The Rude Pundit: Why Does Newt Gingrich Hate Janitors (and Their Union) So Much?

[meegbear]

Now that Newt Gingrich's idea to break the mighty hold that the janitors' unions have on our precious school systems by making poor children clean their fellow students' piss and shit off the toilets, why not look back on his bizarre 1990s fixation on the people who mop up vomit and empty trash cans.

From a 1991 speech to Citizens for a Sound Economy: &quot F)or example, what if we simply allowed parents to help repair their children's schools -- obviously a heretical thought in New York City. And yet, that kind of participation which would automatically lead to chaos, because the custodian's union would go nuts."

From his 1992 CPAC speech: "The (Reader's Digest) article begins with an anecdote about a $57,000 a year public school janitor whose contract requires him to mop the floor of the school three time a year. Not three times a week, not three times a month, not three times a quarter: three times a year. Fifty-seven thousand dollars a year. Furthermore, he is required to sweep every other day, and he has to mop the cafeteria once a week, even though they serve food in it five meals a day. So every twenty-fifth meal, he has to mop the cafeteria. And the Custodians' Union is opposed to allowing parents and volunteers to come in and clean up the filth." By the way, he repeated that anecdote many times over, including in his speech to the Republican National Convention.

In 1994, when he became Speaker of the House, he fired a bunch of janitors who had worked at the Capitol for years. They were told they could re-apply for their jobs under the Republican regime. He also said that collective bargaining rights did not apply to them.

In 1995, janitors who were protesting budget cuts in Washington, DC, were arrested when they "barged into" Gingrich's office.

Seriously, what's with the hating on janitors?

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/

[rfranklin]

1. Perhaps the school janitor was banging Newt's first wife?

She was his math teacher I believe--or maybe he was banging Newt?

[Kingofalldems]

2. They want a return to feudalism

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. Because $50,000 for a speech is real work and mopping floors is not.

I'm guessing he got his ass kicked a lot as a kid.

[JHB]

4. He got the idea from unionized-janitor-hater & New York Magazine columnist Joe Klein

When Newt Gingrich told a group of Harvard students last month that schools in the poorest neighborhoods “ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school,” it was easy to mock him as a child-labor-law-hating Scrooge. But it turns out that Newt’s latest, greatest idea didn’t come from the recesses of his historically significant brain. No, he stole it from New York. Or rather, Newt stole it from Joe Klein when Klein was one of us.

Klein explains:

This issue is very personal to me – as Gingrich pointed out when we chatted afterward – because I gave him the idea in the first place, twenty years ago. He read a column I wrote about New York City’s fiscal cataclysm, in which I mentioned that the school janitors had a contract that paid them more than teachers received (nearly $60,000 – and now nearly double that) but, according to said contract, they only were required to mop the cafeteria floor once a week. I suggested at the time that maybe the city could save some money by contracting out the heavy-duty janitorial work, but also build some character and community spirit by having the kids and their parents help keep the schools clean.
(more at the link)

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/12/newt-stole-his-kiddie-janitors-idea-from-us.html

How much did he get paid for the work of lifting an idea from a columnist he chatted with?