Morning Call Article by Chris Baxter on Striking School Secretaries and 'Bumping Rights'
What do you think? If the position of a school secretary with seniority is eliminated, should that secretary be able to bump another secretary with less seniority in the school system?
One thing worth considering, is that in this economic crisis, the tendency at many companies is to find ways of letting go of long-time employees, to as to take on younger, less experienced employees which cost a company less money. This promotes age-ism: discrimination against employees 40 years and older, and the same can happen with more senior school secretaries. The result is that a more senior employee is suddenly out of a job after years of service and experience, and has a hard time getting hired elsewhere, because companies tend to want to hire someone younger that they can pay less.
This is a debate that I think is well-worth having here, and I would love it if readers would jump in and comment to get an earnest discussion going.
- On one hand, we don't want people let go just because they're more senior and have earned raises and accumulated retirement benefits along the way for years for their good work. This is one of the many reasons that unions were created--to protect people that work hard from losing their jobs.
- On the other hand, many feel that the unions are killing us as taxpayers, that we should cut costs anyway we can, and that renegotiating union contracts are the way to do that.
- Those who support unions worry that that is a slippery slope that could eventually lead to the loss of most worker protections that we have become accustomed to as American workers as instituted by unions, i.e., the 8 hour work day, guaranteed minimum wage, higher pay for over-time, benefits, etc.
Thoughts? Opinions? Concerns? Stories from personal experience? Post here.
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1 comment:
if I am not mistaken, the district is willing to let the secretaries bump into other positions but they want to limit the number of bumps to two. With a district as large as Easton, once the bunping starts it could cause as many as six or seven bumps which means 6 or 7 secretaries that aren't familiar with the school or position. It seems reasonable to me.
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