suspend teachers pending an investigation" -- if they fired the teacher outright, then the union would be forced to get involved, and neither the boards nor the unions want that -- it would mean less time at Pro-Hamas rallies. This way, the teacher/instructor is effectively eliminated and no one has to do anything; it's all perfectly anonymous and opaque, and there is no recourse.
Depressing. Do we need to form a meta-union whose job it is to convince the union to do its job of representing us?! Am I imagining it, or are our unions now the pigs at the dinner table in the gut-wrenching closing scene of Orwell's "Animal Farm"?
They are, well said. But nothing forces them to represent members.
I think that a part of the problem is that the academic system is quasi-feudal, which creates rich potential for hypocrisy and double standards.
If ever there was a union that deserves the treatment that the Air Traffic Controllers Union got from Reagan (I.e., you’re all back at work Monday morning or you are fired), it is OPSEU. And CUPE, CUPW, as well as the various teachers unions. Even the leftist hero FDR thought that allowing government employees to unionize was a really bad idea.