affirmative blocks

8/9/2019 Affirmative Blocks

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Tournament of ChampBettendorf HW

AFFIRMATIVE BLOCKS

A/T: PENSION BENEFITS TOO HIGH.................................................................................

A/T: PENSIONS ARE TRILLIONS UNDERFUNDED...............................................................

A/T: PENSIONS ARE UNDERFUNDED...............................................................................

A/T: PENSION UNDERFUNDING DESTROYING ECONOMY...................................................

A/T: PENSION UNDERFUNDING IS SINKING CALIFORNIA...................................................

A/T: TEACHER UNIONS SUCK.........................................................................................

A/T: CANT FIRE TEACHERS............................................................................................

A/T: TEACHER SALARIES/BENEFITS TOO COSTLY.............................................................

A/T: QUALITY OF SCHOOLS DECLINING...........................................................................

A/T: TEACHER UNIONS KILL CHARTER SCHOOLS..............................................................

A/T: CHARTER SCHOOLS GOOD......................................................................................

A/T: US EDUCATION DECLINING IN COMPETITVENESS......................................................

A/T: TEACHER UNIONS BLOCK REFORM..........................................................................

A/T: UNIONS BLOCK MERIT PAY.....................................................................................

MERIT PAY BAD............................................................................................................

PRIVATIZATION/VOUCHERS BAD....................................................................................

A/T: ARGUMENTS MUST ONLY BE PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS..............................................

A/T: PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS INCREASE DEFICIT SPENDING.............................................

A/T: PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS INCREASE TAXES...............................................................

A/T: UNIONS BLOCK VOLUNTEERISM..............................................................................

A/T: UNIONS LEAD TO POLITICAL CORRUPTION...............................................................

A/T: WORKERS FORCED TO JOIN UNIONS........................................................................

A/T: UNIONS ENTRENCH DISCRIMINATION......................................................................

A/T: UNIONS ARE MONOPOLIES......................................................................................

A/T: PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS ARE ANTIDEMOCRATIC.......................................................

A/T: PUBLIC SECTOR WAGES TOO HIGH..........................................................................

A/T: PUBLIC SECTOR BENEFITS TOO HIGH.......................................................................

A/T: PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS ENCUMBER GOVERNMENT..................................................

A/T: CONTRACTORS MORE EFFICIENT.............................................................................

A/T: PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS INCREASE GOVERNMENT....................................................

A/T: PUBLIC SECTOR UNION CAMPAIGN DONATIONS BAD................................................

A/T: PUBLIC SECTOR UNION LOBBYING BAD....................................................................

A/T: PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS INEFFICIENT......................................................................

A/T: PRIVATIZATION GOOD............................................................................................

A/T: STEVEN GREENHUT................................................................................................

IND


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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

A/T: POLICE STRIKES HARM SECURITY............................................................................

A/T: TSA STRIKES HARM SECURITY.................................................................................

A/T: CAP AND TRADE BAD..............................................................................................

A/T: COLLECTIVE BARGAINING BAD................................................................................

A/T: COLLECTIVE BARGAINING HARMS STUDENTS...........................................................

A/T: UNIONS CREATE FREE-RIDING PROBLEMS................................................................

A/T: COMPETITION MOTIVATES WORKERS......................................................................

A/T: PENSION BENEFITS TOO HIGH

(__) Benefits of public employees are not overly generous since they often stay at their jobs for a long period of timlike teachers, and they do not receive other benefits such as social security. John Kilgour writes in the Compensatio

Benefits Review1

:

The remaining issue is that public sector pension benefits are overly generous. When compared to what has happened in the private sector, this point has considerable appeal. It must beremembered, however, that most public sector employees pay for a large portion of their retirement benefit andthat they tend to stay with their employer for a long time. Furthermore, many public sector employees,especially teachers, police officers and firefighters, are not covered by Social Security. Their employers arenot subject to the 6.2% tax on payroll, and the employees do not get the Social Security retirement benefitavailable to almost everyone else.

(__) We shouldnt conflate pension issues with other benefits. Pension underfunding is merely short-term fluctuatiothat are to be solved in the long term. John Kilgour writes in the Compensation Benefits Review2:

The debate about state and local pension plans has taken on a life of its own, and it is often entwined with other postretirememployee benefits, mainly health care, and with budgetary problems in general. That is understandable because the taxpayer ultimately foots the bill for them all. From the point of crerating agencies and the bond market, they all amount to debt.

However, that is the extent of their similarity. Pension costs are largely prefunded by employee and employer contributionscreating accumulated assets available for investment. The amount of under- or overfunding will fluctuate inthe short run. Given the long-run nature of pension liabilities, this should not be a problem, provided the parties make theirrequired contributions.

1Kilgour, John G. "Public Sector Pension Plans in California: How Big Is the Problem?" Compensation Benefits Review 39.16 (2007): 16-26. SAGE. Web. 5 Apr. 2010.

2Ibid


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A/T: PENSIONS ARE TRILLIONS UNDERFUNDED






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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

A/T: PENSIONS ARE UNDERFUNDED

(__) Pension underfunding is necessary to avoid negative effects associated with plans that are funded 100% or moProfessor Jonathan Forman of the John Marshall School of Law4 writes:

The only reason that anyone thinks that 80 percent funding may be good enough for government is that we all recognize that when public pension plans get anywhere cloto 100 percent funded, bad things happen. First, if a public plan is fully funded or overfunded, beneficiarieswill lobby forand usually getmore generous benefits, thereby restoring the funded ratio from good to a bad, butpolitically tolerable, underfunded level. In Oklahoma, for example, the state provides much of the funds for primary and secondary education. At the same time, the OklahomaTeachers Retirement System is only about 50 percent funded. Nevertheless, Oklahoma teachers spend most of their lobbying efforts trying to get pay increasesthat almost invariably worsen the funded ratio. WhenOklahoma teachers do lobby about pensions, they usually just ask for ad hoc cost-of-living adjustments and other benefit enhancements; lobbying for larger government contributions to the underfunded pension planan afterthought.

The second bad thing that happens to fully funded or overfunded public pension plans is that governors andlegislatures call for contribution cuts and holidays. Politicians would rather spend money on projects that wbring them more immediate campaign contributions and votes.

(__) Pension underfunding is not due to actions of public sector unions, but neoconservative interest groups like the

American Enterprise Institute

5

. David Webber of the New York University School of Law

6

writes:

Likewise, in response to pressure from the American Enterprise Institute, among others, Republican GovernorRick Perry of Texas ordered the states public pension funds to [liquidate] divest from companies doing business with Iran, requiring theliquidation of positions the funds held in international energy conglomerates such as Frances Total and Great BritainsRoyal Dutch Shell. The Texas funds divestment was a reaction to a broader campaign by AEI and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to h ighlight public pension funds purported indirect financing terrorism. And while this particular episode of business interests exercising influence over public pension funds postdates the timeframe of my lead plaintiff sample, I note that of the four Texas public pension funds appear on my Largest Funds list the Teachers Retirement System of Texas ($77.8 billion in assets), the Employees Retirement System of Texas ($18.8 billion in assets), the Texas County and District Retirement

System ($10.0 billion in assets), and the Texas Municipal Retirement System ($10.3 billion in assets)none obtained a lead plaintiff appointment between 2003 and 2006. More recently, DemocraticGovernor Steve Beshear of Kentucky invited the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce to participate in reforminthe investment practices of the states two major public pension funds, the Kentucky Teachers Retirement System and the Kentucky RetiremenSystems, including adding majorities of investment experts to the investment committees and reforming theallocation of assets in the investment portfolio. The press release announcing the reforms prominently noted the participation of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, aquoted its president and CEO, who stated, We support the changes embodied in this proposal and applaud the governor's leadership on this issue. The Kentucky Teachers Retirement System and the KentuckyRetirement Systems are both Largest Funds with $12.1 billion and $12.4 billion in assets, respectively. As with the Texas funds, the Kentucky funds obtained no lead plaintiff appointments from 2003- 2006.

