No unions: Government by the rich, for the rich
- Ken Bernstein: Public workers under attack; collective bargaining rights targeted
- Breaking unions gives corporations, GOP allies even more power, Bernstein says
- Bernstein: Wealthy should pay fair share in taxes; public workers did not cause gap
- Unions gave us 40-hour week, benefits, higher wages, paid vacations, sick leave, he writes
Editor's note: Kenneth Bernstein is a National Board certified social studies teacher at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, Maryland, where he serves as the lead union representative for the teachers. He blogs as "teacherken" at Daily Kos and has written for The New York Times, Teacher, and Huffington Post. He is a 2010 Washington Post Agnes Meyer Outstanding Teacher.
Recent weeks have seen attacks on public employees in several states. In New Jersey, Ohio, and Wisconsin, newly elected Republican governors are seeking to remove the right to collective bargaining, except perhaps on wages, and to eliminate or shift a major portion of the costs for pensions upon the workers.
Longstanding procedures that guarantee due process for experienced teachers, commonly called tenure, are being targeted for elimination.
Let's be clear what is going on. Only three of the top 10 spenders in the most recent elections were unions. Among the others were