Public Employee Press

Letters to the editor

Let's fight attacks on our pensions

I read with interest and concern Stu Leibowitz's column about the attacks in the Retirees Association Bulletin of the July-August 2010 PEP.

As the current economic crisis continues, civil service workers and retires have become the victims. Hard-won union benefits and rights are being attacked, all in the name of the current economic crisis. It is clearly time to fight back!

Recently the assault on civil service pensions appeared on July 11 in a New York Post article by Susan Edelman titled, "City taxpayers foot 90% of municipal pensions."

It is imperative that the Retirees Association and DC 37 reply to these attacks by stating the facts and highlighting alternative solutions to the current economic crisis, which should not be solved on the backs of municipal workers and civil service retirees.

—Arnold Korotkin
Retiree

Editor's note: Please read the article “Media pension attacks scapegoat public employees” in this PEP.


Backs Afghan war

A recent issue of the Public Employee Press asked the question, "Why are we in Afghanistan? Local 1549 says to leave now."

The best way to answer that question is to point out that we are in Afghanistan in order to keep the Taliban fascists from getting back into power. When the Taliban were in power, women were forbidden to leave their homes without being accompanied by a male relative.

Women were also denied access to education and medical care, and anyone found guilty of adultery or homosexuality was executed. This is the reason that even some of the people who opposed President Bush's liberation of Iraq have supported the efforts that President Bush and President Obama have made to keep the Taliban tyrants from regaining power.

If DC 37 is as committed to protecting human rights as its leaders claim to be, you would be supporting President Obama in the continuing liberation of Afghanistan.

—John Francis Fox
Police Administration Aide


Says public schools are not businesses

I read your PEP article on the charter schools. Local 372 President Veronica Montgomery-Costa has stated that DC 37 wants a statewide freeze on charter schools, and she is 100% correct.

Not only should there be a freeze, they should not be allowed at all! The parents are being taken once again by our mayor, who is certainly not looking out for our children. He is doing what he said he would do, and that is running our public schools like a business. Once again he is buying his way into what he wants. When are people going to wake up?

Our children are not commodities and our schools cannot be run like businesses, and that is exactly what charter schools are!

—Phyllis Levy
Retired School Aide, Local 372


Correction: CNA course is open to all eligible members

The Education Fund's new Certified Nursing Assistant course is open to all eligible DC 37 members who want to prepare for the state exam to qualify as a CNA.

A headline in the July-August PEP mistakenly gave the impression that only ­Local 420 members were in the classes.

The course was offered this spring at CUNY's York College campus and will start again in September there and at Hostos Community College.

For more information and applications, members should contact Helen Lowe-Chappell at 212-815-1700.