WHY ARE WE EVEN BARGAINING SICK DAYS? IT SHOULD BE THE LAW
For some reason the change to the Chicago Public School/Chicago Teacher Union contract regarding sick days has popped up as something controversial.
The contract that came out of a two week strike by CTU members resulted in a significant increase in the number of sick days that could be banked and applied as pensionable credit.
Then CPS lied by a factor of six about how many sick days teachers were using and the media ran with the bogus numbers.
Then the Tribune’s liberal columnist, Eric Zorn, declared the practice of applying unused sick days as pensionable credit was not what he considered an actual benefit and so, wasn’t fair.
It is difficult to argue with what Eric Zorn thinks because it rarely makes a lot of sense. I was just going to ignore it.
But it started me thinking about sick days.
Many non-union and low-paid workers in the U.S. don’t get any sick days. By making a thing about teacher sick days, the Sun-Times, people like Zorn and his right-wing counter part in the Illinois Policy Institute are pushing a politics of resentment.
Just like what they do with public employee pensions.
They want folks mad at those fellow workers who get a little more, hoping it will CONTINUE READING: Why are we even bargaining sick days? It should be the law. – Fred Klonsky
