Author's note:
This article is specifically directed at the pending Danville Area School District negotiations and "strike". These are my opinions, and recommendations, and do not reflect on any other person or organization with which I am affiliated. The opinions offered are applicable not only to this event, but to the much larger topic of legalized blackmail of communities as a byproduct of the present "process" (which isn't actually a process at all). Below is education for those in education, who apparently don't know the meaning of the word "strike", and it's appropriate application, consequences, and outcomes in real world situations. Enjoy!
~ Dave
This is fraud: not a strike.
Let’s stop “Playing Strike”
- You do not schedule a strike.
- You do not have an outline of how long a strike lasts.
- There are not mutually accepted rules to a strike.
These things only happen in the “make believe” world of school negotiations. In other words: what is about to happen in the Danville Area School District is not a strike in any form, except that it has usurped the word "strike" to conjure up nostalgia of the emotions and principles of a real strike by actually "endangered or abused" labor.
In a real strike:
- Labor has been abused to the point of danger or economic disaster.
- Labor walks off the job, with little or no warning.
- Labor is committed and willing to lose their jobs for their principals.
- Labor takes a stand on moral, ethical and economic grounds.
Does this sound like a School Strike in any way? I’d say not.
Therefore, I propose the following solution to the impending strike:
STEP 1.
Teachers - in mass - submit their resignations (effective immediately) in the next few days. This is what REAL labor would do in a REAL strike. This effectively brings the schools to their knees and forces the issue one way or the other (this was why strikes were invented). Thereby making this a REAL STRIKE, by definition - not the pretend thing you are presently planning, which is really just defrauding the community under false pretenses.
STEP 2.
Administrators - now have a decision to make: They can accept the resignations (thereby putting themselves in the unmanageable position of having to replace the teachers with little or no notice) or they can offer a contract that the teachers will sign. This is how a REAL stike works. It’s not a choreographed dance, like what we have seen for the past couple of years that has already resulted in one work stoppage and one arbitration period - both of which produced no results and only punished the students and the community.
STEP 3.
Taxpayer/Community - now gets to hold Administrators' feet to the fire. If they choose to replace teachers, or not fill those spots immediately, Administrators better start packing their bags, and/or wearing disguises in public, because the community outrage is going to be INTENSE from the moment this happens forward.
Rationale
If Teachers are unwilling to execute STEP 1. and tender their resignations immediately - then either your present contract is not bad, or you have no moral compass. Either way: this would indicate that you need to simply sign your present contract and get back to work without stoppage/blackmail. You don’t have it bad enough that you're willing to make your actions match your outrage: so suck it up.
If Administrators are not sure that they can make the school district better, more efficient and less expensive by accepting the Teachers immediate resignations: then you should sign the teachers contract demands as they were last presented. An unwillingness to accept their resignations shows that your actions do not match your outrage: so suck it up. *Note - If administrators choose to accept resignations - know that taxpayers of this community EXPECT no stoppage of education or lowering of test scores. We did our part as Taxpayers and students, it’s now your turn to deliver your part of the deal: and you better not miss a beat.
If Compromise is agreeable to both before the strike deadline comes: then make that happen. Once we get to the strike deadline - You will be guilty of FRAUD in the eyes of this Taxpayer and many others. In what other business can you take money from a client and then refuse to provide service? People that do that in the REAL WORLD - go to jail.
It is my opinion that this present “pretend” system of labor management in our public schools systems is simply a crime against citizens, perpetrated by lawyers and State Reps being paid for by teachers unions so that fraudulent activities by School Districts can blackmail a community with absolution from the laws that protect consumers against FRAUD, in every other business.
Advice
This advice is for everyone involved: Get this done, before you do more harm to this community and yourselves. You presently misunderstand how much damage you are about to cause yourselves, these students and this community.
THIS IS NOT A GAME! You are screwing with the lives of children and the people of this community, and if you don’t make this right before the deadline: we will not forget. You will see that your “make believe world” has real world consequences that you cannot possibly imagine or rectify.