Unions Like Merit Pay

ASCME Sings Praises of Merit Pay
By Jim Vail


It seems so pathetic how the unions in this country seem to be all running around to appease the master in whichever way.

First you have Randi Weingarten and the American Federation of Teachers singing the praises of Common Core, with Randi calling it "revolutionary!."   Imagine that, a corporate written invasion into public education, and one of the largest teachers unions here loves it.  Thank God for many republicans who hate it and rightly call it an invasive federal policy into the local control of schools.

Then you have all the trade unions lining up to fund one of the latest, most vicious pro-corporate, pro-privatization, anti-worker politicians named Rahm Emanuel, whose millions he raised bought his latest position as mayor of the city.  I guess you could reason that construction unions want jobs, which Emanuel is kind of promising by building DePaul basketball stadiums.

But Unite Here?  The ones who bitterly fought Penny Pritzker and the Congress Hotel maids who wanted decent working conditions.  They said nothing when Penny was named commerce secretary for Obama (pay off for the money she raised for his election campaign), and now are putting money into Emanuel's coffers.

The latest union salvo is below where ASCFME is singing the praises of merit pay at the Chicago City Colleges in the name of "retention pay."  It looks good there for the part-time college non-credit teachers getting bonus pay, something the Chicago Teachers Union walked out of classes last year to eliminate in our contract.  Merit pay is bonus money for teachers who get high test scores.  It's cut throat competition, not really helpful when it comes to working "collaboratively" which is what the they want the teachers and students to do.