Published: February 22, 2007 10:35 am      

All workers should pay their ‘fair share’

This letter is in response to Lester Shields’ letter about Fair Share.

It is totally beyond any reasonable perception that this is an issue. How can a person with any decent bone in their being say they deserve benefits without paying for them… you may as well go on welfare and live for free.

Let’s say that the laws were changed and not positioned against the unions, so the unions would not have to protect or represent non-members and only members would receive the negotiated benefits.

Had it not been for the work of the unions previously most employees would only receive overtime pay after a 60-hour work week, no retirement, no 401K matching, no healthcare and an average wage of less than $7 per hour. Then that would have forced everyone to want to join a union.

But since the law is designed to protect the leeches they force the union to represent everyone. If you ask me, this is gross negligence on the part of the state government that allows for the right-to-work language to exist.

Let’s say that the laws were not only like this against the unions but every service type industry (i.e. insurance groups, police agencies, etc.) and the government states that each person doesn’t have to pay for insurance. Would this be fair to the insurance companies?

Unions are no more than a mere insurance company for employees at their individual work sites. They ensure fair treatment, fair work conditions, fair pay and, most of all, the employee’s jobs. I agree that no person should be forced to join a union. I also agree that no union should be forced by law to represent anyone that does not choose to be represented.

This legislation is called Fair Share because if someone receives any type of service he or she should have to pay for it.

What it all comes down to is we all, each and every one of us, belong to a union. We all pay union dues whether we like to or not. It is a mandate by federal and state government that you pay these dues. The union dues that I am speaking of are commonly referred to as taxes and the union I am speaking of is the United States of America.

So if you don’t believe in paying union dues for what you receive in your work or your country you have a choice. The first being work at a different company that doesn’t have a union or, second, you can relocate to a country that does not have taxes.

Tony Davis,

Clinton