Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Could I have been a great teacher without a union? No, never. « JD2718

Could I have been a great teacher without a union? No, never. « JD2718

Could I have been a great teacher without a union? No, never.

by Lynne Winderbaum

So you ask me, “Why did you need a union? You had a good reputation as a teacher, good reports from your supervisors, loved your job, and thanks to social networking, have students who keep in touch with you from a career that spanned nearly forty years. Couldn’t this have happened without your union?” No, never.

What we want from our existence is very simple really. We want to be able to support our families. We want to be able to take care of their health needs. We want to be able to protect them if we die or are too disabled to work. We want respect in the workplace. We want to be able to provide our children with an education that will give them a life better than the one we led. Women want to the right to raise their children and return to their