PEP, December 2011-January 2012: Letters to the Editor

Public Employee Press

Letters to the Editor

DC 37 state worker blasts NYS contract model

District Council 37 should oppose Cuomo's proposed contract for state workers if it is anything similar to that submitted to CSEA and PEF. If it comes down to a rank and file vote, I will certainly vote against it. I will not allow Governor Cuomo to stick me into this guilt rap that my fellow co-workers' jobs are at stake. I regard the fate of my co-workers (and myself) as the responsibility of my governor and the union that represents me.

Apparently, Cuomo's long-term goal is to attain higher office, and the governor wants to cozy up to a segment of the voting population who are brainwashed into believing that we civil servants are over-compensated for our work and are a drag on the nation's economy.

The fact is that the overwhelming majority of civil servants are struggling working-class people who are actually compensated less than those in private industry for comparable positions.

Furthermore, there is a concerted effort by politically-conservative elected officials to have our nation focus on union-represented workers in order to divert attention from the real culprits - the greedy, large corporations that lobby these elected representatives for their financial protection! It is a fact that these business entities and many wealthy individuals actually pay a smaller percentage of their income in taxes than we do and are faring quite well during these hard economic times, thank you. Yet, Cuomo wants to balance the state's budget on the backs of working-class civil servants? Outrageous!

—Rob DiMeo
Rent Examiner, Local 1359

Unite with Postal workers

Hi, my name is Benjamin Valdes and I am a mail handler for the United States Postal Service and dues paying member of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union. Due to recent events in Wisconsin regarding their governor's plan to essentially "break the unions" by stripping away their collective bargaining rights legislatively, I have been feeling very uneasy about my future in public service. Therefore I created the Facebook Group entitled "Save the Public Sector Unions!!!" The exact link to this page is www.facebook.com/groups/200870376591082.

I noticed that people don't really rally in the streets for something anymore unless it's local, as seen in Wisconsin. However, with the exploding popularity of Facebook I see an opportunity to gather people of all ages, races, genders, and union backgrounds to stand up for what's right in opposition to the Tea Party's agenda to cut everything and hurt middle-class Americans for the sake of balancing a budget. I'm hoping that by inviting the people at the top of your organization, you can pass the word along down to your executive boards, then to your local presidents and finally your rank-and-file, hardworking, dues-paying members.

Congressman Dennis Ross (R-FL) has already said that it's time for public-sector unions to go, and he is the new chairman of the subcommittee that oversees the U.S. Postal Service. This is the worst turning point in American history for the labor movement and the time to act is now, and I truly believe a Facebook Group with over a million members will send political shockwaves to the politicians looking to be re-elected in the next year or two. Thank you very much for your time and opportunity to express my opinion on this extremely important matter.

—Benjamin H. Valdes