Las Vegas Arbitrator Rules Against Union, Saves 134 Teacher Jobs
2nd April 2012
Last week, an arbitrator ruled that under state law, members of the Clark County Education Association are required to make increased contributions to the state’s retirement system – just like all other public employees.
The decision saves the Clark County School District $10 million dollars, which equals the cost of 134 teacher positions, reports the ReviewJournal.com.
It is often said that the purpose of a Union is to save worker jobs. This is not, strictly speaking, accurate.
The original reason for forming a Union probably was to look after the interests of workers, but as soon as a Union grows big enough to have paid Union officials, then (in accordance with the Iron Law of Bureaucracy), the purpose of the Union is to look after the interests of Union officials. Actual workers are the cards, not the players. As Nick Nolte so famously said in North Dallas 40: ‘Team?! Hell, they [owners and coaches] are the team! We [players], we’re the equipment!‘ Union bosses have uniformly demonstrated that they will gladly accept layoffs of any amount of workers in order to preserve the pay and perks of those who are left — because the Union bosses are elected (and re-elected) by the ones whose pay and perks they’ve preserved, not the ones who got laid off.