Setting aside the merits of this intervention by business interests in both the leadership and the investment decisions of public pension funds, the examples above illustrate thesusceptibility of public pension funds to influence by business interests. Politicians who serve on publicpension fund boards are just as exposed to political pressureincluding campaign contributionsfrombusiness interests as they are from plaintiffs lawyers. Strong opposition to securities class actions by business interests may be reducing public pension fund participation in securities class actions,particularly by politically dominated funds, and particularly in those states deemed to be highly sensitive to such interests, or insensitive to countervailing interests.135 The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, consistently the nations largest campaign contributors, may take some comfort from this data that its contributions and lobbying efforts are having some effect in preventing public pension funds from leading shareholder lawsuiagainst the Chambers members.

BBC Excerpt: On Tuesdays, the leading neo-conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute, holds its

"black coffee morning", a relatively sumptuous breakfast and talks by key Iraqi exiles as well as luminaries like

Richard Perle, a leading hawk who is close to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

4Forman, Jonathan B. "Funding Public Pension Plans." The Seventh Annual Employee Benefits Symposium. John Marshall Law School, Chicago. 15 June 2009. Lecture.

5http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2914969.stm

6Webber, David H. "Is Pay-to-Play Driving Public Pension Fund Activism In Securities Class Actions?: An Empirical Study." Law and Economics Research Paper Series 09.28 (2010). New York University School of Law. We

Apr. 2010.


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A/T: PENSION UNDERFUNDING DESTROYING ECONOMY




(__) Since people arent withdrawing from their pensions all at once or in a significant amount, then pensionunderfunding shouldnt matter. But even if they were, the money that taxpayers deposit into the funds will go rightback into the economy since those pensioners will be spending that money as their retirement funds. Either way,

pension underfunding doesnt have such a drastic effect on the economy.



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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

A/T: PENSION UNDERFUNDING IS SINKING CALIFORNIA

(__) It isnt solely the fault of public pension underfunding, but the state of California itself which is in massiveamounts of debt. There is a multitude of other factors involved. John Kilgour of the Compensation Benefits Reviewwrites:

In absolute terms, a $47.9 billion in unfunded liabilities is a lot of money. However, when related to the states population, budget or revenues it [pensunderfunding] is not as onerous as it looks at first glance (Exhibit 1). IfOPEB liabilities [pensions] were the only problem facingCalifornia, they would be a manageable. However, they are not. The state has substantial bonded and otherindebtedness and is currently facing a monumental budgetary crisis.

8Kilgour, John C. "Public Sector Retiree Benefits in California: Problems and Solutions." Compensation Benefits Review 41.27 (2009). SAGE. Web. 27 Apr. 2010.


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A/T: TEACHER UNIONS SUCK

(__) Larger unions are necessary to counter the big systems and accommodate for the large infrastructure necessaryfor function. Cooper and Sureau write in the journal of Educational Policy9:

Unions are part of the recent movement to create a national education system, with No Child Left Behind as the first major indicator. With national standards often comeuniversal testing; requirements for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP); and a clearer, stronger alignment between the goals of educationthe curriculum, and the assessments in key subjects. Big systems require big unions, again a means of allaying fearthat teachers have of being swept away by national standards and reforms.

(__) Unions have given teachers a voice in policy making, which has been dominated by politicians in the past.Cooper and Sureau write in the journal of Educational Policy10:

Similarly, as American public education has become larger and more standardized, the rise of the teacher labor movement in the 1930s was understandable in major urban centers, although it was not until the 1960s

teachersworking with other public employeesgot 32 states to start passing collective bargaining legislation. The great irony of teacher unionization, as we shall argue, is that these unions helped toinstitutionalize the teacher role, giving these professionals parity at the bargaining table and a greater voice school policy making and implementation. Unions , it seems, are ultimately at work to support and defend public

education, not to destroy it as many opponents of unionization and unions have been arguing since the 1850s when industrial labor began to grow. Now the question becomes, where and how can teachersunions help keep public education publicand slow down the charter school and voucher movements that create schools where collective bargaining is not as likely to occur?

(__) More education infrastructure funding leads to greater gross state product growth. Pantuosco and Ullrich writethe Journal of Education Finance 11:

Government officials recognize that an educated workforce is a productive workforce. Quality public schools attract employers and yield a more productive society. In a sample of 48contiguous states, over a 14-year period, Garcia-Mila and McGuire (1992) discovered that state spending oneducation infrastructure leads to improved GSP [Gross State Product] growth. With this outcome in mind, state policymakers search for the olevel of education spending, and the most efficient method of spending the educational budget. The allocation of tax revenue dedicated to education, wheththey spend on salaries or books, impacts the productivity of the workforce, and eventually the state's GSP.

(__) Organized teachers use their unions to create better schools. Pantuosco and Ullrich write in the Journal ofEducation Finance12:

Our investigation overlaps at least two strands of literatureteachers unions' impact on productivity and the affect of labor unions on productivity. The impact of teacher's unions on productivity can be addressed thr

the literature known as the "two-faces" of (teachers) unions. The proposed positive face of unions highlights how the collective voice of organized teachers canenhance the educational production function through their internal insight of student and school needs. Withthe student in mind, organized teachers lobby for smaller class sizes, lucrative compensation packages toattract and retain better quality teachers, and greater classroom resources of technology and supplies. The state hotheir financial commitment to education will yield a harvest of productive citizens who contribute to society in measures of professionalism, social awareness, and diversification, and, we propose, a greater gross statproduct per employee.

(__) CHECK: A/T TEACHER SALARIES/BENEFITS TOO COSTLY

9Cooper, Bruce S., and John Sureau. "Teacher Unions and the Politics of Fear in Labor Relations." Educational Policy 22.1 (2008). SAGE. Web. 7 Apr. 2010.


11Ibid

12Louis J. Pantuosco and Laura D. Ullrich. "The Impact of Teachers Unions on State-Level Productivity." Journal of Education Finance 35.3 (2010): 276-294. Project MUSE. 21 Feb. 2010 .


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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

A/T: CANT FIRE TEACHERS

(__) Instead of unilateral action, cooperating with unions on firing bad teachers creates a productive environment foactual reform. Martin Malin, a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law13, writes:

Peer review has been successful in large part because of teacher involvement through their unions indeveloping the evaluation standards. Teachers are forced to reflect on what constitutes good teaching and expressstandardsin terms that are accessible and acceptable to their peers. Having actively participated in developing the standards, the union is molikely to view its role as protecting the standards of teaching instead of protecting individual teachers from evaluaunilaterally imposed from above. Peer reviewers spend considerable greater time than administrators with the teachers underreview, and when reviews are negative, they generally produce a record that is very compelling. Although the teachers remaincontractually or statutorily entitled to union representation to challenge negative results, the thoroughness of the peer review record makes it unlikely that such challenged will succeed.

(__) Incorporating teacher unions into the firing process with peer review is more effective than unilateral action.Martin Malin, a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law14, gives an empirical example:

When the union serves as a vehicle for collective employee voice in the evaluation and discipline of

employees, the union can be transformed from an impediment to effective government into a contributor. Sucbeen the case with teacher peer review. One of the earliest and most notable examples of teacher peer review was in the ToledoOhio Public Schools. The Toledo system employes an Internal Board of Review (IBR), consisting of five union and four district representatives. New teachers participate in a two-year intern prwith an IBR consulting teacher. The IBR also oversees a plan for tenured teachers whose substandard performance led to a joint referral by the teacher's principal and union building representative. Evidencesuggests that more probationary teachers and tenured teachers with performance problems leave the systemthan under a system of review and discipline unilaterally controlled by management. A similar system in theCincinnati, Ohio Public Schools was examined by the Secretary of Labor's Task Force on Excellence in State and Local Government Through Labor-ManagementCooperation and found to have led to a greater percentage of probational teachers and teachers in remediationleaving the system when reviewed by peers than when reviewed solely by administrators.

