Editor, Times-Union: My father worked for the Pennsylvania railroad all his life. He said their union got them living wages and installed their own retirement fund. Carnegie built libraries to make himself look good in people’s eyes. He made millions with his underpaid workers. In 1932 the unions started to move forward for better lives for their members.
In 1945 unions started to demand with strikes for health, retirement, many weeks vacation pay, etc.
When Carter was president we had a very cold winter. John L. Lewis told his coal miners to go on strike. The poor people could not get coal. People were freezing. Carter, a Democrat, his party did nothing to stop the strike.
When International Harvester built their new engineering building they hired an outside moving company to move all the desks, etc., to the new building. The union maintenance men went on strike. I worked in the data processing department, second floor. I watched the union people slash tires, pour salt in fuel tanks on the moving vans, etc. I talked to men at their summer homes bragging about being laid off from auto plants and getting 75 percent of their base weekly pay for two months or longer. I can go on and on.
You union people do not care about the younger people who can not find a decent job because of your greed. Why haven’t you only bought union-made American goods? Why haven’t you stopped the companies from producing outside of our country?
At least 90 percent of all goods are imported into the United States of America. Unions have not done anything for our young people. Get production back into this country. The only people getting rich are the union heads.
When unions start renewing the economy of the poor people in this country maybe I will think better of them. I talked to Cleveland union plumbers who who worked two hours to get started for work, four hours working and two hours to get ready to go home every day.
Electricians in a county near Cleveland, the union got a law passed that houses being built had to have all wiring in tubing by their unions.
Watch the movie “F.I.S.T.” It shows what can go wrong when unions get out of hand. I had to make my way, buy your used autos, pay my own insurance and save my retirement money. My pay was a lot less than yours. I am for right-to-work.
