Union Gangs

December 28, 2003

Dear Editor,

Poor Elena..another victim… just what the world needs. ("Hard Times," Dec. 25, 2003)

No company owes its employees anything. That is why they pay employees. If you are provided benefits, health insurance, pension/retirement plans, that is all at employer expense and it is an incentive for the employee to stay with the company. It is not given because "they owe you."

Elena, stop being a victim and get a new job. You agreed to the employment terms when you joined the union. Now you find that you don't work for the supermarket, you work for the union and you feel betrayed.

Unions have become gangs, they take your money in monthly dues, invest it, keep the profit, pay you a small percent if you go on strike, and threaten you and the supermarket if anyone should cross the "line." Some job protection!

The global economy has come to small-town USA. No longer can we have a low skilled job that pays high wages. Get with the program. Learn new skills, get new skill paydays. These jobs were not meant to be career paths, they were stepping stones to better jobs. But with union pressure, the pay scale was increased to a level that some folks thought this was enough to "have the American dream." And stopped looking beyond their present employment careers.

Now of course, if an illegal immigrant is a busboy, making minimum wage, there are "economic justice" groups that want a "living wage" for that job description, because you can't "raise a family" being a busboy.

That is correct, and you should not expect to support a family if you are a busboy. It seems that if anyone has ANY job at all, it should be able to "pay enough to support a family."

Communism tried this, the taxi driver and the surgeon all make the same amount of money. No matter their "profession."

I don't think so.

Len Labounty
Santa Monica