You can thank unions for paid overtime, weekends off, etc.

To the editor,

Hopefully there are many people out there that don’t just listen to what certain people write in and complain about everyday to the editor.

Don Ewing leads people to believe in his last letter that unions “force” people to join. That is not true. He also claims that states with “Right to Work” laws are better off. This is false. First of all, “Right to Work” laws are solely the brainchild of Big Business and their millionaire lobbyists. With “right to work” laws, more money goes to the stockholders and the already wealthy CEO’s, while less goes to the employees who are doing the work (in the form of less pay and benefits). Right to work states actually have less stable employment, lower average wages, higher unemployment (this trend started in the southern RED states), lower percentages of workers with health care benefits, and a lower standard of living than non “Right to Work” states. When looking for a state to open business in, most companies ranked “Right to Work” as very low in their decision. “Right to Work” is a misnomer and actually means “We want to pay you less and treat you like the peon you are, so you can live in a nice little low-income neighborhood”.

I am proud to be a union member. I don’t know any union employees who don’t want to be in the union or pay dues. You can thank unions for paid overtime, weekends off, and workplace safety to name a few. These things benefit all employees, union and non-union. And if paying a small due every week means part of it goes to politicians who will fight for all the hard working middle-class and blue collar workers in this country, you can count me in.

Martin Carney

Sandwich