Recording Reveals Grand Rapids Teachers’ Union Hostile Strategy
This is a re-post, courtesy of our friends at Education Action Group.
RECORDING REVEALS GR UNION LEADERS’ HOSTILE STRATEGY
School board take over, possible strike in store for GRPS
Grand Rapids city residents who are still hoping for a dignified resolution to the teacher contract deadlock can apparently stop holding their breaths.
Leaders of the Grand Rapids Education Association, the union that represents approximately 1,700 district teachers, have a far less noble agenda, which they discussed at length during a recent informational session at a Michigan Education Association conference in Detroit.
A recording of that session was recently sent to the Muskegon-based Education Action Group, a non-profit organization that advocates for spending reform in Michigan schools.
EAG has broken the recording down into 14 clips, which can be found below.
The recording proves that the union’s preferred option is to take control of the school board by defeating incumbent board members in the May election, and replacing them with candidates who will give the union a blank check at the bargaining table.
If that plan fails, they would like to delay the start of school in the fall with a strike, either by teachers, or if they’re not willing, the district’s contracted bus drivers.
Under no circumstances do GREA leaders appear interested in reaching an agreement with current school board members, whom they described as “puppets,” or the Grand Rapids school superintendent, whom they described as the “stuper-intendent.”
During the informational session, MEA Uniserv director Buz Graeber predicted that the school board will invoke its legal right to impose a new labor contract on the teachers union sometime before September.
To prevent such a move, Helder admitted that the union will purposefully drag out the current fact-finding process.
“It’s going to be a zoo,” Helder said. “That’s by design. The only thing that keeps the district from imposing is fact-finding. The longer that process goes on, the longer it takes for them to be able to impose on us.”
In the meantime, Helder made it clear that the union plans to go on the offensive, starting with the May school board election, where it hopes to remove current board members who stand in the way of its financial goals.
There are three seats up for grabs in the May election. Incumbents Arnie Smithalexander and Tony Baker are seeking new terms, while incumbent Dave Allen is not running again. Helder didn’t specify which of the incumbents will be targeted for defeat, though the union endorsed Baker in the last election.
“Last year we were able to knock two members off the board, and this year we plan on taking out two more, and that still won’t be enough,” Helder said. “The only way out of this is to elect a new board of education.”
If that doesn’t work, it’s clear that the GREA leaders are ready to consider a strike to force their will on the school board.
Graeber noted that in the Utica school district, teachers recently threatened to strike if the school board imposed a contract. But he but wondered if Grand Rapids teachers were willing to make the same commitment.
“I’m not sure we can convince our members to tell the board, if you impose, we’ll walk out as soon as school opens in the fall,” Graeber said.
But Graeber quickly added that the school district’s bus drivers are now represented by the MEA, even though they work for a private transportation company that contracts with the school district.
He noted that the bus drivers do not have a collective bargaining agreement with the district, and could strike at the start of the school year if that remains the case.
“They’re not public employees anymore,” Helder chimed in. “Now they have a legal right to strike.”
Throughout the discussion, the GREA leaders demonstrated their general disdain for current school board members, saying there are “two or three of them capable of some kind of independent thought, but that thought is always being controlled by someone behind the scenes.”
The union leaders also voiced their disrespect for the superintendent of schools, Dr. Bernard Taylor.
“Make sure it’s doctor, not mister – he had a meltdown when someone called him mister,” Helder said of Taylor.
“Bernard is from Kansas City, in one of these glorious quote, unquote, right-to-work states. While he was there, I don’t need to tell you, the union there hated him.”
Helder predicted that the outcome of the district’s labor dispute will have repercussions in other districts where the MEA is involved. So if voters or the current board cave into union demands, he thinks MEA members in other districts will be more likely get their way, too.
“Our concern is more than just GR,” Helder said. “I don’t suppose any of us have to be told, certainly nobody in our county needs to be told, whatever happens in GR, whatever precedents are set there, will echo.”
