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When Teachers Strike: A Memoir
The American Thinker ^ | February 19, 2011 | Beverly Gunn

Posted on 02/19/2011 3:20:38 AM PST by Scanian

In the early fall of 1980, our family was stationed at an Army Post named Ft. Huachuca, Arizona. The town next to the base was Sierra Vista, Arizona. The teachers of Sierra Vista schools became a testing ground for collective bargaining by the NEA, in one of their early excursions into union control vs taxpayers. But a strange turn of events happened that fall that bear revisiting, since the strikes in Wisconsin center around collective bargaining, and as a consequence, local taxes.

In 1980, teachers at all the schools in the town of Sierra Vista decided to go on strike. They were encouraged by the NEA to do so, since the NEA was powering up to unionize in other states and to try to control local issues usually decided by local tax districts and local taxpayers. The teachers called the strike and schools closed, but the Mayor and Superintendent of schools in the town of Sierra Vista conferred with each other and agreed that collective bargaining would take away from local taxpayers the ability to control local taxes. Collective bargaining may work in a private institutional setting, but when local taxes are involved, collective bargaining essentially means loss of local control, or taxation without representation.

After the two men conferred, they called upon the Commander of Ft. Huachuca. The men came with a simple idea and it was this: many officers worked at the post and many lived in town, so this was affecting their children who were missing school. The men asked the Commander of the Fort if he would ask the officer's wives to commit to come in and cross the picket lines and keep the local schools open, for the betterment of the community. The idea was a sound one because many officer wives held college degrees.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: nea; parents; sierravistaaz; volunteers; wisconsinshowdown
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So, union folks, are parents who volunteer to break a teachers' strike "scabs?"
1 posted on 02/19/2011 3:20:44 AM PST by Scanian
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To: Scanian
The Governor needs to issue an order saying that ANY teacher, who signed a contract with that school to work for that year, is NOT in his/her classroom Monday morning, that teacher should be FIRED IMMEDIATELY AND WITHOUT CAUSE. The only excuse should be is if the teacher is dead....if there are teachers in the hospital, they need to be wheeled in. If teachers have kids at home who are sick, employ nurses to take care of the kids during the day.

In the meantime, hire as many people with a college degree you can (and maybe a few who have real-life experience who don't) to step into those classrooms and take over....the certification can come later. I predict that if he does this, the collective scores on the students' Comprehensive Tests go up.

This is the Governor's Air Traffic Controller moment.

2 posted on 02/19/2011 3:41:10 AM PST by MuttTheHoople (Democrats- Forgetting 9/11 since 9/12/01)
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To: Scanian
"Collective bargaining may work in a private institutional setting, ..."

Check with Bethlehem Steel to see how well it worked.

3 posted on 02/19/2011 3:45:25 AM PST by Thom Pain (November 2, 2010, Step ONE. Repeal 17th, Step TWO. 11/6/2012, Step THREE)
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To: MuttTheHoople

Walker seems like a sharp guy but would he do such a thing in a historically blue state: the home of progressivism and isolationism?


4 posted on 02/19/2011 3:45:41 AM PST by Scanian
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To: Thom Pain

MAY is the operative word.

The fact that unions are down to something like 8% representation in the private sector really says it all.

But the unions have excellent propagandists and they make there “services” sound appealing. Once they get going, however, worker opinions usually change.


5 posted on 02/19/2011 3:48:45 AM PST by Scanian
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To: MuttTheHoople

I agree, the governor needs to fire every teacher who is protesting, whether actively in the streets or by calling in sick. Those who are genuinely sick would be the only ones exempted.


6 posted on 02/19/2011 3:56:24 AM PST by rawhide
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To: Scanian
It's a new day in Wisconsin. When I would go up there for Green Bay Packer games (my dad and step-mom have season tickets, YIPPEE!!), I had the impression that the Wisconsonians I met were Moderate to Very conservative. Of course, I stayed in Appleton and was around a bunch of brat-eating, beer-drinking Packers fans, but still.

Being the provacateur I am, in 2004 I wore a Bush/Cheney pin on my shirt the Saturday before heading up to watch the Packers play the Giants. We stopped in Kenosha to buy Usinger Brats and soft cheddar cheese at Mars Cheese Castle. When we were in the bar having a drink, the bartender noticed my pin. He asked me, "You support Bush?" I pointed to my pin and said, "Yep". "Don't worry", he replied, "you're among friends".

My guess is that there's a coalition of blue-collar conservatives and former liberals (who grew up Wisconsin Socialist as kids) who are disgusted by the National Politics of the Marxists running our country, and want something done. With 20% effective unemployment in our country, I'm pretty sure there are more than a few qualified people who could fill those teaching slots IN A HEARTBEAT.

7 posted on 02/19/2011 3:59:10 AM PST by MuttTheHoople (Democrats- Forgetting 9/11 since 9/12/01)
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To: rawhide
Those who are genuinely sick would be the only ones exempted.

