TO THE EDITOR:
Anthony Dent’s letter, “Lack of public employee unions good for the state” (March 15), is not only deplorable but riddled with falsehoods. For instance, the example of the situation in Wisconsin is invoked but not truly evaluated. Dent states that the big uproar is caused by an increase in state workers’ pension obligation. This is but a tiny part, because in fact the mass revolt is coming from the fact that Walker and his cronies are seeking to stab at unions’ rights to exist through attacks on the ability to collectively bargain.
As well, Dent echoes Sanders’ assertion of reducing salaries and hours for state workers in the 1930s as a good example for his argument. First of all, it should be noted that the time period he’s talking about when employees were able to regain their normal wages was the peak point of union membership in U.S. history.
Moreover, he does not acknowledge the fact that this is underemployment, which means part-time employment when full-time is needed. The consequences for this? Dent’s dreaded result of putting the burden on the back of the taxpayers (by the way, are workers not taxpayers?). This is because, despite one’s employment level, the price of things such as rent/mortgage payments and utilities do not change, causing things like foreclosure, increased dependence on dwindling social aid programs (themselves affected by the cuts) and so on.
Unions are the fundamental safeguards for the common good, by giving workers a voice.
Andy Moxley
Senior
U.S. History
