Editorial on unions was off base

I was saddened by Feb. 22’s main editorial “Striking a balance with labor in Wisconsin.”

In it, the Herald’s editorial board maintains that “government seems insistent upon proceeding as though it is immune from all this, and the unions representing public employees, far from sounding an understanding tone of negotiation, too often have responded to calls for change with defiance.”

The editors further state that “What disturbs us is that public employees have for so long considered themselves immune from the recession’s ravages” and that Wisconsin’s “overreaching efforts to cripple rather than cooperate with unions is a natural, albeit inappropriate, reaction to a factional mindset that seems unwilling to acknowledge its own responsibilities.”

What the Herald didn’t look at were the many examples in which teachers unions took initiative and voted to sacrifice in order to cut spending in their districts to balance huge budget deficits. In Batavia School District 101, where I teach, more than 90 percent of our union membership voted to make pay and benefit concessions to our current contract, resulting in huge cost savings that prevented 60 teachers from losing their jobs. And in Wisconsin, the unions are willing to make ALL concessions except giving up their bargaining rights, but Gov. Walker refuses to negotiate.

In a statement from Wisconsin Education Association President Mary Bell, “public employees have agreed to Gov. Walker’s pension and health care concessions, which he says will solve the budget challenge. But Gov. Walker’s bill goes too far and he has chosen polarizing rhetoric. He refuses to come to the table to discuss the issue our members care most deeply about: protecting their rights.”

Seems to me Walker is the one “far from sounding an understanding tone of negotiation” here.

Only five states do not have collective bargaining for teachers. Those states and their ranking on ACT/SAT scores are as follows: South Carolina-50th, North Carolina-49th, Georgia-48th, Texas-47th, Virginia-44th.

Wisconsin — with its collective bargaining for teachers — is ranked second in the country.

If Wisconsin and indeed Illinois want to balance their budgets and retain high performing teachers and students, they should look to working with robust teachers unions in a real spirit of cooperation.

Amy C. Biancheri

Batavia