Looking Out for Others
Sean F. Werle, Ph.D., states [Letters, July 9, 2009] that he has nothing against unions. Of course he has nothing against them; he has enjoyed the wages and benefits secured by a union contract without having to contribute dues or pay an agency fee. He says he didn't want to pay the agency fee because it was based on a percentage of income, his logic being that "those that needed the union the least paid the most."Werle has high wages and good benefits, so why should he need the union? The answer is that he doesn't. Never mind that those wages and benefits were secured by the skillful efforts and hard work of union negotiators. No one "has to" join a union, but the agency fee is the price you pay for your negotiated contract
Does Werle feel the same way about taxes? That those who have benefited from our system of representative democracy the most, and who need government services the least, should therefore pay less in taxes? Should parents with children in school pay more because they use more government resources? Should people without children pay less? How about the elderly or disabled veterans? They need government services more than the rest of us. Maybe they should pay more.
A union is merely an organization of workers that attempts to secure fair wages and contracts for its workers. It is not about the individual, it is about the group. Most unions operate in a similar fashion to the representative democracy of our government in microcosm. It's certainly not perfect, but any union member who wishes to express their opinion at a union meeting can stand up and express it. I have been outvoted more times that I can count. Such is the nature of democracy. But my father was a proud and active union member, and so am I. My wife is a union member, and so was her father, and so was my mother. We will always try to look after our union brothers and sisters. That's what we do because we believe in something bigger than ourselves.
Captain Tom Clark
Northampton Fire Department
"Perpetual Hallowe'en Party"
Thank you, James Heflin, for an intriguing article on Michael Jackson [Art in Paradise, July 9, 2009] . Let's hope the hooplah and hype are finally put to rest with his gold casket. This reader always saw him as a very confused child-man. Life was a perpetual Hallowe'en Party to him. He was a good dancer, though, if you like the gyrations of spastic robots and vampires and the like. I agree that what is happening in Iran is much more deserving of attention. But maturity is in short supply. Ours will be the first culture in history that entertained itself to death. We have a whole generation that cannot differentiate between fact and fiction, fantasy and reality. Reality is not virtual. Meanwhile the centrifuges merrily spin.
Art Victor
Turners Falls
