You may have noticed lately that being a retired teacher--or an inservice teacher for that matter--feels a lot like being the fictional Cadillac-driving "welfare queen" of 20 years ago. You just know that people look at you like you're "unclean" because you have a pension instead of a good-old-American 401k account. And worse, you have a "union"--said with a sneer--that bargained that pension for you.
I remember another time, before we had a union. When I started teaching at Fredonia in 1967, there was no bargaining about the salary scale. Every year the NY State legislature determined what the minimum salary would be for a public school teacher in the state. If that number went up by $100, all steps on the salary schedule went up by $100. Teachers had no input into that process.
I remember at that same time that a pregnancy meant that the teacher was expected to resign by the beginning of her fifth month. Note that this was not a "maternity leave." You were out with no job to come back to after your baby was born.
Then we unionized, and things changed. We could bargain with our district for wages, benefits and working conditions. Women could take maternity leaves and come back to their jobs after giving birth. We had a say in our professional lives.
I served the Fredonia Teachers Association as negotiator, then president, for several years. We had a good board of education and administration to work with, and negotiations were a benefit to both sides.
Imagine if you had awoken one morning to find that there had been some changes, including the following:
1) Your union could no longer bargain for your benefits such as health care or pension or working conditions. The only legal item for negotiation is wages.
2) While your union could negotiate your wages, they could never increase more than the consumer price index, unless approved by a public vote specifically about the salary increase.
3) Union membership would be optional.
4) Your union dues would no longer be deducted from your paycheck. If you wanted to be part of the union, you would have to write the union a check for dues.
5) There would need to be a secret-ballot election every year concerning keeping your union.
6) Multi-year contracts would be illegal. A new contract would need to be negotiated every year.
7) The above would apply to all public employees in the state, EXCEPT police and firefighters.
This could all come to pass tomorrow (Thursday, 2/18) in Wisconsin. It's important to us because if it happens in Wisconsin, it will begin to spread throughout the country. Low-information voters are being told that the problems with their state budget are due to those greedy teachers and other public employees who make more, on average, than their private-sector counterparts.
You and I know that that's bunk. If NY State cut all public employee salaries to ZERO, that's only 10% of the state budget.
Studies have shown that when you correct for education and experience--almost half of public employees have 4-year college degrees as opposed to 25% in the private sector--that public employees earn about 4% LESS than their private-sector counterparts.
Here are some links for additional information:
1) For more information about the situation in Wisconsin go to
2) For information to help you "fight back" when you hear others "put down" teachers or other public employees, go to
3) For "fight back" information about NYS teacher pensions, go to
Thanks for your time, and please pay attention to Wisconsin.
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