Hypocrisy Is Big Labor’s Big Problem

[Geee]

National Review:


SEPTEMBER 6, 2010 12:00 A.M.
Hypocrisy Is Big Labor’s Big Problem
Labor unions don’t play by the same rules they try to impose on everyone else.

Amid Labor Day’s parades and picnics, union bosses will bellow Monday about workers’ rights and the alleged greed of management, especially inside Big Business. Such class-warfare sloganeering would be easier to stomach if Big Labor were internally consistent. Instead, when their own workers channel Norma Rae and demand better wages and benefits, labor leaders imitate union-busting robber barons.

● “I was fired for trying to start a union at the UFT,” said a stunned Jim Callaghan. For 13 years, Callaghan penned speeches and newsletters for Gotham’s United Federation of Teachers. He told the New York Post that when managers sacked one of his colleagues without cause, he decided to organize the twelve non-union scribes who write for the powerful teachers’ union. “We have no protections and no disciplinary process,” Callaghan lamented.
His employers were not amused. About two months after Callaghan announced his plans, he was jettisoned on August 12 and given 30 minutes to clear his desk. When he lingered, union bosses got six uniformed police officers to eject him.
The UFT claims that Callaghan had disciplinary problems. Even if true, compare Callaghan’s instant dismissal to the years it can take to fire failed teachers. Even those accused of groping children have become virtually permanent fixtures in union-protected “rubber rooms,” where they receive salaries, read newspapers, and even run businesses while their cases inch through administrative hoops.