For You Union Supporters

[Inconel710]

..Crap like this is why you're seeing so much anger thrown at unions.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-10-22/news/ct-met-pensions-teacher-perk-20111023_1_state-teachers-pension-fund-teachers-union-public-pension


Two lobbyists with no prior teaching experience were allowed to count their years as union employees toward a state teacher pension once they served a single day of subbing in 2007, a Tribune/WGN-TV investigation has found.
One day as a substitute teacher and you get to pull down a pension twice what a real teacher makes. That's pretty sweet.


Both lobbyists must make payments to the pension plan to purchase credit for their past union years, and they are required to pay compounded interest. Over the last five years, after the lobbyists joined the plan, the two men and their union have made standard payments into the fund.
So that's good news, right?


The Illinois Federation of Teachers and the lobbyists have made payments totaling $134,703 to the teachers fund to cover Preckwinkle's contributions to date and $98,701 to address Piccioli's contributions to the system. Records showed Preckwinkle still has to purchase most, if not all, of his prior years of union service, but Piccioli has paid for his.
Oh, so it's not all bad, they did have to put some money into the system and continue to pay for their benefit.


Preckwinkle, 59, stands to receive about $2.8 million by the time he turns 78, about $3.8 million if he retires next year and lives until he's 84. Piccioli, 61, stands to collect about $1.1 million by age 78, about $1.7 million if he lives until 84, according to an analysis by the Tribune and WGN-TV.
Well, hot diggity! Sign me up for an investment that returns ten times my money in twenty years! That's freaking awesome!
[Bang][Bang][Bang]

Now I know unions have done a lot of good things and continue to stand up for their members, but they also encourage crap like this which makes ordinary people angry.
[M2]

[Zundfolge]

American Labor Unions; Karl Marx Last Laugh.

(first time I said this was back in the mid 80s)

[ChunkyMonkey]

Thats a lot of BS!

[Bailey Guns]

I dare any of you union supporters to come here and defend this. This type of activity occurs fairly frequently with unions.

[Marlin]

American Labor Unions; Karl Marx Last Laugh

This...

[jplove71]

I dare any of you union supporters to come here and defend this. This type of activity occurs fairly frequently with unions.
I'm a union (Local 113) electrician and I don't support any of what's going like that in Chicago. You do realize that not all local unions are corrupt, right?

[sneakerd]

They may not be corrupt in that sense, but I believe that at this point, unions are there for themselves and to justify their own existence, not to truly support and back the American worker. Oh and also to provide financial support almost exclusively to the American left. The American left in turn redistributes wealth to the unions.

[BigBear]

Wait the F#$%^ up... You mean as a teacher I could be making $100K a year just for a DAY of subbing.... instead of barely pulling $25K after taxes and having to put up with all the BS I do?!?!?! (But Bear, you get summers and other vacations off) Bull #$%5#$^ #$%#$^. Come work a year in my shoes. I'm not some sissy ass low grade high school math teacher who gets to read a book to the class for 6 months and call it good till next year. (no offense to math teachers... just sissy ass, low grade high school ones).... Sign my fat ass up!!

Sarcasm folks. I still think most unions are #$%^#$%&^#$@$#%.

[OutdoorsNative]

Unions are the downfall of this country. At one point in time they served a real purpose. Now there only purpose is to take as much money as they can.

[TDYRanger]

Teachers make jack SH!T. Pointing them out as a reason the economy is screwed is like pointing out a flee on your arm when a shark is eating your leg. Average compensation for teachers is about $42000. Average for School district administrators (non union) Assistant Superintendent $75K-$120K, Principals $75K-$90K, Athletic Director $50K-$90K. Roy Romer when he took over LA county school Superintendent he was knocking down a cool $2.5M a year (the equivalent of 60 teachers rough and dirty) that number does not include bonuses he he received for school performances.

Are there unions that are over paid.... (MLB,NFL,NBA and others) sure. Teachers are not one.

[TDYRanger]

Unions are the downfall of this country. At one point in time they served a real purpose. Now there only purpose is to take as much money as they can.

As opposed to corporate CEO's interesting. I'm pretty sure i'd have at least 5 things that are way bigger on the downfall of America scale

[roberth]

Unions are the downfall of this country.

I'm going to disagree with you here.

Big government is the downfall of this country.


At one point in time they served a real purpose. Now there only purpose is to take as much money as they can.

The problem with most unions is that the union protects both the good worker and the lazy bastard. The union should work to help itself and the company by allowing the poor performers to be released.

Unions also work as adversaries of the companies whose employees they are supposed to represent, this environment frankly makes doing business in the United States unpalatable so the companies leave this country.

Corporate officers, CEO, CFO, etc. are beholden to the shareholders, every decision they make is supposed to be for the good of the shareholder. The shareholder could be you and your 401K or other retirement plan so before anyone starts blaming CEOs for the country's ills you might want to see if you are blaming yourself.

[ChunkyMonkey]

Teachers make jack SH!T. Pointing them out as a reason the economy is screwed is like pointing out a flee on your arm when a shark is eating your leg. Average compensation for teachers is about $42000. Average for School district administrators (non union) Assistant Superintendent $75K-$120K, Principals $75K-$90K, Athletic Director $50K-$90K. Roy Romer when he took over LA county school Superintendent he was knocking down a cool $2.5M a year (the equivalent of 60 teachers rough and dirty) that number does not include bonuses he he received for school performances.

Are there unions that are over paid.... (MLB,NFL,NBA and others) sure. Teachers are not one.

That only proves union does not improve teachers salary. My 24 year old niece is a private high school teacher making a tad over 86k w/o union's help. There is such thing as value in your skill. Union=unaccountability.

[Inconel710]

I don't blame teachers for their unions - those were forced on them by a lack of right to work laws.

It's the insane growth in administrative staff that kills me. When I graduated HS a little over 20 years ago, we had one principal, two assistant principals, and two secretaries for about 700 students. Today, that size school has two or three times the staff and each assistant principal makes about twice a teacher's salary. I find that ridiculous especially when computers have made some things much easier than they used to be. Schools have become another bureaucratic beast feeding itself - a self-licking ice cream cone that only serves to justify its own existence.

[tmckay2]

I'm going to disagree with you here.

Big government is the downfall of this country.



The problem with most unions is that the union protects both the good worker and the lazy bastard. The union should work to help itself and the company by allowing the poor performers to be released.

Unions also work as adversaries of the companies whose employees they are supposed to represent, this environment frankly makes doing business in the United States unpalatable so the companies leave this country.

Corporate officers, CEO, CFO, etc. are beholden to the shareholders, every decision they make is supposed to be for the good of the shareholder. The shareholder could be you and your 401K or other retirement plan so before anyone starts blaming CEOs for the country's ills you might want to see if you are blaming yourself.

this is precisely right.

by far the biggest gripe i have with unions is what someone already touched on. they give all their money to the left, who then turns around and allows them to grow fatter and more important. then, when companies decide to leave the country, they blame the right. i think 200 years from now itll be one of those things they learn in history class and kids will sit there and be like "how could an entire society be so stupid as to be duped like that".