Dan Dennis teaches science at West Ottawa High School in Holland Michigan.
On the “Rate My Teacher” website his students give him
the highest marks for his teaching moxie and exceptional dedication.
He’s the kind of natural-born-teacher any parent would like their kid to
have.
When Dennis began his teaching career he was skeptical
about the value of being in a union. That is, until 1999 when his wife
earned a fellowship at a university in North Carolina.
So the couple sold their house and moved from Michigan
– a non-Right to Work State – to a Right to Work state – North
Carolina. And all of a sudden the monthly dues he paid to the Michigan
teachers’ union began looking like a bargain.
Even though Dennis was teaching the same grades he’d
taught in Michigan, he took an immediate 25% pay cut in Right to Work
North Carolina.
In addition, his medical insurance no longer covered
as many drugs or medical conditions and his wife was no longer covered
at all. His pension plan was
dumbed-down and his workload increased.
He no longer had paid time to prepare his classes. He
says teachers were badly over-worked. They were so poorly paid some had
to take second jobs in sporting goods stores or fast food outlets to
make ends meet.
Like many teachers in Michigan, Dennis believes the
union-busting Right to Work law passed by the Republican controlled
Michigan legislature earlier this year is just a first - albeit big -
step. The ultimate goal they say is to privatize
the education system.
Moreover, Dennis says ever since the Republicans took
control of the Michigan Senate and Legislature, the Government has been
chipping away at the teachers’ collective agreement.
Judging by his promise/threat to bring a Right to Work
law to Ontario, Conservative leader Tim Hudak appears to have looked
south of the border to Tea Party ideologues for inspiration and perhaps
that is not so surprising.
When Hudak decided to do a graduate degree in
economics, he choose to do it at an American university. When he
graduated, his first job was at Wal-Mart. Today Hudak uses the same code
words US Tea Party Republicans use when launching stealth
attacks on unions – “right to work”, “modernizing” the labour laws,
“workers choice”.
Dan Dennis says until it actually happened last March,
teachers never believed Michigan would pass Right to Work legislation.
But it did.
Right wing foundations funded by Tea Party
billionaires financed a lavish advertising campaign and hired scores of
paid lobbyists to pressure legislators of both parties.
Even then he says the teachers couldn’t believe
Michigan, the birthplace of the United Auto Workers, would pass such a
blatant anti-union piece of legislation.
