Unions, Community and Cooperation

I have written before that I am a union supporter. That comes with understandings such as I had with the Teamster’s Union for 22 years. Archie and then his son, Chuck Gauwitz, representing the union and my unionized employees and myself representing both my employees and my company would set down in not always a totally friendly atmosphere but we would work out our differences. We had a mutual respect for each other and the positions we had to support. I had to make sure I wasn’t too far overpriced in the labor market and in the business field and the union had to be sure their members were treated fairly and earned a competitive salary. No one was ever totally satisfied with our bargaining but never to the point of me trying to break the union or them doing any picketing or striking. I only recall one grievance and that was in the first year.

Part of our understanding was that I owned the company. The union agreed that my company could terminate an employee who was not getting the job done. The union always wanted more money and more benefits. My company wanted to accommodate the union while staying competitive with my competition, none of them represented by any union.

In my life, I have only met one or two people who told me they were overpaid. I met an awful lot who felt they were worth more than they were being paid. Between management and labor there must be these understandings that not everyone is going to be happy. Both side’s position must be sold to there respective parties. This takes a good union business manager and a good employer. And a majority of reasonable employees.

I can understand part of the teacher’s union position. They have seen a lot of the good, the bad and the in-between. I know that communicating has been a huge problem as administration and boards come and go. I do not agree with many of the union’s positions especially their constant denouncing the Edison Schools. I can possibly understand the likely overpaid and overstaffed administration. #150 has never replicated the Edison concept and there is little belief they can do it now. When a union represented school system can only discharge 2-5 teachers out 90,000 teachers (in the entire State of Illinois) in an entire school year, the system is not working.

Many in this community have not forgotten that “six union members Terry Knapp, Mary Connett, James Lewis, Ken Meischner, Lillie Foreman and Larry Burdette, were paid more than $482,000.00 this past year NOT to teach in the classroom. A million dollars over the last four years not to teach. Local taxpayers should be livid. All taught less than half time, released from their classrooms to attend to their duties as members of the district two Local Professional Development Committees, according to district officials.” (Journal Star 6/19/05) On the same day the JS reported that the “board granted a $43.8 million dollar increase in teachers salaries alone, excluding benefits which are substantial.” The JS further states that “that 150 spend nearly 23% more on teachers today than they did in 2000 when they had more students.” The JS further states that “staff compensation as a percentage of education funds has jumped from 78 to 91 percent, which is practically unheard of. It would have been higher if not for 257 retirements. They retired with bonuses of $5.4 million.”

I ask that every property tax payers in the County and City of Peoria check your real estate tax bill and compare it with past years. Pretty soon this community will understand when I said “Wake Up, Peoria” an earlier blog of about a year ago, and start paying better attention to what is going on.

The community and property tax payer is demanding a better deal for their money. I suggest that a council of business leaders be formed not picked by the school board or the Chamber of Commerce or Caterpillar or the Civic Federation but by a person independent of the school board. I believe the person to lead this effort is Mayor Jim Ardis. This council should include a cross section of business-minded people to first meet independently to determine wherein lies the greater needs and how to approach the situation. Then ask to start meeting with the school board, who is RESPONSIBLE to direct administration to solve the problems that can be solved. This group would meet with some consistency to bridge the gap between the school, the union and the community. This is no longer just an education problem but a severe financial problem as well. We have plenty of qualified educators. Now we need people who know how to manage a $140 million dollar budget.

I support the work of the task force on building consolidation but there are a greater range of problems. The council I recommend would be all inclusive and report only to the citizenry of District #150.

I’ve recommended this before. Past time to move on this or someone’s better idea which I haven’t seen yet.