[geeks] OLPCs for sale...

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Thu, Nov 22, 2007 at 04:21:48AM +0000, wa2egp at att.net wrote:

> Health benefits are usually the biggest problem.  A few years ago, the strike
> in Middletown was over 20K (total) in health benefits.  Unfortunately, that town
> still has problems getting teachers from the outcome.

When I lived in Philly (worked as a systems programmer for the Philly Schools
from 1973-1977) and my wife worked for them until 1996, the union paid for
most of the health care. The money for it came from a combination of
payments to them from the School District, contributions from the
employee and union dues. 

That's why they could charge union dues to non memebers.

When I first started there I was told that Pennsylvania had a
"right to work law", which because everyone had a right to work,
an employer could not require union membership. It also allowed
the union to collect dues from everyone, member or not. However
the union had to provide the same benefits to all employees,
member or not.

The Philly Federation of Teachers accpeted all eligeable employees as
members, however some of the trade unions, e.g. plumber, electrician,
etc. did not.

Now for a laugh. There is one labor union here called the Histradut.
It's a Hebrew acronym for "federation of labor unions". A group of
freelancers (tech writers, programmers, etc) are meeting with the
Histradrut to form a union. Seems they want vacation pay, sick leave,
maternity leave, etc. I love it, I thought the whole point of being
a freelancer is that you were paid only for the work you did, at
a much higher rate than an employee. 

Geoff.
-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/