Dear Editor:
In Fridays’ Dispatch there was a letter from Mr. Ernie Gonzalez
saying it would be bad for Gilroy to have a Super Wal-Mart.
I will be glad to see Wal-Mart expand.
Dear Editor:
In Fridays’ Dispatch there was a letter from Mr. Ernie Gonzalez saying it would be bad for Gilroy to have a Super Wal-Mart.
I will be glad to see Wal-Mart expand. My guess is that Mr. Gonzalez is an operative for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Once upon a time, unions served a noble purpose. They were formed protect employees from unsafe working conditions and employer abuse.
Today, unions want a piece of all the action. They now insist on a say in how a company conducts its affairs, what hours employees work, how many breaks they get, what type chairs an employer must provide their employees, which coffee service the employees will use (a union shop of course), etc. They also want to control employee wages. Code word: Living wage.
Well, a living wage depends on how large you want to live. Mr. Gonzalez is most likely part of what will be an organized process of letter writing, picketing and other shakedown tactics unions and other socialists will use. I find it rather interesting that a number of the unionized companies Mr. Gonzalez mentions are defunct – bled dry by higher than market wages and over regulation. These companies are either out of business or out of the country where there is affordable labor and less meddlesome regulation.
Unions are parasitic by nature, but they are not a successful parasite. To be a successful parasite, one must not kill the host. Unions have little regard for the success of a target company. Take United Airlines for example. The airline was on the brink of complete failure and begged employees to take pay cuts to help the airline survive and stay out of bankruptcy. The greedy unions convinced the employees that it was just a ploy. Now the airline is in bankruptcy and thousands of union employees are losing their jobs.
If you think they fight this fight to be magnanimous, think again. The payoff for them is money. Period. They organize employees and in exchange, employees give them a kickback called “dues.”
Corporate America does bare some responsibility for this. If you take care of your employees, they probably would not join unions. Wal-Mart offers a fair and legal wage as well as a number of benefits for employees who are generally unskilled in any profession. This has enabled Wal-Mart to stave off the union parasites. Wal-Mart benefits include: (from Wal-Mart’s website)
• Dental Coverage
• Company paid and/or dependent and optional life insurance
• Business travel accident insurance
• Long- and short-term disability
• Illness protection plan
I am sure many employees would rather not shell out hard earned wages to a protection racket. I know. I am a recovering union member. I have been union free since 1985 and have never felt better. The truth is, a living wage is redistribution of wealth and that is socialism. In a capitalist system, not everyone can be financially equal. The good news is, you can work your way up or even start your own company. Of course, if you are successful, the parasites will be knocking on your door offering your employees protection.
Unions, not necessarily their members, are liberal socialists ideologues. If you don’t believe it, visit their web site at www.seiu.org.
On their opening page you will see some of their political actions such as, “Oppose Miguel Estrada Judicial Nomination” or “Legal status for hard-working, tax-paying immigrants” etc.
Funny, is it not? The SEIU opposes a legal immigrant who would be the first Hispanic to be in line for the Supreme Court and at the same time, demand that illegal aliens be granted citizenship. My theory, Miguel Estrada is a conservative and therefore he might be more sympathetic to corporations. I also believe the SEIU has a vested interest legalizing 13 million or so illegal workers. Once these workers are legal, the SEIU can organize them and start collecting the dues. You do the math.
One thing is certain, if Wal-Mart is unionized, the prices for everything go way up.
Mark A. Zappa, Gilroy
Submitted Tuesday, Feb. 18 to ed****@ga****.com