(__) Rates of dismissal of tenured teachers are the same between unionized and nonunionized states. California, a

state with a high rate of unionization, has a more stringent policy on probationary teachers. David Macaray15 writes

In Georgia, where 92.5% of the teachers are nonunion, only 0.5% of tenured/postprobationary teachers gefired. In South Carolina, where 100% of the teachers are nonunion, its 0.32%. And in North Carolina, where 97.7% are nonunion, a miniscule03% of tenured/postprobationary teachers get firedthe exact same percentage as California.

An even more startling comparison: In California, with its powerful teachers union, school administrators fire, on average,6.91% of its probationary teachers. In nonunion North Carolina, that figure is only 1.38%. California isactually tougher on prospective candidates.

Fact: During the first two years of employment, any teacher in the LAUSD can be fired for any reason, with no

recourse to union representation and no access to the grievance procedure. Two full years. If the district doesnt lik

you for any reason, they fire you. No union. No grievance. Nothing. Could any arrangement be more favorable tomanagement?

13Malin, Martin H. [Professor of Law and Director, Institute for Law and the Workplace, ChicagoKent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology.] "The Paradox of Public Sector Labor Law." Indiana Law Journal 84 (2009

Springer. Web. 16 Apr. 2010.

14Ibid

15David Macaray [Los Angeles Playwright, Writer, and Former Labor Union Representative]. The Myth of the Powerful Teachers Union. CounterPunch. March 2022, 2009. Accessed April 2, 2010.


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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

A/T: TEACHER SALARIES/BENEFITS TOO COSTLY

(__) Teachers dont receive social security benefits, and already have a low middle class income. Unions havesignificantly improved the living conditions from low pay and no benefits to a decent income with deserved healthand pension benefits. Large pensions are also deserved since teachers often spend decades in their jobs.

(__) As teachers are compensated more for their efforts, they become more effective teachers. Pantuosco and Ullricwrite in the Journal of Education Finance16:

State and local governments dedicate a large percentage of their financial and human capital toward educatiIn general, the pledge of resources is more pronounced in states where teachers unions thrive. In 2000, average per pupil spending over $7,500 in states where teachers unions were allowed to bargain. In states where unions do not have bargaining power, per pupil spending was only $6,450.1 Teachers unions espouse that highercompensated, organized teachers better prepare students forthe challenges incumbent on the modern workforce. They rationalize that inreturn for the states' investment in schools, the union will help produce a well-rounded, socially informedstudent who makes a positive contribution to society.

(__) More education infrastructure funding leads to greater gross state product growth. Pantuosco and Ullrich writethe Journal of Education Finance 17:

Government officials recognize that an educated workforce is a productive workforce. Quality public schools attract employers and yield a more productive society. In a sample of 48contiguous states, over a 14-year period, Garcia-Mila and McGuire (1992) discovered that state spending oneducation infrastructure leads to improved GSP [Gross State Product] growth. With this outcome in mind, state policymakers search for the olevel of education spending, and the most efficient method of spending the educational budget. The allocation of tax revenue dedicated to education, wheththey spend on salaries or books, impacts the productivity of the workforce, and eventually the state's GSP.

(__) Compared with third-world countries, non-unionized teachers in the US have worse benefits, especially withmaternity leave. According to a UN Commission report18:

Industrialized

Nations

Denmark

Hungary

Spain

United Kingdom

United States

Length of

Maternity

Leave

18 weeks

24 weeks

16 weeks

14-18 weeks

12 weeks

Percentage of wages

paid in covered period

100

100

100

90 for 6 weeks, flat rate thereafter

0

Africa

Angola

Cote d'Ivoire

KenyaSouth Arica

90 days

14 weeks

2 months

12 weeks

100

100

100

45


17Ibid

18http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/indwm/wwpub2000.htm


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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

A/T: QUALITY OF SCHOOLS DECLINING

(__) Organized teachers use their unions to create better schools. Pantuosco and Ullrich write in the Journal ofEducation Finance19:

Our investigation overlaps at least two strands of literatureteachers unions' impact on productivity and the affect of labor unions on productivity. The impact of teacher's unions on productivity can be addressed thr

the literature known as the "two-faces" of (teachers) unions. The proposed positive face of unions highlights how the collective voice of organized teachers canenhance the educational production function through their internal insight of student and school needs. Withthe student in mind, organized teachers lobby for smaller class sizes, lucrative compensation packages toattract and retain better quality teachers, and greater classroom resources of technology and supplies. The state hotheir financial commitment to education will yield a harvest of productive citizens who contribute to society in measures of professionalism, social awareness, and diversification, and, we propose, a greater gross statproduct per employee.

(__) A litany of studies20 have shown that teacher unions have increased performance in schools:

While this result sounds disheartening, Eberts and Stone (1987) claim the decline of test scores would be worse without the teacheunions.9 They posit that unionized districts are seven percent more productive for average students than non-uniondistricts. Freeman and Medoff(1979) explain that teachers unions improve productivity by inspiring higher

wages that maintain and attract faculty. Stone (2000) calculates that teachers unions improve teacher salaries by5.1% over non-unionized teachers of comparable education and experience.10 Other researchers add that unions championsmaller class sizes, and that these smaller classes benefit students. They reference the four-year longitudinal Student Teacher Achievement Ratio (STproject which shows average per pupil performance increases when class size is diminished.11 The National Education Association (NEA) concurs that theunions' objective to limit class sizes and lobby for state-of-the-art resources improves students' educationalexperience.


20Ibid


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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

A/T: TEACHER UNIONS KILL CHARTER SCHOOLS

(__) Teacher unions have actually been opening charter schools. Cooper and Sureau write in the journal ofEducational Policy21:

Recently, to be involved in this form of privatization, the New York City local of the United Federation of Teachers opened its owncharter school, unique in that teachers in this school also were members of the UFT. If you cant beat them,join them. The advertisement is for two schools: elementary and secondary. The following is an account of the UFT president welcoming staff and students into the nations first teacher union-run charter:

(__) The environment of the union is more conducive for charter schoolsteachers cooperateshare information



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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

A/T: CHARTER SCHOOLS GOOD

(__) Charter schools need vast improvement and are not regulated enough. The IBISWorld Industry Report22 writes

Despite some charter schools popularity and success there is still much debate about the quality, performance and merit of the schools. Although the Center for Education Reform is p

about the growth in Charter Schools, it believes that charter school laws need strengthening. Of the 40 states that have charter school laws, 20 states haweak laws [regulating charter schools], and are in need of improvement. According to the New York Times2006), in a recent survey of public institutions and charter schools, in many instances charter schools were found have performed worse than the traditional public school. This has raised concerns regarding the charter schooas a solution to some of the public school systems problems. President Obama has promised to double the funding for "responsible" charter schools.

(__) Charter schools have not improved in performance over public schools and there are greater accountabilityissues. The IBISWorld Industry Report23 writes:

There are however some issues surrounding charter schools. According to the New York Times (October 2006), a federal study into schoolperformance found that charter schools did not perform better than traditional public schools, and in some

instances their performance was worse. It can also be difficult to close charter schools for political reasons.President Obama has stated that he intends to hold poorly performing charter schools accountable, although how [accountability] this will be achieved is unclear.

22IBISWorld. "Public Schools in the US." IBISWorld Industry Report. 12 Feb. 2010. Web. 25 Mar. 2010.

