What no one is pointing out is that DPS teachers have indeed "given back" and suffered through VERY well publicized wage cuts recently. Doesn't anyone remember the payroll deduction "loans" that DPS took?
It seems that people have convenient loss of short term memory when it comes to the work conditions, wages, and benefits of teachers. This is why teachers' unions were formed in the first place. It wasn't because 50 years ago teachers woke up and decided "gee, we've been treated like crap since time immemorial... let's piss off society even more!"
This is just one front in the beginning of our race to the bottom. For in late-stage capitalism, there is no such thing as a fair wage. Everyone -- and I do mean everyone except for the heads of multinational corporations -- is seen as being underworked and overpaid. But if you compare every single career to its counterparts in comparable nations, we work far more and just don't have the quality of life that people in other industrialized nations do. And we *still* are made to feel badly about ourselves, as if working 50 weeks, 60-80 hours per week still makes you a lazy slob.
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