Category: Unions

‘Got Issues? Lube! Lube! Lube!’

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Chicago schools are having what is called a “controversy,” a word that means parents found out what their children are learning:

Parents at a Near West Side school say they are “shocked” and “horrified” after viewing a new sex education curriculum intended for fifth-graders, saying the way the information is presented is over the top and not age-appropriate.
During report card pickup Wednesday at Andrew Jackson Language Academy, the school hosted several parent workshops, including an afternoon meeting on Chicago Public Schools’ newest sex ed curriculum. . . .
At one point, parents could view materials intended for students. A binder labeled as the curriculum for students in fifth grade touted the benefits of female condoms for extending sex and increasing pleasure and encouraged using lubrication.
The chairwoman of the Local School Council, Angela Bryant, called the way the information was to be presented to students “appalling” and not age-appropriate. . . .
In a statement Friday afternoon, CPS officials said that the objectional material presented at Jackson was a mistake. . . .
But a slideshow posted on another school’s website, the Waters Elementary School, includes all five of the objectionable slides in a Powerpoint presentation. According to the school’s website, the slideshows contain lessons and handouts presented to students in April 2014. . . .
Under the new sex ed guidelines, 5th grade students are typically taught about contraception, [CPS spokesman Bill] McCaffrey confirmed. The discussion includes use of female condoms, he said. . . .
[S]ome of the information disturbed parents at the meeting, leading one to snap photos of five pages in the binder that included a lesson plan for fifth-graders.
One of the pages, titled “Feel Good Reasons to Use FCs [Female Condoms],” included how to make sexual intercourse last longer and read: “Once you pop, you don’t have to stop!”
The page included a drawing of a woman lifting up a 1950s-style house dress next to a smoking grill and read: “Feel the heat! FCs adjust to your body temperature, so you and your partner can both feel the heat.”
Another page reads: “Got issues? Lube! Lube! Lube!”
Bryant said she was “offended” and horrified” that the “obscene” curriculum was intended for the school’s fifth-grade children, who are typically 10 or 11 years old.
“The curriculum is appalling,” Bryant said. “The language to me was the most offensive part initially. Pop and lube, lube lube, and those kid of things. … [It] serves to rob many of our children of their innocence.”
“The language for me is very much concerning to me as a parent. The content goes beyond what I feel is age-appropriate for a fifth-grader,” said Bryant, who has two children who attend the school, which has 565 students.

What unionized government-certified indoctrination experts do to taxpayers is often quite painful. “Got issues? Lube! Lube! Lube!”

 

Tennessee Worker Liberty Offends UAW; NLRB Appeal Ensues

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by Smitty

We’ve been getting our schadenfreude on over the Volunteers not volunteering for UAW’s auto-economic asphyxiation. But, as Ted Kennedy’s career demonstrated, evil doesn’t die easily. The NYT:

The United Automobile Workers asked the National Labor Relations Board on Friday to order a new unionization election at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., asserting that the union’s loss last week was because of improper interference by the state’s lawmakers.

The complaint filed with the labor board asserts that statements made by Senator Bob Corker and some state lawmakers amounted to “threats” that swayed the VW workers to vote against the U.A.W. In a stinging defeat for the union, workers at the Chattanooga plant voted 712 to 626 against joining the U.A.W., even though the company did not oppose the unionization effort.

You see, disagreement with your organized crime overlords is always “improper interference”. Whatever the Union does to enforce control must be the proper sort of interference, one supposes.

The bad news here is that the NLRB is pretty much a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party. Just how far they’re willing to go to push a Senator remains to be seen, and should be interesting.

via Hot Air

“Old Worn Out Suits And Shoes,
I Don’t Pay No Union Dues”

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by Smitty

Stacy already covered the delightful news about organized crime–I mean, UAW–getting told to twerk off in Chattanooga, TN by a vote of 712 to 626. The schadenfreude-licious fact missing from Stacy’s writeup is (emphasis mine)

VW didn’t fight the UAW campaign, which may have cost as much as $5 million and lasted more than two years, said Gary Chaison, a labor law professor at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.
A victory would have added momentum as the UAW seeks to sign up workers at a Daimler AG factory in Vance, Ala., and other foreign automakers, known as transplants, that settled in the southern United States to take advantage of tax breaks, non-union labor and easy access to market.
Now, the UAW must regroup, he said.

This is nearly as good as Wisconsin rejecting public sector union efforts to unseat Governor Walker. Kudos all around.

I should say that private sector unions had their historical place, and I support the right of workers to vote for unions to pick their pockets, distort the labor market, and scare away jobs to whatever degree workers see fit. However, factors such as OSHA and social media seem to have really blown up the use-case for unions, and it cheers the heart to see these Tennessee Volunteers not volunteering for auto-economic asphyxiation. (Is the UAW, itself, auto-economic asphyxiation? Now there’s a gag that we should explore. (Do you ever feel like your jokes may be swerving all over the road?))

In other don’t-unions-just-suck news, the EvilDiabolicalSatanic Koch brothers

OpenSecrets.org tallied the top donors in federal elections between 1989 and 2014. Koch Industries — privately owned by the Evil Koch Bros — is on the list, to be sure, but doesn’t appear until the 59th slot, with $18 million in donations, 90 percent of which went to Republicans.
So who occupies the 58 spots ahead of the Evil Koch Bros? Six of the top 10 are … wait for it … unions. They gave more than $278 million, with most of it going to Democrats.
These are familiar names: AFSCME ($60.6 million), NEA ($53.5 million), IBEW ($44.4 million), UAW ($41.6 million), Carpenters & Joiners ($39.2 million) and SEIU ($38.3 million).
In other words, the six biggest union donors in American politics gave 15 times more to mostly Democrats than the Evil Koch Bros.

