SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

David vs Goliath

In a comment to "The $160,000,000 Gorilla", Mr. Wainscotting points out that we live in a democracy and the unions have a perfect right to lobby on behalf of their members. He further suggests that people with opposing views go out and support the campaigns of political candidates with whom they agree.

Of course, Mr. W is right about the democracy part, but he is not taking into consideration the disproportionate amount of power wielded by the teachers' unions. Here are some of the government and school board policies that give the unions an unfair (IMHO) advantage and render them arguably the most powerful political lobby in Ontario.

1.  In order to teach in Ontario, people must join a teachers' union. This gives the unions a guaranteed flow of revenue and power no matter what they do.

2.  The school boards collect individual teachers' union dues on behalf of the union, thereby saving the union the considerable expense of collecting their monthly dues and keeping records. It also eliminates the possibility of teachers defaulting on their payments.

3.  Teachers continue to be paid by the school board when they leave the classroom to conduct union business. And if teachers take a prolonged leave of absence to work as a union official, the clock keeps running in terms of their retirement benefits and seniority. This saves the union a lot of money and makes it easier to recruit union stewards.

4.  The school boards give the unions privileged access in terms of using their facilities for meetings, mailings, and posting information. There is also typically a time slot at staff meetings for union announcements. 

5.  The provincial government contributes significant amounts of money to the teachers' unions every year for various activities. 

Taking all of these subsidies into account, the annual revenues of the Ontario teachers' unions are realistically equivalent to well over two hundred million dollars. Against this, the amount of money and power individual citizens can wield pales into insignificance.