I disagree. Wheel them in as well. Have them checked by a doctor or nurse at the school. This is far too serious to let anyone take off. We have 20% effective unemployment in this country, and there are tens of thousands of teachers and professionals around the country who'd jump on the next plane and take one of those jobs (I know I would).

8 posted on 02/19/2011 4:02:18 AM PST by MuttTheHoople (Democrats- Forgetting 9/11 since 9/12/01)
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To: MuttTheHoople
Have them checked by a doctor or nurse at the school.

Getting a second opinion is a good idea, especially when it's so easy to get a 'doctor's excuse' from a sympathetic doctor (or a crooked doctor's office where, say, the receptionist's husband has a union job). I'm sure that a few people are/were sick and those can generally be weeded out. But ANYBODY who claimed sickness and was present (and video-recorded) at the protest should be fired ASAP.

Just to make the commies nervous, I'd put out a well-publicized ad searching for new teachers. A threat of competition would certainly pull back the ones that don't really believe in the union's socialist goals.

9 posted on 02/19/2011 4:13:30 AM PST by meyer (We will not sit down and shut up.)
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To: Scanian

The thing is that today it’s a lot easier for parents to access education for their children because of the availability of homeschooling curriculum. I don’t know what the homeschooling laws are in Wisconsin, but I think perhaps the governor should look into making them less onerous if they already are.

We really don’t need to depend on public schools if more parents would be willing to educate their children at home. Maybe unions who urge their members to strike should be given that message.


10 posted on 02/19/2011 4:21:35 AM PST by goldi (')
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To: Scanian

Sarah says, “Teachers of the schools, unite, and throw off your chains. You have nothing to lose but your union goons and you can keep your union dues!”


11 posted on 02/19/2011 4:53:49 AM PST by RoadTest (Organized religion is no substitute for the relationship the living God wants with you.)
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To: Scanian

I can’t think of any positive role for unions since the early part of the last century. My whole family worked at one time or another for steel companies, phone companies, etc. I saw the union corruption. I was “advised” by a union thug. I saw Beth Steel forced by union rules to pay 5 men to do the work of 1. I now see retirees left destitute partially due to the false promises made by union bosses who made fortunes. Unions prevent market forces from working, thereby destroying the processes whereby top performers prosper and poor performers step up or step out. My sense is that unionization has totally destroyed our education system in the U.S. They are simply legalized mobs now.


12 posted on 02/19/2011 4:54:21 AM PST by Thom Pain (November 2, 2010, Step ONE. Repeal 17th, Step TWO. 11/6/2012, Step THREE)
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To: Scanian
After the failed strike one of the former strikers comes to the author and says “I don't know what I was thinking”>

But the Teacher DID get into bed with thugs and vicious punks for filthy lucre didn't he/she/it? I wonder what the Teachers attitude would have been had the strike been “successful?

13 posted on 02/19/2011 4:57:09 AM PST by TalBlack ( Evil doesn't have a day job.)
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To: TalBlack; Thom Paine

The thing to remember about labor-management relations is: THROW LOGIC RIGHT OUT THE WINDOW.

It is driven by emotion and prejudicial attitudes 100%.

When things cool off and the goons stop and think for a minute, they often regret their actions and over-reaction.

Getting them to think is, in my experience, next to impossible. They love the cheap thrill of lashing out at “the Man” too much.


14 posted on 02/19/2011 5:02:12 AM PST by Scanian
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To: TalBlack

-——But the Teacher DID get into bed with thugs and vicious punks——

Richard Trumka was there. He is a bone fide terrorist who led the United Mine Workers of America during a terrorism campaign in Southwest Virginia in 1988.


15 posted on 02/19/2011 5:05:56 AM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. N.C. D.E. +12 ....( History is a process, not an event ))
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To: Scanian

In Pennsylvania, it’s against the law to hire replacement teachers during a strike, thanks to a law signed by that so-called “conservative” Democrat governor, Bob Casey,SR.

When teachers strike, they have to make up all the days that they were on strike so the little darlings get all the indoctrination they can, and the teachers get paid for those make up days. So, when teachers strike, unlike your local factory, it costs the teachers nothing.


16 posted on 02/19/2011 5:08:33 AM PST by Daveinyork
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To: Daveinyork

In my state, they go to jail. In NYC, just the threat of a strike lands them in jail and the courts have upheld that.


17 posted on 02/19/2011 5:24:07 AM PST by goldi (')
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To: Thom Pain

Collective bargaining rips the guts out of productivity and eventually drives business’s down and out. “Right to work” is the way to go.


18 posted on 02/19/2011 5:26:46 AM PST by dps.inspect (the system is rigged...)
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To: dps.inspect

Collective bargaining rips the guts out of productivity and eventually drives business’s down and out. “Right to work” is the way to go.

Indiana just lost a big company to virginia over right to work.


19 posted on 02/19/2011 5:55:12 AM PST by scooby321
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To: MuttTheHoople

Appleton was and may still be the headquarters of the John Birch Society. Which except for their nutty conspiracy theories is a very constitutional conservative group.


20 posted on 02/19/2011 5:55:12 AM PST by Jabba the Nutt (.Are they stupid, malicious or evil?)
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