Collective Bargaining

Good Teachers Would Benefit From An End To Collective Bargaining

By Dustin on March 1st, 2011

As a result of our efforts to support Governor Walker’s legislation to end collective bargaining for some public employees in Wisconsin we have been attacked by the left (as expected). We have also received a handful of complaints from people who claim to be conservative. These complaints usually are some slight modification of the following: ”Why are you attacking hard working teachers and public employees.” As a result I feel it necessary to further expand on some key points.
Good teachers (and there are many of them) could actually benefit if the collective bargaining practice was ended. Collective bargaining has lead schools and government agencies to accept contracts treating every employee exactly the same. Teachers that perform well receive the same pay and benefits as the teachers who perform poorly. The result is that there is no incentive to excel as an educator and it is incredibly difficult to remove bad teachers under collective bargaining agreements. That being said, we know there are thousands of teachers doing their best every day under the current educational system to give students a good education. This fight has never been about them.
Eliminating collective bargaining would make it easier for school districts and other government agencies to negotiate performance based contracts with measurable results based criteria, rewarding those employees that excel. It will not take away worker rights as many are saying since worker rights are protected under existing law. Changing the law would also make it possible, although still difficult, to remove bad employees.
We do not dispute that unions played a large part in bringing about improvements to work conditions that we all enjoy. For that we are thankful. Riding on the coattails of history, modern unions are now little more than a political arm of the Democratic Party. National teacher’s unions time and time again use the phrase; “If you love the children, you need to spend more on education”. At the same time, performance in our educational system has been declining for many decades. We can and must do better for our children.
Contrary to liberal thinking, competition is a great motivator. I am a Conservative because I believe in free market principles. These same principles must be applied to the public sector if we want the best performance and the best results for our tax dollars. This is why I support Governor Scott Walker and the legislators who are fighting to save Wisconsin.