Grand Rapids recording
Recording reveals GR union leaders’ hostile strategy
Education Action Group recently came into the possession of a recording of a presentation given by Paul Helder, president of the Grand Rapids teachers union, and Earl ‘Buz’ Graeber, an MEA Uniserv director working with the Grand Rapids union.
We have posted excerpts of it because we feel it is information parents, taxpayers, school board members, and the community ought to hear–straight from the union leaders’ mouths.
The recording appears to be from the session ‘Grand Rapids EA Story,’ from the recent MEA Bargaining, Political Action and PR Conference, held February 5-7, 2009 at Cobo Hall in Detroit.
The preface, found on page 47 of the MEA announcement, said:
The Grand Rapids EA has gone through a difficult year with no settled contract and the reality of teachers in buildings not meeting AYP being displaced from their jobs. Hear their story.
In the recording, Helder and Graeber give their unvarnished opinions of district leaders, school board members, district contract negotiators, their goal of winning the May school board election as a way to affect contract negotiations, strike potential, and ways they reward and punish the local media.
Last year, we made the argument the central question in the school board election was “Taxpayers or Union Bosses – Who do you want in control of Grand Rapids schools?” Based on these clips, it certainly seems that will be the fundamental issue this year, as well.
This recording seems to indicate the union’s highest priority in the upcoming May election is electing candidates as a means to securing a better settlement and staving off an imposed contract. Absent from the union’s agenda, apparently, is improved educational quality, more district reforms, or items that would actually improve the education of Grand Rapids students.
We provide 14 clips from that session which cover these issues, opinions, and tactics.
1 Helder’s school board analysis: 1helderschoolboardanalysis
Helder: ’There are 2 or 3 of them capable of some kind of independent thought’
Helder: ’Last year, we were able to knock two members off the board and this year, we’re planning on taking out another two.”
2 ‘Stuperintendent’: 2stuperintendent
Helder: ’That is the stuperintendent as he is referred to’
3 Baiting them: 3baitingthem
Helder: ’Part of what we’ve decided to do is start calling the district on the idea 1. that they’re broke and 2. that they’re spending their resources appropriately. As such, because I’m that guy, I’ve spent a little time baiting them…’
4 It’s going to be a zoo: 3itsgoingtobeazoo
Helder: ’The only thing that stops the district from imposing is fact-finding. The longer that process goes on, the longer it takes for them to impose on us. That has to be done.’
5 Ruga-meter: 4rugameter
Union leaders discuss ways to use legal expenses against the board of education, specifically citing attorney Barb Ruga. While they don’t talk about the over half-million in salaries that go into the Grand Rapids MEA Uniserv team (see the Leadership & Staff page)–working day-in and day-out to secure a better deal for members–it’s possible the Grand Rapids legal fees could be significantly less of the union bargained in good faith by acknowledging the financial situation of the district and didn’t intentionally drag the process out.
6 Crisis Team focusing on election: 5crisisteamfocusingonelection
Graeber: ’Our focus right now is at the board election in May’
Graeber: ’Grand Rapids Public Schools is going to impose [a contract]–no question in anybody’s
mind. Our only way out of that is to elect our board of education.’
7 Striking over an imposed contract: 6strikingoverimposition
Graeber: ’I’m not sure that we could convince our members that if there’s an imposition which we think would come down some time in August–we’re not sure we can convince them to tell the board “if you impose, we’re going to walk out as soon as school opens in the fall.”‘
8 Using bus drivers to strike: 7usingbusdriverstostrike
Apparent union strategy: private transportation employees have the legal right to strike, and the union will use them to strike–so to not face punishment–and eliminate the only means many student have to get to school.
9 Increased union communications: 8increasedunioncommunications
Helder: ’One of the things I’ve been trying to do with my, I guess, free time is get a little better feel for how labor strife works out and who wins in the end.’
10 Using safety as an issue: 9usingsafetyasanissue
Helder: ’We’ve been attacking the safety and security issue. With as many students as we have, certainly there are always going to be those who cause a little bit of difficulty.’
