This is in response to the letters written by Judilee Whittemore (May 2) and Ron Hemingway (May 3).
How would Whittemore know what my knowledge is regarding unions? She claimed I wouldn’t be making top dollar, have 401(k) matches, have low insurance premiums, etc., if I were not working union.
Not true. I took a $5 per hour pay cut when I started working here, but always had all those benefits when I worked nonunion. She was correct on the pension issue, though. I’ve never had that. Thank you, unions.
She wrote about things such as equal pay, overtime and fair treatment, but had she read my letter (April 26), she would have realized I addressed those issues when I wrote that I have never been treated poorly by any of the companies I worked for in the past, or the one I work for now.
Hemingway basically says the same thing as Whittemore, but says I should write about something of which I have knowledge. As far as I know, Hemingway has worked for the same employer for most of his life. On the other hand, I have had many jobs; therefore, I do feel very qualified.
Both writers want to call me a hypocrite for working for a unionized employer. What must be remembered is that the company pays us. Maybe if they worried more about the company, and less about what the union can give them, they wouldn’t be hypocrites by cashing their paychecks.
Paul Lowell, Rumford