In summary, kids, remember: a union is a corporation without a product, and a political party is a union that strikes at elections. And, by the way: my family owns two VW TDI diesels, and they are outstanding little units.

Another Community Organizer Non-Victory In New York

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by Smitty

Via Insty, Richard Epstein alludes to a bummer of a tale in New York:

“After Winning a Raise, 175 Workers At a Queens Casino Lose Their Jobs.” That result would never have happened if the workers had won their raises by demonstrating higher levels of productivity to their employer, The Resorts World Casino. Instead, these wage increases were dictated by a labor arbitrator who doubled the base wages for workers in the casino under the living wage arrangement that he imposed on the firm.
No one should be thrilled that restaurant workers have to settle for wages of $5 per hour plus tips. But a steady job at that level is better than no job at the $12 base pay ordered by the arbitrator. The casino sought to raise food prices to compensate for the increased costs, but the law of demand applies to consumers as well. In hard times, they won’t stand for the increased prices, so the casino closed a food operation that could only operate at a loss, leaving 175 union members to scramble for jobs.

I’m no fan of casinos, not being bothered even to play the lottery. For a better rebuttal, and lest you think me too pious, allow me to introduce a bit of Frank Zappa, with a reggae-driven rebuttal for union idiocy everywhere. This is FZ, which is short for NSFW for those not In The Know.

You can enjoy the tune before or after reading the whole of the article.

Michigan Teachers Sue Corrupt Union

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The dishonest racket known as the Michigan Education Association (MEA) resorts to brass-knuckle extortion methods:

Michigan teachers are discovering that their union is determined to make it as hard as possible for them to take advantage of the state’s new right-to-work law, which prohibits workers from being forced to pay dues to a union. . . .
Eight teachers sued the MEA on Monday. They are being represented by the conservative Mackinac Center Legal Foundation. Their complaint alleges the union is violating the intent of the right-to-work law by only giving them a very brief period — the month of August — to drop their membership.
One of the eight, Coopersville teacher Miriam Chanski, told MEA in a May letter she was leaving the union. MEA denied her request because it was sent in too early.
She claims the union did not tell her this at the time. She only learned of the August opt-out window in September. That was when MEA informed her she would now have to pay another year’s dues.
“It surprised me that there would be more to the process — I had not heard anything else,” she told the local ABC affiliate.
It got worse for her when MEA said that if she didn’t continue to pay, they would report her to a collection agency, which would negatively affect her credit rating.
“My credit is very personal to me and it’s something I take pride in,” Chanski said.

(Hat-tip: Instapundit.)

 

Great: Voters Legalize Marijuana, Unions Put Munchies-Maker Out of Business

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Some stoner in Colorado just put down the bong, looked at the TV and said, “Dude. No more Twinkies or Ho-Ho’s? Bummer.”

Hostess, the makers of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread, is going out of business after striking workers failed to heed a Thursday deadline to return to work, the company said.
“We deeply regret the necessity of today’s decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike,” Hostess CEO Gregory F. Rayburn said in announcing that the firm had filed a motion with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to shutter its business. “Hostess Brands will move promptly to lay off most of its 18,500-member workforce and focus on selling its assets to the highest bidders.” . . .
In announcing its decision, Hostess said its wind down would mean the closure of 33 bakeries, 565 distribution centers, approximately 5,500 delivery routes and 570 bakery outlet stores in the United States.
Hostess suspended bakery operations at all its factories and said its stores will remain open for several days to sell already-baked products. In the Chicago area, there were reports of Hostess products flying off the shelves.

On the bright side, the weeders can still enjoy Papa John’s pizza.

The Sexual Predators Union

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Otherwise known as the United Federation of Teachers:

In the last five years in New York City, 97 tenured teachers or school employees have been charged by the Department of Education with sexual misconduct. . . .
[T]he unions — believing that they are helping the cause of teachers by being weak on sexual predators — prefer suspensions and fines, and not dismissal, for teachers charged with inappropriate sexual conduct. . . .
One example: An arbitrator in 2007 found that teacher Alexis Grullon had victimized young girls with repeated hugging, “incidental though not accidental contact with one student’s breast” and “sexually suggestive remarks.” The teacher had denied all these charges. In the end the arbitrator found him “unrepentant,” yet punished him with only a six-month suspension.
Another example from 2007: Teacher William Scharbach was found to have inappropriately touched and held young boys. “Respondent’s actions at best give the appearance of impropriety and at worst suggest pedophilia,” wrote the arbitrator—before giving the teacher only a reprimand. The teacher didn’t deny the touching but denied that it was inappropriate.
Then there was teacher Steven Ostrin, who in 2010 was found to have asked a young girl to give him a striptease, harassed students by text, and engaged in sexual banter. The arbitrator in his case concluded that since the teacher hadn’t actually solicited sex from students, the charges—all of which the teacher denied—warranted only a suspension.

Go read the whole thing. The bizarre laws in New York, essentially dictated to legislators by the teachers unions, have the effect of making public-school employees a specially protected class of sexual predators. Behavior that would put any other person in prison results in slap-on-the-wrist administrative discipline actions for members of the teachers unions.

Once a teacher gains tenure — and tenure is a non-negotiable “right,” according to the teachers unions — it becomes practically impossible to fire the teacher for any reason.