23Ibid


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A/T: US EDUCATION DECLINING IN COMPETITVENESS

(__) The US only appears to be declining. Education in the US is compulsory while only the privileged and intelligare able to receive educations in countries such as India. David Macaray24, a labor union representative, writes:

Also, comparing the scores of American students in foreign countries is a bit misleading. The United States was not only the first nin the world to offer free public education, it was the first to make it compulsory. In the U.S., by law, you must attend school until at least age 16 (somstates have even higher age requirements). That means our national average is going to incorporate test scores of every kid fromevery background in every neighborhood in the country. In India (where I once lived and worked), great emphasis is placed on education; accordinglyIndia has a decent school system, one that scores well. But school attendance is not mandatory. Indeed, India has 400 million people whoare illiterate. One wonders what their national test scores would be if those many millions who cant read or write were factored in.

(__) In some nations like China, you must take tests to be admitted into middle school, high school, and college.Those who fail these extensive exams are not permitted entry and thus their scores are not taken into account.

24David Macaray, The Myth of the Powerful Teachers Union, March 20-22, 2009, http://www.counterpunch.org/macaray03202009.html


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A/T: TEACHER UNIONS BLOCK REFORM

(__) Teacher unions support reform. Princeton University25 writes:

A recent Op-Ed in the New York Times and a Boston news radio program covered Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of

Teachers (AFT), and her proposal for how the union can evaluate teachers more thoroughly. She addressed topics sensitive among many teachers theuse of student performance as a factor in evaluations and the procedures to remove teachers who areineffective or guilty of misconduct. Breaking with precedent, Weingarten favors using student test scores to assessteachers and agrees that steps to remove ineffective teachers should be eased The AFTs support for thesereforms is a positive step in a complicated process. An article in The Future of Children volume Excellence in the Classroom focuses on the role of teachers, and it that unions, school administrators, and policymakers should work together to reform school systems. Reform bargaining has gained traction in recent years,with the support of both AFT and another major union, the National Education Association (NEA).

(__) The American Federation of Teachers has backed reform. The USAToday26 writes:

The American Federation of Teachers, the USA's second-largest teachers union, plans to announce today it

will put up $1 million and seek additionalphilanthropic

funding to help school systems try "sustainable, innovativand collaborative reform projects" developed by AFT teachers over the past several years AFT has more than 1.4 million members; about half currentlyin schools. Randi Weingarten, the union's new president, says the fund will support teacher-generated efforts ."That'ssomething that has been totally absent" from most big school shake-ups, she says. "Ultimately, teachers have to have a real stake in reform. It's not simply about a charismatic leader or one idea. We know wworks from the ground up, and if teachers would just have a voice in the reform, we would be able to make it work."

(__) Collective bargaining agreements actually permit reform. The Center for Reinventing Public Education 27 write

On one hand, collective bargaining agreements (CBAs)long, complex, and unwieldy documents which can be difficult for an overworked principal to navigateare often perceived as obstacles by many principalsother educators, and to a certain extent this perception becomes reality. And, while these perceptions can limit school-level flexibility and autonomy, there are also restrictive provisions within CBAs that do so as we

the other hand, CBAs tend to have waiver provisions. In many cases, districts and teachers unions can also negotiatside agreements on individual issues (e.g., memoranda of understanding, or MOUs) to provide desired flexibility. And, in perhaps our most significant finding, many of CBA provisions that we analyzed were more flexible than educators and reform advocates often suggest. Finamany CBA provisions that we studied were simply ambiguous. This ambiguity could potentially allow for greater latitude for an aggressive principal who is lofor more flexibility and willing to push the envelope, while serving to limit a more cautious or timid principal who looks to the CBA for explicit authority or permfirst before acting.

(__) Waiver provisions are flexible. The Center for Reinventing Public Education28 writes:

The basic question that we asked in this study is: Are teachers unions and collective bargaining agreements barriers to high school reform and redesign efforts in Washington, California, and Ohio? Based on our anal

the contracts that we studied, our answer is: sometimes, but not as often as many educators and union critics seem to think. On one hand, as detailed in this report, many educators perceive tcomplex and unwieldy contracts as barriers to reform, and often this perception becomes reality. And while perceptionslimit school-level flexibility and autonomy, the CBAs that we studied contain actual provisions that do so as well. On the other hand, flexibility is available in the foof waiver provisions and side agreements. And , in perhaps our most significant finding, many contract provisions in our sampleproved to be more flexible than educators, reform advocates, and critics often suggest. Finally, often thecontract language is simply ambiguous; such ambiguity offers the potential for greater latitude for aggressivor entrepreneurial principals, while serving to limit more cautious leaders.

25Princeton-Brookings, The Future of Children, January 27, 2010, h ttp://blogs.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/2010/01/accountability-from-teachers-union-can-spark-reform.html

26USA Today, September 10, 2008, http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-09-10-aft-plan_N.htm

27Center for Reinventing Public Education, Teachers Union Contracts and High School Reform, 2009 , http://www.crpe.org/cs/crpe/view/csr_pubs/261

28Ibid


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A/T: UNIONS BLOCK MERIT PAY

(__) Teacher unions have embraced merit pay. Randall Eberts of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation29 writes:

Denver, probably more than any other school district to date, has pursued an ambitious pay-for-performanc

experiment. Ironically, in 1921 Denver became the first school district to replace a merit pay approach with a single salary schedule based on seniority. Seventy-eight years later the district administrationteachers association agreed on a two-year pilot that would base teachers' pay in part directly on the achievement of their students. As described by Donald Gratz, who was in charge of evaluating the DenverIncentive Program, the pilot provided small bonuses for teachers who met either one or two student achievement objectives that they themselves chose.56 These objectives had to beapproved by their principals. For each objective met, teachers received $750. For a school to join the pilot, percent of its faculty had to vote for participation. Thirteen schools signed up.

The Denver Teachers Association had opposed the new compensation system as initially proposed but, wishing to avoid continued confrontation with the administration, agreed after winning three important concessOne was that teachers' performance would be based on objectives of their own choice, with approval of their principals. Another was that an outside, objective party would evaluate the effectiveness of the pilot. The was that the final plan would be subject to a general vote of the association's members. By the time the system was brought to a vote and approved in 2004, it had been modified extensively. The approved system incfour components. Compensation was based on student growth objectives; on earned professional development units, including advanced degrees; and on two bonuses, one for serving in hard-to-staff assignments andother for serving in hard-to-serve schools.

(__) Teacher unions have embraced Obamas plan for merit pay. The Wall Street Journal30 writes:President Barack Obama laid out a broad education vision Tuesday that includes expanded merit pay for teache

and more charter schools,ideas long troubling to teachers' unions. With his congressional agenda already packed, the president is not proposing a major new piece of legislation. Instead, he

spelled out the goal of a "cradle to career" education system aimed at serving Americans better at every level. He said he would use the budget to expand programs that work and encourage voluntary action by statesindividuals.

The president's plan, which largely implements promises from his campaign, includes new incentives for states to boost the quality ofpreschool programs and easier access to financial aid for highereducation. Mr. Obama also called on states raise standards for student achievement. Perhaps the most controversial step would increase the number of school districts that benefit from a federal program that supportsperformance pay for teachers. Mr. Obama also called on states to remove caps on the number of public charter schools. Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia now cap the total, according to the National Allfor Public Charter Schools. The president cast his proposals as an effort to move past the debates that have dominated education policy in the past. "Too many supporters of my party have resisted the idea of rewardiexcellence in teaching with extra pay, even though we know it can make a difference in the classroom," he told the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "Too many in the Republican Party have opposed new invesin early education, despite compelling evidence of its importance." Mr. Obama's support for merit pay breaks with some in his party, who fear it can't be administered fairly. The Teacher Incentive Fund currently sup34 grant recipients at a cost of $97 million this year and another $200 million was allocated through the economic-stimulus plan. Mr. Obama said he'd like to see as many as 150 districts added, but the administrationnot say what its 2010 budget request will be. "It's time to start rewarding good teachers, stop making excuses for bad ones," Mr. Obama said. "If a teacher is given a chance or two chances or three chances but still do

improve, there's no excuse for that person to continue teaching." Mr. Obama said that teachers who are rewarded for excellence should help thschools improve. Teacher unions said Tuesday that they welcomed Mr. Obama's overall approach and could suppomerit-pay plans as long as they are fair to teachers. The presidents of the two largest teachers' unions said th

were confidentMr

.Obama would only support proposals that meet that test.

