From what I’ve heard, the increased pension and health insurance contributions are relatively small potatoes compared to the thing that has the teachers, as a union, in an uproar — namely, the proposed weakening of their collective bargaining power (limited to wage negotiations only...imagine that). This essay seems to have missed the bigger story.
You are correct. I’m betting the GOP will cave on the collective bargaining aspect.
Krauthammer had good analysis on that last night. When collective bargaining happens the government representative that attends isn’t personally invested in the process so the unions usually win. If you get the taxpayers at the bargaining table, that’s a whole different thing, which the unions want to avoid at any and all costs.
This is the giant donkey in the room that no one is talking about. The highly compensated union leadership will pull out all the stops so as to not lose their extortion power - not only over their Democratic whore politicians, but also the captive union membership at large.