PEP, June 2011: Letters to the Editor

Public Employee Press

Letters to the Editor

Japanese union leader thanks DC 37 for earthquake and tsunami aid
The following letter was sent to DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts:

We would like to express our profound gratitude to you and all your union members for your solidarity and support following the devastating earthquake which occurred on March 11.

We acknowledge receipt of your remittance of US$7,875, which was equivalent to 634,095 yen. We are indeed humble and grateful for your warm contribution, and will donate all of it to the afflicted municipalities to be used to help the disaster victims and restoration activities.

The devastating disaster has victimized many workers, and has greatly affected the economic and employment situations in Japan. In view of this, RENGO has been urging the Japanese government, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) to, among others, secure employment for all workers including non-regular workers and new graduates. Furthermore, the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has generated a sense of anxiety among citizens as well as in the international community. Any density of radioactivity that directly affects the health of the people is not detected, except in the neighboring areas close to the plant, but rather, the damages caused by rumors inside and outside Japan are aggravating and impeding the life of the people and the industries. RENGO has demanded the government to take safety measures to the fullest extent and to provide accurate information to the public with transparency.

We are facing an unprecedented devastating situation, but we will by any means cope with the challenges, being encouraged by the solidarity and support extended by our friends in the trade union movement in the world.

Again, thank you for your concern and solidarity.

— Nobuaki Koga
President
Japanese Trade Union Confederation

Time for the rich to pay their fair share of taxes

Does Mayor Bloomberg really want to negotiate in the media? I believe he does, because the media will take his side no matter if he tells the truth or he lies.

Mayor Bloomberg has attacked the existing Civil Service merit appointment procedures that have provided good workers for over 100 years. He wants to return to a spoils system, which no one who knows their history would want. He also attacked seniority. There is no fair, unbiased alternative to using seniority.

The mayor and the Citizens' Budget Committee (the hired gun) made the unbelievable claim that pensions for public employees have placed a burden on the private sector. There is no mention of public employees contributing to their own pensions, nor of the strong viability of those funds, nor of losses sustained by pension funds due to the sub-prime mortgage collapse (not the fault of workers).

Obviously, for the mayor, attacking unions and civil service is better than talking about the 1 percent of the rich here having 44 percent of the wealth. If the rich have to pay a few percentage points more in taxes, they won't leave the city. The mayor doesn't talk about the rich paying less tax than most of the middle class.

We should not be diverted from the real need for everyone to pay a fair share of the taxes so services can be maintained.

Senior centers and child care centers should not be closed, and transportation for seniors and Meals-on-Wheels should not be cut. These are not fair cuts while the rich pay less and less. Gov. Cuomo should revisit his position for ending maintaining the tax surcharge on the rich that provides billions of dollars with far less burden than his cuts, which will reduce employment and hurt the economy.

— Louis G. Albano
Former President, Local 375

We need jobs, not layoffs and service cuts

How many times can you cut agencies without seriously impacting services and then end the year with a surplus and not alienate NYC unions and the public and well.

Unions are under a ferocious attack around the country and are being scapegoated for the misdeeds of Wall Street and politicians, who among other things failed to properly fund the pension funds they were mandated to do.

The more one analyzes the situation the less sense it makes to lay off more workers. The public need is jobs, not layoffs, and not cutting vital services. Republicans and tea baggers will not celebrate lower taxes and smaller government when they are out of work and their safety net has disappeared and they realize that they have been bait-and-switched by the financial elites.

— Mark Shoenfield
Local 2627

Proud to be in DC 37

Let's hear it for Lillian Roberts,

DC 37 and the Public Employee Press! You all make me so proud to be a member of District Council 37. I think the PEP Fightback Sections are powerful and very visual displays of how Ms. Roberts and our union are fighting back against all the attacks on the standard of living of working people in our city and state and all over the country.

We really are one with the union members in Wisconsin. Their fight is our fight, because we all need collective bargaining to have a say in our pay and benefits and we can't let the Tea Party fools and Republicans shut us up.

— Sarah Green
Local 1549

Correction

In the May 2011 PEP, the location of Local 768 member Mary Serra in the photo published with the story about Local 768's $100,000 arbitration victory was misidentified. She is in the center of the row of grievance winners.