By Uncle Irvin

Let's say that you are 40 years old, with a bachelor's degree from a public college/university, and you now have a job with a salary/benefit package of $110,000 for 180 days of work per year, with guaranteed job security.

In your 2015 annual review, how likely are you to demand that your boss to give you a salary/benefits contract increase of 4.62 percent per year for the next three years (almost 15 percent), which would enhance your package in three annual steps to $124,000 per year in 2018?

For all but public school teachers, this demand is preposterous, incredible and likely to get you a pink slip. But never mind reality. The above scenario is what the U-CF teachers union is demanding of the school board, which would raise your property taxes much more than the two percent per year that has been the going rate. If you are living in a home assessed at $200,000, your 2015 property taxes of $5,000 would likely be $5,800 in 2018.

Right now, the U-CF school board is playing “hardball” with the teachers' union, saying their demands “are well in excess of what is sustainable and financially viable,” and have ordered a fact-finding report by the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board. The U-CF teachers union has clearly escalated its demands to the five-percent per year level, saying that U-CF is “one of the wealthiest school districts in the state.” It may well be, but that is no reason to pay outrageous compensation to spoiled, greedy teachers who cannot be fired and refuse to be evaluated for competence ... and are not worth that kind of money.

If all the teachers left, better replacements can be hired at two-thirds of the present salary.

(Uncle Irvin's column is his opinion only, and is not a news story.)