Unions Strong

The Buffalo News' bias against the working class is showing again.

Not like in the old days when a person would walk up to a female and say quietly to her “Your slip is showing.”

I'm talking about a Who concert from the 1970's that could drown out a jet engine. (I'm showing my age, not my hearing aids.)

Today's News front page says it all: “Organized labor flexes its muscles to influence Buffalo school vote.”

Yes, NYSUT got active and Governor “Status” Cuomo pushed back the date when those overpriced and useless Common Core tests would be used against teachers in unfair evaluations. (No other career has exams like that or used in that manner.) And this is evidently wrong and the News makes sure that the world knows that they have a problem with it.

The News has no problem with Carl PaladiNO – a private, government subsidized businessman who makes money by leasing property he owns to private charter schools. There's no problem there. No conflict of interest.

But unions – and not just teachers – I'm talking the Communication Workers of America, some of whom are on strike against Verizon and fighting to preserve their income and benefits against greedy Wall Street tycoons and the AFL-CIO and it's member unions - this is who the News has a problem with.

The News has a problem because they do not believe that tax-paying teachers should have a voice or vote on who serves on the School Board.

Let's remember – Teachers pay taxes in Buffalo and many of them live in the city. But according to the News, that should not matter. They need to vote for people that are going to put them out of a job – at worst – or cut their wages and benefits -at the least. Add in a longer work day and you have the perfect recipe for a teaching job that people are going to want to get out of. (Perhaps the News executive board should prove to us that this works to improve a situation by implementing it on themselves first.)

And the unions understand that this is part of a larger war on the unions and working class.

And they are mad as hell and not going to take it any more. (Pardon the cliché.)

So they have done what unions mean and do best – organize and work for the benefit of all. They understand that what happens to one union will affect them all – domino effect style. (And I'm not talking about the pizza chain with the mass produced mediocre pizzas.)

The unions from in the city and across Erie County (and hopefully outside too) have joined together in the fight against the wholesale privatization of the second largest school district in the state. And they mean to win.

And they have set target #1 on the man who makes it no secret that he wants to destroy public education so that he can take more taxpayers money and put it in his pocket: Carl PaladiNO. This man has publicly made many racist (and I believe misogynist, if not misanthropic) comments. He does not belong in a publicly elected office that determines the fate of our children.

The unions have also set their eyes upon other members of the so called “majority” 1% that want to destroy public education through privatization.

And they are doing it by organizing across labor lines.

This school board election is all about the class war that is being waged in this country (and world). It is between the 1% that want to own us and control us and the 99% that want the freedom that the American rebels fought for in 1776 (against the British) and again in 1860 (against the slave-holders).

So residents of Buffalo need to get out and vote.

They need to vote against those that want to take their schools away from them and vote for the people who want to keep the public in “public education.”

I like the quote NYSUT President Karen Magee gave the News - “We will push back against those who want to change public education but don't know a damn thing about public education.”

The other quip that I liked is that the word “school” is not spelled with a dollar sign. ($chool.)

Whoever came up with that one deserves something.

So, united we stand against those that want to take our schools away from us.

I don't normally endorse candidates, but I encourage anyone who lives in the Park District to vote for Austin Harig and against the Donald Trump clone. If you can't vote for him, donate, phone bank, or knock on doors. And if not for him, then for those that want to keep the public in Buffalo schools.

Unions understand that an injury to one is an injury against all.

The Buffalo School battle is a war to break the power of the working class.

Let's support ourselves by supporting those that want to keep public schools public.