11 Helder’s 2nd school board analysis: 10helder2ndschoolboardanalysis
12 Helder: It’s more than just GR: 11helderitsmorethanjustgr
Helder: ’Our concern is more than just GR. … Whatever takes place in GR, whatever precedents are set there are going to echo…because there are opportunities in that area.’
13 ‘Education Action Guy’: 12educationactionguy
Helder and Graeber on the activities of Education Action Group
14 Care and feeding of the local media: 13careandfeedingofthelocalmedia
Helder: ’Dave Murray is fantastic. He has been an enormous help to us.’
Graeber: ’We’ve always gone to Dave Murray just before his deadline and said, “here’s the information David. We’re not going to give this to anybody for another two hours. … He has the impression, true as it is, if I’m going to hammer on these people, I’m not going to get first crack at this story.
Graeber: ‘ We’ve had meetings and we’ve had activities where we’ve told Peter Ross to go away just because he has always treated us so badly.’
Wanda Sykes on the Bailouts
Change we can believe in? Last night’s press conference by President Obama was hardly a departure from the typical George Bush-style fear-mongering. You can sum his speech up like this: “Pass the stimulus, or else the universe will collapse!!! Gravity will fail! The sun will implode! Think of the CHILDREN!!”
Sometimes the best way to get real the message across is through comedy. It’s so much fun to expose the absolute idiocy of politicians:
The Real National Debt
The REAL natinal debt – including all unfunded future mandates. The math just doesn’t work. Yes, it currently says $58 trillion.
Margaret Thatcher: “The trouble with Socialism is, sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.”
Frightening Charts of the Day
I just wanted to quickly share a few telling charts regarding what is happening with the US economy over the last year, and especially over the last few months.
First is the number of new home sales.
New Home Sales - Holy Crap!
Second is retail sales:
Retail Sales
Finally, to see what a bubble really looks like, check out the Case-Schiller home price index, indicating the rise and decline of average home prices:
Average Home Prices - Your Federal Reserve at Work!
All these graphics come from one of my favorite blogs: Calculated Risk.
Why the “Stimulus” Won’t Do a Damn Thing
This post will show how the proposed $825 billion “stimulus” package will do absolutely nothing to help the economy and will only serve to make the existing economic problems worse.
“But wait! How could that be?” you ask yourself. All the politicians and talking heads on TV are saying that it will boost the economy and create jobs! I’ll let you in on a dirty little secret – most politicians and talking heads don’t have a basic understanding of economics. I’ll explain it to you as simply as I can so that you can be better informed than 99% of politicians and talking heads.
First: The proposed stimulus has a price tag of $825 billion. You can view the proposed stimulus by clicking here. Let’s reduce that number, because it includes $275 billion in tax cuts. Government accounting is completely different from real world accounting, so they include a tax cut in the “cost” of budget bills. This simply means that we get to keep an additional $275 billion of our own dollars. The result? The actual new spending by the government is $550 billion. So, we’ve already reduced the “stimulus” spending by a third.
Second: Where does this new spending money come from? The US government raises money by selling Treasury bonds. These bonds are sold to the general public. It’s basically the same as taking out a loan to increase your personal spending. These bonds require the government to pay interest to those who purchased the bonds. Therefore, the money the government will spend on the stimulus will in fact be money that it borrows from other people. So in effect, for every $1 that the government spends on this stimulus, $1 was diverted from other investments. In other words, no new money or growth is being produced. It’s the same as borrowing a dollar from your neighbor and lending it to another neighbor. Nothing was added to the economy and no new investments were created. The money being spent on the stimulus is money that would have been invested someplace else anyways.
Third: Instead of that “stimulus” money being spent by private sector employers, it will be spent by politicians and bureaucrats. The transfer of wealth from potential private sector investments to the Federal Government will do absolutely nothing to create new jobs. It’s simply a transfer of money. In fact, it will likely result in fewer jobs because once bureaucrats and politicians gets their hands on the money, it will be severely whittled down by bureaucratic wrangling and government ineptitude.
Bottom line – the stimulus will do absolutely nothing to “stimulate” the economy.