29Eberts, Randall W. Teacher Unions and Student Performance: Help or Hindrance? The Future of Children. 2007. Project MUSE. (Published by The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton

University and The Brookings Institution.)

30http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123668036405881929.html Laura Meckler March 11, 2009


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MERIT PAY BAD

(__) teachers will game the merit pay system by forcing students to drop out.David Figlio, and Lawrence Getzler, the National Bureau of Economic Research write:

Schools may even be less inclined to discourage poorer students from dropping out. For example, a Virginia school district superintendent said that the statesaccountability exam system actually encourages higher dropout rates It is actually to the schools advantage drop slow learners and borderline students from the school, because they are usually poor test-takers. (Borja, 1999) In pabecause of the newness of school accountability systems, we know of few attempts to seriously quantify school responses to these incentives.1

(__) Gains in performance may not correlate with student improvement or better teacher instruction. Thomas Kanefrom the National Bureau of Economic Research, writes in March 2001:

The estimation technique we use to decompose the variance in school-level test scores also yielded a number of substantive implications. First, one must be cautious in using gain scores in an accountability framework, whe

one is evaluating schools or teachers. There is much less signal variation and relatively more variation due to non-persistent factors in gain scores than in test score levels. Moreover, the gain anyteacher is likely to achieve with his or her students seems to depend upon the quality of instruction provided in previous year. Large (or small) gains one year tend to be followed by small (or large) gains in the next year. Also, the

schools that achieve impressive gains in one grade may not achieve impressive gains in other grades.In other words, one

should not evaluate a school based upon the gains in any particular grade level. Although gain scores are often touted as better indicators of value-added by a school, their usefulness will be quite limited without the filtering technique we propose.

He continues:

Second, we found little evidence that schools with substantial improvements in test performance over time improveon any measures of student engagement. Although homework and TV watching were strongly related to math test score gains in 5th grade in the base year (1994), there wano evidence that the schools with the greatest improvements in performance after 1994 exhibited improvement on anthese other dimensions. Such results would be consistent with the hypothesis that schools began tailoring theircurricula to improve performance on the tests, without generating similar improvements on other measures.

If student performance bears little relation to a current teachers efficacy or even real educational improvement, thewe should not give out merit pay simply because merit has not been earned even when it appears to have been.


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PRIVATIZATION/VOUCHERS BAD

(__) Supreme Court Justice Souter vehemently opposes vouchers since they are a vehicle for undermining theConstitution. CNN reports31:

"Public tax money will pay at a systemic level for teaching the covenant with Israel and Mosaic law in Jewish schools, theprimacy of the Apostle Peter and the Papacy in Catholic schools, the truth of reformed Christianity inProtestant schools, and the revelation to the Prophet in Muslim schools, to speak only of major religiousgroupings in the Republic," he said.

(__) In Cleveland, almost all families using vouchers sent their children to Catholic schools. CNN reports 32:

The ruling reverses an appeals court decision, which struck down the program because nearly all the families receiving the tax-supported state tuitionscholarships attend Catholic schools in Cleveland.

(__) Private schools are discriminatory and give up on students. The Anti-Defamation League writes33:

Private schools are allowed to discriminate on a variety of grounds. These institutions regularly rejectapplicants because of low achievement, discipline problems, and sometimes for no reason at all. Further, soprivate schools promote agendas antithetical to the American ideal. Under a system of vouchers, it may be difficult toprevent schools run by extremist groups like the Nation of Islam or the Ku Klux Klan from receiving public funds to subsidize their racist and antiSemitic agendas. Indeed, the proud legacy of Brown v. Board of Education may be tossed away as tax dollars are siphoned off to deliberately segregated schools.

(__) Vouchers are not effective at subsidizing private school costs. (Isidore Neuman costs $20,000 to attend). TheAnti-Defamation League writes34:

Proponents of vouchers argue that these programs would allow poor students to attend good schoolspreviously only available to the middle class. The facts tell a different story. A $2,500 voucher supplementmake the difference for some families, giving them just enough to cover the tuition at a private school (with some schools charging over $10,000 per year, they would still have to pay several thousand dollars). But v

programs offer nothing of value to families who cannot come up with the rest of the money to cover tuition costs

(__) States such as Iowa have open enrollment policies, enabling students to transfer to schools with better resourcethan the school districts that their families may be living in.

31Frieden, Terry. "Supreme Court Affirms School Voucher Program - June 27, 2002." CNN.com. Time Warner, 27 June 2002. Web. 29 Apr. 2010.

32Ibid

33Anti Defamation League. "School Vouchers: The Wrong Choice for Public Education." ADL. Web. 29 Apr. 2010.

34Ibid


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A/T: ARGUMENTS MUST ONLY BE PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS

(__) The same unions represent public and private sector workers. Norma Riccucci writes in the Review of PublicPersonnel Management35:

In addition, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)originally chartered as the Building Service Employees International Union by the in 1921 to represent such private sector workers as janitors, elevator operators, and security guardsalso represents a high percentage ofpublic employees (16.4%). The SEIU is the largest and fastest growing union in North America, and it is thnations largest union of health care workers (Service Employees International Union [SEIU], 2005).

As seen in Table 2, traditionally private sector unions such as the Teamsters (IBT), the United Auto Workers (UAW), and thCommunications Workers of America (CWA) also are representing a growing number of public employees. Alththe IBT, for example, only represents 2% of public employees, it is the type of worker that the union represents, which indicates the breadth of private section representation. The IBT represents nonly police, fire, and corrections officers but also nurses, court officers, architects, clerical and nonsupervisuniversity workers, and general state workers and administrators.

(__) The same unions represent public and private sector workers. Norma Riccucci writes in the Review of Public

Personnel Management36:

Finally, as seen in Table 2, traditional teachers unions such as the National Education Association (NEA) and the AmericanFederation of Teachers (AFT) represent close to 25% of state and local government employees. The NEAs anAFTs constituents here are not teachers but rather white-collar county workers, general unit workers in sucdepartments as Parks and Recreation, and other types of general municipal employees. In addition, the NEA, which historically has been seen as theprofessional counterpart to the AFT, represents such workers as school cafeteria employees.

(__) The same unions represent public and private sector workers. Norma Riccucci writes in the Review of PublicPersonnel Management37:

Table 3 provides data on union membership of teachers and professors. It is not surprising to no te, the preponderance of these employees at public institutions is represented by the NEA or the AFT (67%). However,

array of other unions representing teachers and professors is quite interesting. Historically private sector unions such as the Teamsters, the UAW, athe Transport Workers Union (TWU) account for close to 10% of union membership by teachers and professorThe SEIU, CWA, and AFSCME represent about 25% of the teachers and professors at public schools and univerthroughout the nation. Finally, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) and police and fire unionsincluding the FOP, theInternational Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), and the Police Benevolent Association (PBA)are nowrepresenting teachers and professors.

(__) This is logically not true. Evidence about unions in general clearly applies to public sector unions. All of theproperties of a rectangle are exhibited by a square, even if squares are just a type of rectangle.

35Riccucci, Norma M. "The Changing Face of Public Employee Unionism." Review of Public Personnel Administration 27.71 (2007). SAGE. Web. 6 Apr. 2010.

