TEACHERS – DON’T BE FOOLED BY THE OLD “DIVIDE AND CONQUER” TRICK
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The pension reform ideas being studied by the Illinois legislative committee have been leaked to the public. Many teachers I talk to are happy about the committee”s idea to allow active teachers to put 1% LESS of their paycheck into the pension fund. While retired teachers are going to be hammered by a great reduction in the “cost of living” and in other ways, active teachers will benefit from the 1% idea. I hear many retired teachers saying that they are fine with the 1% idea because the teachers had to be “tossed a bone of some sort”. They believe committee members were trying to reach out to teachers and retirees by giving them the 1% bonus.
NO, NO NO ! My fellow teachers, do not fall for this old “divide and conquer technique”. Don’t you see what’s going on here ? This is similar to what school boards tried to do in teacher contract negotiations. The school boards often tried to divide the union by offering large raises to teachers with less experience, and smaller raises to those with more time in the system. The tactic tried to divide the union and save money at the same time. Teachers on the low-end of the salary scale were thrilled to possibly get a large raise while the older teachers were irate at their small raise offer. That is why we always negotiated for a uniform pay raise, the same percentage for everyone.
Do you actually think that the committee members are doing this 1% to make teachers feel less hostile about “pension reform” ? What this committee and the legislature really fears is a completely united group of
Yesterday was the first day that policemen and “safety patrol” adults in Chicago escorted students to their new schools as they crossed into gang territories where they previously would not have ventured. The newspaper had a front page picture of a policeman escorting a third-grader as the student walked on the sidewalk to school. ONE POLICEMEN FOR ONE STUDENT ! How pathetic. I assume there was