Saturday, November 22, 2014

Labor Unrest At MPS



On Tuesday, the Finance Committee of the Milwaukee Public School Board was to meet.

The Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association were present to speak for the need for raises for the Education Assistance, who barely make a living wage and haven't had a raise in years.

However, Committee Chair Jeff Spence led the committee out of the room before the MTEA members were allowed to speak for a "closed door session" that was scheduled for the end of the meeting.  They did not come out of the closed door session until after the MTEA members left, unheard by the committee.

On Thursday, the school board met but would not allow public comment, so MTEA and supporters from the community took a direct action by doing a mic check.

What is telling is that School Board President Michael Bonds was more concerned about having these citizens removed from the room than hearing what they had to say.

Afterwards, Bonds called the citizens "rude and disruptive."

I'm sorry, but what is rude and disruptive is school officials refusing to listen to their employees and even worse, to the general public.  They were elected to represent the public who voted for them.  They were not elected to dictate to the people who voted for them.

This is the result of Act 10, which is nothing more than an effort to silence an entire section of the population and allowing petty tyrants to just go ahead and do what they want without rhyme or reason other than just because they can.

However, history shows again and again that the people won't remain silenced and will have their voices heard one way or another.  The sooner that elected officials like the Milwaukee Public School Board learns this, the better things will be for everyone.

And if they choose to still not listen, they can be replaced by people who will.

2 comments:

  1. Mr. Bonds needs to read the First Amendment, with special attention to the last nineteen words:


    "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

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  2. Agree with ya, Capper. That's horrible.

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