36Ibid

37Ibid


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A/T: PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS INCREASE DEFICIT SPENDING

(__) Public employees are more aware of their costs and how they affect their organization, leading to greater cost-savings and efficiency. Brendan Martin writes in the Review of Labor and Research38:

Under the Komanco approach, when a decision has been taken to setup a project in a workplace, all the employees areinformed and then divided up into groups of between 8 and 12 people, each with an appointed leader. Then the groups spend as long as 1months analysing their organisation, identifying its strengths and weaknesses and finding ways to build on tformer and eradicate the latter. Komancos brochure stresses that creativity needs elbow room and that work for change takes time. Almqvist explains:

The members become researchers in their own jobs. They discuss how to improve quality, where responsibility lies and shouwhat are their training needs. They measure the costs of specific tasks, so that each person knows the costs associated withtheir own job.

(__) Look as investment as opposed to a one-time cost. Wage increases mean money goes back to local communiti

(__) Everything we do is deficit spending at some point, so there isnt a clear line showing how public sector unionare the tipping point of public sector unions.

38Martin, Brendan. "Delivering the goods - trade unions and public sector reform." Review of Labour and Research 3.14 (1997): 14-33. Print.


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A/T: PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS INCREASE TAXES

(__) We shouldnt conflate the issue of public workers wages and pork barrel spending. Whereas our tax dollars godirectly to helping a family make ends meet for public sector workers, politicians and their special interest sendmillions more to projects like bridges to nowhere and unnecessary fighter jets.

(__) There is no negative effect of collective bargaining since voters drive down wages through initiatives whilecollective bargaining increases employment. There would actually be a negative effect without collective bargaininsince we wouldnt create job demands necessary to help the economy or maintain proper employment. JohnMatsusaka of the University of Southern California39 writes:

The main message of this paper is that municipal employment policies are different when voters can override elected officials via initiatives, and the differences are consistent with a theory in which initiatives counte

political economy problems stemming from patronage and interest groups. When collective bargaining is unavailable, the initiative mainly cutsemployment, consistent with a model in which elected officials tend to pad the public payroll with patronage workers. When collective bargaining is available, initiative mainly cuts wages, consistent with a model in which voters use the initiative to undo supra-markewages that emerge from collective bargaining. The initiative is also associated with smaller employment cutwhen collective bargaining is available than when it is unavailable. This pattern is consistent with the model because higher union wages cause elected officials to cut public seemployment on their own, reducing the need for initiatives to roll back patronage jobs.

39Matsusaka, John G. "Direct Democracy and Public Employees." SSRN. University of Southern California. May 2007. Accessed April, 28 2010.


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A/T: UNIONS BLOCK VOLUNTEERISM

(__) This is just hawkish overregulation that happens once in a blue moon. Our opponents do not provide that publisector unions are a systemic threat to public volunteerism. Community projects happen every day without events likthese happening.


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A/T: UNIONS LEAD TO POLITICAL CORRUPTION

(__) A joint study40by the University of Illinois, Rutgers University, Cornell University, and the University of Oregcovering six years of union activity found absolutely no misconduct of unions.

In brief, from 2003-2009 in the states studied, a total of 34,148 public sector workers employed in state, countymunicipal and educational institutions voluntarily joined a union. Most importantly, contrary to business claims, in1,073 cases of union certification and in at least 1,359 majority-authorization campaigns, there was not asingle confirmed incident of union misconduct.

(__) We should evaluate actions of unions as a collective force. Insofar as these allegations of corruption come fromonly so-called union leaders, they are not the entirety of the union, and only the actions of a single individual.

40Joint Research Project of the University of Illinois School of Labor and Employment Relations, Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations, Rutgers University Extension Division, School of Industrial and Labor

Relations, Cornell University, University of Oregon Labor Education and Research Center Majority Authorizations and Union Organizing in the Public Sector: A Four-State Perspective May 26, 2009


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A/T: WORKERS FORCED TO JOIN UNIONS

(__) A joint study41by the University of Illinois, Rutgers University, Cornell University, and the University of Oregcovering six years of union activity found absolutely no misconduct of unions.

In brief, from 2003-2009 in the states studied, a total of 34,148 public sector workers employed in state, countymunicipal and educational institutions voluntarily joined a union. Most importantly, contrary to business claims, in1,073 cases of union certification and in at least 1,359 majority-authorization campaigns, there was not asingle confirmed incident of union misconduct.

41Joint Research Project of the University of Illinois School of Labor and Employment Relations, Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations, Rutgers University Extension Division, School of Industrial and Labor

Relations, Cornell University, University of Oregon Labor Education and Research Center Majority Authorizations and Union Organizing in the Public Sector: A Four-State Perspective May 26, 2009


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A/T: UNIONS ENTRENCH DISCRIMINATION

(__) Without unions to protect workers, labor rights have been exploited; particularly those of women and minoritiWade Henderson, a professor of public interest law42, writes:

Over the past four decades, employers have, with increasing aggressiveness, sought to keep unions out of the American workplace. By exploiting weaknesses in our labor laws thallow businesses to coerce workers with virtual impunity, employers have made a mockery of the right to form a unionAs a result, workers have endured rising income inequality and diminished rights and dignity in theworkplace. Today I would like to focus on the particularly strong negative impact the decline of our labor movement and our inadequate labor laws have on women and minorities in the workplace. LCCRfounder A. Philip Randolph, the longtime leader of the African- American Sleeping Car Porters union, embodied the idea that a broad pro-worker agenda, with a strong labor movement as its cornerstone, was essentpromoting racial equality in our nation. Following in Randolph's footsteps, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when he marched in support of striking Memphis sanitation workers, recognized that it was not racial prejudicealone, but the joint effects of racial discrimination and economic privation that denied economic opportunity to poor African-American workers. As King realized, unions hold forth the promise of bringing us closer

society where all Americans enjoy economic opportunity. Unions markedly improve wages and benefits for those trapped at the bottom the economic ladder, who disproportionately are women and minorities. They also make workplaces fairer amore humane through the enforcement of contract provisions addressing issues like sick leave and workplacsafety - measures which help all workers but are of particular benefit to women and minorities. Moreover, one of the twentieth century's great champions of civil and human rights in our nation, Eleanor Rooserecognized that the right to organize was instrumental to securing human rights domestically and globally. Roosevelt led the efforts to draft the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which laid the foundatio

international human rights standards. The Declaration states that "[e]veryone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests." Women and minorities need unions now more than ever.

The current economic downturn is a particularly strong threat to low wage workers.Indeed, whatever modest economic gains wom

minority workers have garnered in recent decades may be wiped out if they are unable to push back against wage and benefit cuts and to fight for better job security. The Employee Free Choice Act, a bill to be introdsoon in the 111th Congress, presents the best opportunity in a generation to restore workers' right to unionize. If we do not bring fairness back to the process by which workers form a union, we will lose perhaps our chance to preserve recent economic gains for women and minorities, and to give them a better path to economic prosperity for themselves and their children.

(__) Unions like the American Federation of Teachers worked to ensure equal rights during the Civil RightsMovement43.

AFT conventions as early as 1928 passed resolutions to call attention to the need for more black history inschools and for the equalization of salaries between black and white teachers . And 10 years later, the 1938 AFT convention, which was pfor a Cincinnati hotel, was moved to a new location because blacks would have been forced to use freight elevators in the hotel.

One of the earliest unions to condemn segregation, the AFT stopped chartering segregated locals in 1948 anlater formalized that action through a constitutional amendment . The federation also willingly accepted the loss of thousands of members in 1957 whenexpelled its remaining segregated locals in the South.

The AFT was virtually alone among teacher organizations in filing an amicus curiae brief supporting the plaintiffs in thelandmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education that struck down racial segregation of schools. In its brief ftwo years before the decision, the AFT's legal counsel John Ligtenberg wrote, "Segregation in the field of education is the denial of education itself." (see Brown vs. Board of Education: A Proud AFT Moment)

During the turbulent 1960s, the AFT was particularly active on the civil rights front. Busloads of memberstraveled to the South for voter registration drives as well as to participate in the historic 1963 March onWashington. The AFT also ran more than 20 "Freedom Schools" in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Staffed by AFT volunteers the schools supplemented the inadequate education offered tostudents.