Oh, but there’s more. That $550 billion that’s being borrowed to increase federal spending carries with it a bill for interest that the federal government must pay from either the general budget or by borrowing more money! Guess what! The federal government already spent $412 billion on interest on the national debt, just last year! This new spending will add approximately $20 billion to that amount, each year.
This is a losing game folks. It’s no different than taking out a loan to pay the interest on another loan. It will eventually collapse. It’s the biggest Ponzi scheme in the history of the planet. It’s piling borrowing on borrowing while adding nothing net new to the economy.
Excessive borrowing and leverage got the world into this economic crunch – more borrowing will not make it better.
US and UK Banks Insolvent
Do you know where your money is?
US and UK banks are insolvent.
- From Bloomberg: “U.S. banking system is effectively insolvent“
- From the UK Independent (removed from their site): British banks are ‘technically insolvent’
The FDIC, which “insures” US bank deposits, has a insurance fund that with $34 billion in it. The FDIC “insures” $4.6 trillion in deposits. If just one big bank fails, FDIC is bankrupt.
Fractional reserve banking is coming home to roost.
What Happens When You Take Away the Corn?
There’s an old parable about getting hooked on government handouts. I had heard this years ago, but it just popped in my mind again today. I searched the Internet and found one version of it.
A chemistry professor at a large college had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Professor noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt. The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country’s government and install a new communist government.
In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, ‘Do you know how to catch wild pigs?’ The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke. ‘You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come every day to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again.
You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat; you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught.
Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.
The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America. The government keeps pushing us toward socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. While we continually lose our freedoms — just a little at a time.
It’s a good story by itself, explaining how government breeds dependence. But another thought popped into my mind as I thought about this story. What happens we you take away the corn?
We’re in the midst of the largest expansion of federal spending in the history of this nation, with over $8.5 trillion of federal government outlays and guarantees, just in the last four months. We have a national debt that has doubled under the Bush administration, to over $10.5 trillion. We have future unfunded liabilities, just at the federal level, of over $40 trillion. We have state and local governments that put taxpayers on the hook with unsustainable defined benefit pension plans that are just now beginning to collapse.
The point is this: The American people have been fattened up by corn over the last several decades, with an acceleration over the last two decades of Federal Reserve-induced malinvestment orgies. First in technology, then in real estate. These malinvestment orgies led to expanded government spending and government promises, making more and more people dependent on government money (corn), one way or another. However, the math doesn’t work in the long term. Something has to, and will, give.
We are seeing the first stages in a potential catastrophic collapse. We are in the midst of deflation. The Federal Reserve and politicians in Washington will do anything they can to prevent deflation. So they have cranked up the printing presses and are expanding the money supply at a truly unprecedented rate. We have collapsing banks, collapsing industry, a collapsing economy, a collapse in debt, and a collapse in consumption. Eventually, people (and, more importantly, foreign governments) will stop buying US Government bonds as they see that annual deficits of $2 trillion are unsustainable. Then what?
“Stimulus” plans will fail. Hoover/FDR stimulus plans in the 1930s only extended the length and depth of the depression. The Bush/Obama stimulus plans will do the same.
Folks, the government corn will run out when we all realize that nothing can be done to stop the natural correction of the economy.
Surprise! GM Wants Even More Money!
The Detroit Three (formerly the Big Three) groveled in front of Congress last month, asking for $25 billion to keep the doors open. Congress rebuffed them and sent them home with instructions to return with “a plan.” What do they come up with? A request that now clocks in at $34 billion. It has grown by a whopping 37% in just a matter of a couple of weeks! GM says that they need at least $4 billion immediately, before the end of 2008. It looks like they are burning through cash at a rate of around $4 billion a month now, obviously accelerating since their last quarterly report. Just last month alone, GM’s auto sales were down 41%.
I’d like to relate a story that was told to GR Pundit today by someone who is a project manager for a large computer manufacturing company.
