For the fourth time, yes that's right FOUR times I've said this, I think unions have a real and necessary place in our society. Creating an image of me as "anti-union, Scott Walker-esque" is by your creation, not mine. The best run and most successful organizations have a mission statement that they actually use as a compass for the decisions they make. You are right, it is a meaningless statement to the likes of Monsanto and BP, "empty rhetoric", but should it be empty rhetoric for an organization that has the most impact on our nations education system? -NO, it shouldn't be, but by your admission, it is. This is why they are no longer a benefit to the teachers they represent. If the policy you pay the govt. to implement hurts the industry in which you work, that's counter intuitive. -We saw this with the automotive industry. Auto makers buried themselves under the heavy sands of entitlements that the UAW helped shovel on them. Auto workers are often prohibited from doing any task that falls outside their exact "job description", if you do, you will hear about it from the Union. Unskilled laborers get paid an excess of 70k a year. "Slow down, you're working too fast, soon they'll expect all of us to "work". I grew up near Detroit, my entire family either works for the auto industry directly or for a company that supplies them. I understand Unions from first hand accounts too. Difference is, my accounts growing up were of family members griping about corruption and the lazy idiots they had to work with.

To read the thread of comments I have made regarding the "teachers union", and then say that I "don't believe in human rights", is just silly. mk mentioned that TX does not have a teachers union. I'm not sure how long this has been the case, but I imagine by now there have been a number of "human rights violations" there? Because without a teachers union, it would be pandemonium.

Below is an analogy that makes my point regarding the teachers union. I copied and pasted it from another thread where you accuse me of being against "universal human rights": Question: if you owned a home with a horrible foundation, leaky roof, rat infestation and rotting walls and infrastructure, would you take 20 years to individually fix each "complex" problem? No, you would likely do one of two things, you would either abandon the house all together or tear it down and rebuild. -The Teachers Union needs to either revamp itself drastically or be abolished all together.