42Wade Henderson, President, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, professor, public interest law, March 10, 2009, Testimony, p. online

43http://archive.aft.org/topics/civil-rights/index.htm


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A/T: UNIONS ARE MONOPOLIES

(__) By competing with private sector workers, public unions unite and become more efficient workers. MartinMalin, a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law44, writes:

An alternative to public employers avoiding collectively represented employees by contracting their jobs to the private sector is to empower thosworkers to compete against private contractors for the work. One example of such empowerment, highlighted by theSecretary of Labor's Task Force, occurred in the Massachusetts Highway Department. When the state decided to subcontrachighway maintenance, the unions who represented the employees who had been performing those duties formed a coalition and bid against thecontractors. They were awarded the job and assumed responsibility for organizing and managing it. Theresulting improvements included a sixty percent reduction in workers' compensation claims, a seventy percereduction in overtime and a 49.5% reduction in sick time. Improved efficiency saved the state more than $7million. Road sweeping and cleaning of gutters became more regular. Worker suggestions for improvedmaintenance of equipment enabled the purchase and lease of new equipment. As with teacher peer review, the role of the union changeddramatically. The Secretary of Labor's Task Force quoted one union official involved, "My job used to be to go around and ask people what grievances they had. My job is now to go around asking people what ideashave to improve this job."

(__) Unions achieve their goals outside of monopoly action, so thus they should not be interpreted as monopolyactors. Richard Freeman, a researcher at the University of Chicago45, writes:

This study indicates that the extensive research on the effects of public sector unions should not be interpretwithin a monopoly effects model of unionism. Rather, in a sector of the economy with distinctive institutional features related to the budget-setting processunions achieve their objectives by influencing budget expenditures and not just levels of pay.

(__) Workers join public sector unions for voice and representation, not monopoly benefits. Morley Gunderson wriin the Journal of Labor Research46:

Restrictions on the range of issues that can be bargained for in the public sector may also redirect voice into other areas. Civil servants may not be allowed by statute, foexample, to bargain over wages or to strike (e.g., U.S. federal government). In such circumstances, unions may redirect theiattention to other areas, such as having a greater say in workplace issues. Freeman ( 1986:51 ) takes the high degree of unionization in the fedgovernment in spite of their inability to bargain over wages as evidence of the importance of the role of voice: "The high unionization in the federal sector thusprovides evidence for workers' desire for representation in a large bureaucratic organization, exclusive of th'monopoly' power of unions to raise wages through collective bargaining." Of course, union voice in such circumstances can also be interpreprotecting the overall rents of which wages may be only one component.

(__) It doesnt matter if unions dont have competition in a specific company, since the union exists to represent theworkers as a whole. Multiple unions would defeat the purpose of forming unions to begin with.

(__) Having one [or multiple] really strong unions allows for more reform when it is needed, since more workers arfighting for the cause and the union is more established, with clear goals and guidelines. More efficiency, etc



45Freeman, Richard B., and Casey Ichniowski. National Bureau of Economic Research. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1988. Print.

46Gunderson, Morley. "Two Faces of Union Voice in the Public Sector." Journal of Labor Research. XXVI.3. (2005) Springer. April 29, 2010.


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A/T: PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS ARE ANTIDEMOCRATIC

(__) The antidemocratic nature of the public sector union is a necessary evil. Martin Malin, a professor at theChicago-Kent College of Law47, writes:

The view that public sector collective bargaining is antidemocratic is not confined to opponents of collective representation of public employees. For example, Professor Clyde Summers, leading academic proponent of public employee collective representation, accepts the argument as a given. He argues that theantidemocratic nature of collective bargaining is justified because public employees need the special avenueaccess that collective bargaining gives them. Without it, he contends, public employees will be outnumbered in thpolitical process by the general electorate who, as consumers of the employees' services, will seek the most service for the lowestprice.

(__) Voter doesnt know or understand the jobs at hand, and thus are the worst deciders for issues argued in collectbargaining.

(__) There is no issue of democracy with public sector unions since those workers are not elected, but the officials

themselves. When it comes to issues with these workers, it should be treated as a business, since organizations likeschools and the postal office function as such. In that case, executive orders must be made in order for these groupsbe efficient.

(__) Public sector unions increase democracy by allowing workers to be represented and preventing the oppressionthose in the workforce, especially since the oppressor in this instance would be the government.




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A/T: PUBLIC SECTOR WAGES TOO HIGH

(__) Public sector union wages are not overpaid compared to the private sector for multiple reasons. The USATodawrites:

But National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley says the comparison is faulty because it "compares apples and oranges." Federal accountants, for example, performwork that has more complexity and requires more skill than accounting work in the private sector, she says.

"When you look at the actual duties, you see that very few federal jobs align with those in the private sectorshe says. She says federal employees are paid an average of 26% less than nonfederal workers doing comparablework.

Office of Personnel Management spokeswoman Sedelta Verble, says higher pay also reflects the longevity and older age of federal workers.

(__) The reports comparing wage differences are flawed since they dont take various factors into account. TheAFSCME49 writes:

The problem with the ALEC reports is that they try to lump apples and oranges together and end up skewing wage comparisons against public workers. Specifically, the ALEC reports do notaccount for the greater share of professional and technical occupations in the state and local governmentworkforce, which tend to be higher paid. Also, when actual job titles are matched up, rather than making overly broad comparisoaverages, public sector jobs are often paid less than their private sector counterparts. Geographical differences almatter, with there being greater variations in compensation between public and private sector wages in different cities around thcountry, for example, than there is between public and private sector wages within a city.

48Dennis Cauchon [Staff Writer]. Federal Pay Ahead of Private Industry. USA Today. March 4, 2010. Accessed March 5, 2010.

49American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. "Getting It Right: Comparing State and Local Government Workers' Salaries with the Private Sector." AFSCME.org. No Date.


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A/T: PUBLIC SECTOR BENEFITS TOO HIGH

(__) Benefits of public employees are not overly generous since they often stay at their jobs for a long period of timlike teachers, and they do not receive other benefits such as social security. John Kilgour writes in the CompensatioBenefits Review50:

The remaining issue is that public sector pension benefits are overly generous. When compared to what has happened in the private sector, this point has considerable appeal. It must beremembered, however, that most public sector employees pay for a large portion of their retirement benefit andthat they tend to stay with their employer for a long time. Furthermore, many public sector employees,especially teachers, police officers and firefighters, are not covered by Social Security. Their employers arenot subject to the 6.2% tax on payroll, and the employees do not get the Social Security retirement benefitavailable to almost everyone else.

(__) Public sector benefits are comparable to those of private sector workers. The ASCFME51 writes:

In addition, this study finds that public sector workers do not necessarily enjoy better benefits than those in comparable

private sector positions. Only a slightly greater percentage of state and local government workers are covereby health insurance than workers in comparably sized private sector establishments. And state and local government workactually lag behind private workers when it comes to other benefits, like life insurance, disability, sick andaccidental insurance coverage. While a greater share of state and local government workers enjoy defined benefit pension coverage when compared to private sector employees, nearlyonethird of all public employees are not eligible for Social Security and must rely solely on their pensions retirement benefits. Also, many state and local government workers' pensions are not protected to the samedegree as private sector pensions are.