This person, we’ll call him Ken, was doing a project at one of the big three automakers recently. We’ll call this automaker DA (for Detroit Automaker). Ken explained how he was attempting to help DA with its PC deployment process. Here’s how it worked: The computers would arrive. FedEx is not a unionized company, so the FedEx employees were not allowed to unload the computers. One unionized employee would move the PCs from the dock to the staging area. Another union employee would move them from the staging area to the storage area. Another union employee would move the computer from the storage area to the actual workstation of the person to use the PC. Each step would require a change order and a $50 charge from the union, plus the labor cost of each union employee. No one from Ken’s company was allowed to move the computers themselves, only the unionized employees could do so. Ken said the entire project was such a nightmare that they basically gave up trying to improve DA’s processes. Impossible due to UAW work rules.
This is why the UAW is desperate to prevent bankruptcy. It would ruin their “work rules” scam.
Perhaps this is one reason why 61% of Americans oppose the Detroit Three bailout.
Pigs Feeding at the Trough of Government Largesse
General Motors, the City of Detroit, and Everyone Else Feeding At the Trough of Government
It was only a matter of time. Now that the Congress and US Treasury have decided that it is legitimate for the Federal Government to spend $700 billion “bailing out” various banks and financial companies, the line is getting longer of those holding their hands out for free money from heaven.
First, we were told that if the Federal Government didn’t spend $700 billion (a figure pulled out of thin air) to buy “toxic assets” from failing banks, that the world would end. Then, this week, we are told that they don’t plan to buy any toxic assets at all. Instead, everyone and their brother is holding their hands out to get more free money from the government.
General Motors is in dire straights as they burn through $2 billion in cash each month because they are such a colossal failure of a company. But hey, who cares, let’s lend them another $10 billion or more to keep the doors open, even though they already have a negative net worth of over $59 billion. Just because they’ve lost $75 billion over the last few years and they can’t pay the bills as it stands, borrowing more money from taxpayers, when no bank in the universe would do so, is a sure way to fix things, right?
But wait, don’t look twice. Now cities are asking for bailout money. That’s right, the City of Detroit is asking for $10 billion to shore up their budget. That’s in addition to Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Atlanta. More to come, just stay tuned.
Next, our own City of Grand Rapids admitted this week that their financial manager, apparently having the intelligence level of a monkey with a typewriter, has lost $225 million of pension funds since May. Nowhere in the discussion was mention of firing the idiot who has lost that much. No, instead they discussed how to dump an additional $10 million into the fund next year. Oh, and they promise they won’t raise taxes to do so (wink wink).
Folks, this is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and the moronity in Washington (and Lansing) seems to be at an all time peak. These bailouts do not come without consequence. Bad companies need to fail. Cities need to get their financial decks in order. Unsustainable pyramid-scheme defined-benefit pension plans are destined to fail. It’s just that no one wants to face the facts now, they prefer to defer those problems to future ill-informed politicians.
Well, the cows have come home, and we have yet to see any real intelligence shining through the political class. No, instead we have the Michigan House of Representatives ramming through a law to ban wine retailers from shipping to Michigan residents. Ah yes, priorities.
It looks like the national debt is going to increase by $2 trillion or more next year as the US Treasury issues debt like there’s no tomorrow. The next problem is that foreign countries will slow their buying of US debt. We’re already seeing a decrease in demand for treasury issues. Countries like China and Japan are more interested in spending money on their own people than buying US Treasury securities. The stuff is coming even closer to intersecting with the fan.
Folks, this problem was created by government in the first place. We have a federal reserve that prints money out of thin air, encourages malinvestment through artifically low interest rates, and encourages leverage through fractional reserve banking. This house of cards is beginning to fall. Government can not spend its way out of this. In fact, government is making things worse.
Stop the bailouts. Stop the futile “stimulus” discussions. Reduce taxes and spending dramatically. Phase out the Federal Reserve, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and all the pseudo-government entities that created this mess in the first place. It will be painful and rotten, but it will clear out the cancer of perverse government incentives in the market and allow our economy to heal itself.
But, frankly, there is no hope of any of that happening. That’s why we ain’t seen nothin yet.
