What planet are these clymers on? I can't BELIEVE someone would object to paying $600 a year in health care premiums. They DESERVE to go to jail simply on the grounds of being out of touch.
That's what happens when you can't afford to put cheese on it.
Well, Ann, you get a giant, friggin' "boo hoo" from me.
This is one of those situations where people are too stupid to see just how good they have it. Annual health care premiums could go to $850 if I read this correctly. These people should have shut up and enjoyed the fact that they were paying so much less than everyone else in the real world. But no, they were too stupid to realize that, even with the increases, they still had a good deal and that their wage increases more than made up for the insurance premiums.
People like this are far too stupid to be teaching anybody's kids.
She pays for her health insurance. How many employees of private companies pay their health insurance? I do not at my company, and neither does my son.
Also the story has been that the teachers have not had a contract since this summer. What is wrong with the administration? They cannot complete a new contract in a timely manner? How many of you would go to work tomorrow without knowing what you would be paid, what benefits you would have and who is going to pay for these benefits. Would you accept your management saying “Trust us”? It is not unreasonable to expect workers not to work without an agreement.
Now no one has talked about the expenses teachers incur supporting their job. My wife pays for many supplies and other teaching items out of her paycheck. I know of no private employee that expects their employees to supply items such as office supplies so that they can complete their job.
Let’s talk work time, 9 months, no. My wife works from early Aug. till middle of June. Yes she gets one week at Thanksgiving, X-Mas and Spring. She has no paid vacation. After 30 years of service, I know many private employees who qualify for 8 - 10 weeks paid vacation time. Therefore they also are only working 9 - 10 months.
Now let’s talk time on the clock. My wife leaves for work @ 7 am, comes home @ 5 pm. We live 15 –20 minutes from work, so commute time is not the issue. She plans and grades tests after dinner and on the weekends. These hours are normal for most teachers. When you look at the normal working hours per year in America, that total is 2080 hours. I guarantee you that my wife works those hours, but in the ten months.
Lastly let’s talk about break and lunchtime. She may get a short 10-minute break in the morning. Many days she gets no break. Only in the last few years did my wife receive a duty free lunch of 30 minutes. How many would work and eat lunch at the same time for the last 25 years of your career? Now I know may small business owners do, because I did it when I owned a small business. There were days my wife would come home and would not stop to ever say "Hello", because she did not have a bathroom break all day. And forget calling her at work, no phone calls.
Please compare this with most workers day, an 8 hour day, 1 hour duty free lunch, two 15 minute breaks, and lots of personal phone calls.
Freepers most teachers earn their money the old fashion way, they work hard for it!
Are there problems with the school system, yes, are teachers the main cause of the problems, no. Teachers are only a cog in the system, there are many other areas to examine first. If anyone is interested I will be glad to discuss the GM workers in Calif that were blamed for building bad cars, and how Toyota used the same workers to build GM's highest rated auto.
New math problem this semester:
A high school teacher can eat (x/24)*(1+y/50) slices of bologna in a given period of time, where x=hours and y=body weight.
If a teacher weighing 150 pounds were in jail for 3 days, and was supplied with 6 slices of bologna per day, how much bologna would she eat? (you may use your graphing calculator for this question)
WHAT??? AN AVERAGE??? There are Ph.D.s teaching in college (not that I know any) who don't make that much!!!
also I need to find one of those 56K a year job that i only have to work 10 months of the year LOL
How awful for them. I work for myself, make whatever I make, and pay about $2,400 a year in health care premiums.
Meanwhile - while WA STate has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, these teachers strike illegally and kids are out of school. I wish someone would arrest them too, but our socialist governor doesn't believe in carrying out the law. Last year state workers went on strike as well and he did nothing. His reward was to be re-elected! Sigh... Lots of breathtakingly stupid people here.
The majority of employees of any company pay FAR, FAR more for health care benefits than $250.00 a year.
$600.00 is what, $11.00 a week?
Most likely, their hike in premiums is ONLY part of the total increase and they are being asked to cover their part of the total package.
The other part of the premium increase not picked up by the teachers would have to be covered by TAXES.
Me thinks they have it pretty good and are spoiled rotten.
Next, what about “essential service” private services, such as the Power Company employees? We should not have any work stoppage of the light company, because so many important other “essential services” rely on the lights, such as hospitals. Will a NJ Judge lock up Power Company workers when their contact expires, and they choose not to work without a contract? Will there be a desire on the part of management to negotiate when you can get a Judge to jail your workers for not working?
Will benefits, which were covered under the last contract, still be in effect? I can see an insurance company stating that legally their coverage ended with the termination of the contact, therefore employees do not have coverage. Lots of issues, which the Judge just made worse. Looks like the only winners will be lawyers!