Public employees have historically received more comprehensive health care and pension benefits than their private sector counterparts. Beyond these two benefits, however, public sector employees actually lag the

private sector. While both the private and public sectors provide life insurance for roughly the same percentage of employees, the coverage is not always comparable. For example, while private

employers usually buy group life coverage that pays out a multiple of a deceased worker's salary, publicemployers are more likely to provide a policy that pays a small lump sum. Additionally, public employeeshave increasingly been moved into less costly HMOs and PPOs and are now required to pay for larger portions of their premiums. With these recent trpublic employees find themselves with benefits comparable to those offered in the private sector.


Public employees have become targets for those wanting to justify tax cuts and public service reductions. Ifpublic payrolls can be portrayed as "bloated," then cutting taxes is an obvious way to reduce them. If public employprotected, while their private sector counterparts are struggling in a competitive environment, then something must be wrong with government. Yet, these ideological myths cannobe proven. When public workers are compared to private workers who perform essentially the same jobs, th

playing field is level. The only clear advantage many public workers may enjoy relative to the private sectoris better pension coverage.Given their lack of coverage under Social Security or other more generous benefits, it is not clear that this ppublic workers much further ahead than their private sector counterparts.


51American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. "Getting It Right: Comparing State and Local Government Workers' Salaries with the Private Sector." AFSCME.org. No Date.

52Ibid

53Ibid


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A/T: PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS ENCUMBER GOVERNMENT

(__) Cooperating with unions, government has become more efficient. Martin Malin, a professor at the Chicago-KeCollege of Law54, writes:

There is good reason to believe that giving employees, through their unions, an institutional voice in the initial decision makinwill increase the likelihood that they will become agents of, instead of obstructions to, effective change.Studies in the private sector show that when unions are strong and have a cooperative relationship with management,they provide independent employee voice that plays a crucial role in the successful development andsustenance of high performance workplace practices. These findings are consistent with the general social-psychology procedural justice literature which findspositive outcomes associated generally with employee voice, that is, having an opportunity to be head concerning decisions that affect them, evenwhen the outcomes are not what the employees desired.

(__) Here are five examples of how public sector unions have increased government efficiency. Martin Malin, aprofessor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law55, writes:

Partnering between the Internal Revenue Service and the National Treasury Employees Union to modernize and restructure the IRS, resulting in measurable improvements in customer service and job satisfaction.

A partnership between American Federation of Government Employees Local 3973 and Defense Contract Management CommandsRaytheon Missile Systems facility resulted in an overwhelming improvement in customer service ratings asworkload increased 100% and the workforce downsized, with $900,000 saved from the reduction in labor-management litigation.

The U.S. Mint and the AFGE Mint Council engaged in joint strategic planning, resulting in the U.S. Mintsconsistent ranking near the top of the American Customer Satisfaction Index and its production of recordnumbers of coins and return of record profits to taxpayers.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) and the AFGE partnership reengineered practices related to SSAs toll free number, resulting in SSA outscoring all other organizations for 800 number customer satisfact1995 and in a 1999 customer satisfaction rating of eighty-eight percent.

Partnerships between the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital and the AFGE Local 547, the Florida NursesAssociation, and the Tampa Professional Nurses Unit reduced delivery time for critical medication fromninety-two minutes to twenty minutes, cut turnaround time for x-ray reports from eight days to one day, andreduced processing time for pension and compensation exams from thirty-one days to eighteen days.

A National Treasury Employees Union and Customs Service partnership designed a seven-step strategy toincrease seizures of illegal drugs. During the six-month life of the joint action plan, narcotics seizures increased by fortwo percent and drug currency seizures increased by seventy-four percent.

A partnership between the Defense Distribution Depot in San Joaquin and AFGE Local 1546 saved $950,000 peryear by reducing workplace accidents by twenty percent and ergonomic injuries by forty percent, reducedovertime expenses from $9.8 million to $1.4 million, and reduced production costs from $25.42 per unit to$23.48 per unit.

(__) CHECK A/T: UNIONS ARE MONOPOLIES



55Ibid


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A/T: CONTRACTORS MORE EFFICIENT

(__) Without unions, there is no political force pushing for regulation and accountability, enabling contractors to wowithout any oversight. Richard Kearny writes in the Review of Public Personnel Administration56:

The George W. Bush administration will probably go down in history as many things, including as one of the most antilabor of all. One of President Bushs first official actioon taking office was to revoke President Clintons Executive Order 12933, which mandated LaborManagement Partnerships in allfederal agencies. The Presidents Office of Personnel Management and Office of Management and Budget pursued Bushs freedom to manage doin attacking union rights, membership, and resources along a variety of fronts (Masters, 2004; Thompson, 2007), including an effort to hanoff some 425,000 federal civil service positions to firms (Tobias, 2004). As Bush and his cronies exited in January 2009, they left behind ththe next administration a depleted, beaten down federal civil service that was less unionized than eight years before. In the words of publicadministration scholar Paul Light (2008),

President Obama is about to inherit a deeply dysfunctional government: the appointment process is nasty, brutish and not at all short; departmeare clogged with red tape and reporting chains to nowhere; the civil service system fails at nearly every taskundertakes; and contractors roam freely under the loosest oversight.

56Kearney, Richard C. "Public Sector Labor Management Relations: Change or Status Quo?" Review of Public Personnel Administration 30.1 (2010): 89-111. SAGE. Web. 7 Apr. 2010.


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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

A/T: PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS INCREASE GOVERNMENT

(__) CHECK A/T: CONTRACTORS MORE EFFICIENT

(__) Its a necessary increase since these government workers deserve a voice in their workplace, and unions are th

most effective method of representing employee voice.


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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

A/T: PUBLIC SECTOR UNION CAMPAIGN DONATIONS BAD

(__) Businesses and corporations outspend public sector unions in campaign contributions. Jack Fiorito writes in thJournal of Labor Research57:

Overall political activity as indicated by the level of per-member PAC contributions remained relatively constant in inflation-adjusted terms (Masters and Delaney, 2005: 377), at less than $2 per member per b iennia

election cycle (federal election campaigns only). The typical union member pays annual dues of roughly $400500. Thus, despite the sometimes high profile of union political activities in popular media, traditional

characterizations of unions as relatively apolitical cannot be dismissed entirely. As a further point of reference, union political spending has substantially laggedgrowth in business-related political activity. In terms of PAC contributions to House and Senate candidates,corporate PACs outspent labor PACs by a 1.4:1 ratio in 19791980, and by a 2.8:1 ratio in 20032004 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006). Includitrade association PACs with corporate PACs would raise the figures to 2.6:1 and 4.4:1, respectively. Looking at broader indices, MastersDelaney estimated that business- affiliated groups and individuals outspent their union counterparts by roughly an 8:1margin in both 19911992 and 20012002 election cycles (2005: 380).

57Fiorito, Jack. "The State of Unions in the United States." Journal of Labor Research XXVIII.1 (2007). Springer. Web. 15 Apr. 2010.


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A/T: PUBLIC SECTOR UNION LOBBYING BAD

(__) Private sector unions donate to political campaigns as well. This is not a trait unique to public sector unions.

(__) This isnt a bad thing. Unions are allowed to show support for those candidates that they feel are best suited fo

their needs. This is how our political system functions.

(__) Specific causal effects are necessary to get any impact from this argument. They need to give examples of howunion spending directly caused an unworthy candidate to win or a worthy candidate to lose (to an unworthy one).

(__) Causal effects in terms of election outcomes are impossible to prove. Tons of factors go into campaigns andvoting, the most important of which tend to be party lines and incumbency, not union support for a candidate.

(__) If members of the unions dont approve of candidates that the union endorses, then they can choose not to be amember of that particular union. By agreeing to join in the union, they are agreeing to spend resources oncampaigning.


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A/T: PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS INEFFICIENT

(__) Public employees participate in their work as a form of public service. Morely Gunderson writes in the JournaLabor Research58:

Voice can also be encouraged by loyalty--the third part of the exit-voice-loyalty trilogy, Loyal employees may use voice to improve the workplace and the institution to which they are comm

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