Quote:
Originally Posted by LouisianaDave
The attitudes of JAR is the reason that Louisiana is so cheaply paid. I work for the Baton Rouge association and we held a special meeting and the members voted to be unavailable. All this talk of contracts is irrelevant. The way the association works, the principals enter into an agreement with an officials association to use their officials. Then the association must use the an assignor paid for and hired by the principals. On Feb 1, all except for 3 officials were unavailable to work and therefore games had to be postponed. As independent contractors we have the right to be available or unavailable.
As JAR state principals voted down the pay raise due to the threat of a strike. The principals figured there wasnt enough unity amongst officials to actually follow through on the walkout, but when the games got postponed the officials showed the principals there are more guys willing to stay home(me) than guys who were working (JAR). Even though 4 associations sat that is a misleading quote. There were 4 association who were done for the season. For one Tuesday night the officials of the following cities sat Shreveport, Monroe, Hammond, Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Thibidoux and a majority of New Orleans. Lafayette didnt vote and worked and Lake Charles worked.
So by uniting as one, we showed the principals we were a force to be reckoned with. Even though I dont make a lot of money officiating HS, there are some really good officials in this state and we have quite a few collegiate refs out there.
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Thanks for the info, Dave. It sure is a little bit different than some of the things we've been told. Keep on fighting the good fight. if you don't, they'll still be trying to pay you $36/game twenty years from now.
The sad part is that the JAR's of the world will get the increase too even though they did everything they could to maintain the status quo.
The concept of having an assignor whose best interests obviously lie contrary to the officials that he's assigning is just plain ridiculous imo. There's nothing to stop that assignor from punishing officials for their work refusal by withholding future game assignments from them.