In yesterday’s meeting, Oliva mentioned the possibility of economic trouble in the Eurozone. The teachers and the business have weathered similar things in the past—student fears of the swine flu epidemic, the 2008 economic crisis, the less robust than usual Japanese economy. Last year during the Spanish crisis, there was surprisingly more Spanish students than ever. More importantly, if the Eurozone changes cause problems for enrollment, it will cause them with or without unionization. I would rather face those problems with a union than without.
The Union contract for the Kaplan school in Vancouver has been circulating around the 3 branches, and has been brought up a meeting. Oliva states that the Vancouver school has difficulties, but apparently this is due to low enrollment—an issue that we certainly don't have in NYC. In fact the three New York schools are likely among KIC's largest and most profitable. We all know the economic and business culture of Canada and KIC Vancouver may be different, but this contract is an example of what Kaplan's corporate office has agreed to through collective bargaining. Corporations generally aren't looking to agree to things that will trigger their financial ruin.
Similarly teachers at a KIC branch in Australia make $42 AUD/hr ($41.63 USD). While Australia may also have a different business climate, Kaplan has chosen to expand into these regions because they believed it would be profitable. While these countries have strong pro-labor cultures, they maintain successful economies and high standards of living.
A Kaplan flyer yesterday mentions that membership in the Newspaper Guild has gone down. Declining unions membership is a trend that has been happening all over the country for the past few decades. This trend closely parallels the expansion of the wealth gap in the U.S. and the disappearing middle class. An opinion piece in today's New York Times addresses this very issue, as did a piece in Washington Post Company's own Slate.
The flyer also discusses the salaries of high-ranking Guild officials, which are hardly astronomical. Kaplan recently gave a $76 million dollar golden parachute given to the CEO of Kaplan Education. This is enough to pay the salaries of 2,500 Kaplan ESL teachers at around $30,000 per year. The Kaplan flyer accused the guild of the atrocious crime of paying none of their workers less than $40,000 per year(!) To me, $40,000 per year sounds like just a decent living wage.
It may be a little late in the game for this, but I'd like to see a flyer that has the salaries of every Kaplan executive juxtaposed with the salaries of the teachers.
Bravo! I spoke to my manager about the very flier detailing the salaries of Guild employees, and my manager called the Guild financially irresponsible, pointing out that they'd spent more money than they'd taken in.
ReplyDeleteObviously, if you don't have some large treasury to fall back on, that could be problematic, but that is not a problem the Guild suffers from. Unlike my manager, I don't see this as financial irresponsibility; I see this as proof that the Guild isn't the money-grubbing, desperate-for-our-dues-dollars outfit that Kaplan is making them out to be. Instead, it shows me that Guild, unlike a for-profit company such as Kaplan, is not concerned with raking in the dough; it shows me that the Guild is willing to fork out cash to fight for the people it represents even if they don't make back in dues as much as they spend. Can someone explain to me why I should be worried about that?
Excellent work!
ReplyDeleteI just want to verify that on Friday at one of the segregated "Employee Rights Training Meetings" that only union advocates were invited to Oliva admitted outright that the poor performance in Vancouver was due to low enrollment.
On a side note, earlier in that same meeting Jay Kennedy (Vice President of Labor Relations for Washington Post Company) had agreed with a teacher who had stated "Nobody's gonna strike" (while negotiating a contract).
Perhaps Jay didn't realize he was contradicting one of Oliva's assertions during her speech at ESB: since Kaplan does't have to agree to anything they don't want to (ignoring the fact that agreeing to nothing would not be bargaining in good faith which is required by law) teachers might be left with few options other than striking.
I do appreciate Jay's honesty though. The truth is the last time The Newspaper Guild of New York struck was during the Daily News strike 0f 1990 (over 20 years ago). In the meantime they've negotiated health insurance, sick days, vacation days, and just clause agreements for every single one of their contracts.
I understand the administration is under enormous pressure to keep the union out but I really appreciate you guys getting out the facts and putting things in perspective.