Member Takes on Area Businessman

Unions play important role

CHERYL REYNOLDS

This is my response to Ernie Renninger’s statement in The Express awhile ago regarding unions and is later than I wanted, but I felt it was bet to “cool off” before I put words into print. Ernie Renninger said, “Unions are the blood suckers of the American society.” I want Ernie to know that I take personal offense to this statement.

Unions were started out of necessity of working people, to put an end to sweatshops and “slave labor” in the United States (although, we know they still exist today). Also, because of the differences between businesses and working people on how people should be treated and compensated for their time at work; thus, the union movement was born.

Unions have a great impact on the economy for both nonunion and union employees. All working people still have the same basic economic needs today as they did when unions were first started. Over the years, the benefits negotiated by union representation for their union members have become the “guidelines used by business” for the nonunion worker (using the guidelines in hopes to keep unions out of their shop), benefits such as: vacation, sick leave, retirement, family medical leave and above minimum wages. Above minimum wage helps the economy to become stronger when families earn more than the minimum. What people need to earn is something called a living wage — where families can live on the money they earn.

Unions have played many roles in securing standards that cover all workers by securing equal economic opportunities for all. Laws and rules cover areas like overtime pay, minimum wage, health and retirement coverage, civil rights, unemployment insurance, workers’ comp and leave for care of newborns or sick family members, and all have become part of the American workplace. (The Social Security Act of 1935, the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 and the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993.)

Ernie Renninger, shame on you! You owe all union members and working people an apology. I am not and neither are they blood suckers. We are working people, working to provide for ourselves and our families. Not everyone is born with a silver spoon in their mouth and not everyone is born with opportunities, but everyone deserves to be treated with respect, to earn a living wage and to have benefits for the work they do and if it takes a union to secure these things then that’s what it should be.

As a proud union member of AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) Local 2360, I absolutely will not frequent the Roxy Theatre in Lock Haven again, nor will I frequent any other establishment that Ernie Renninger has association with its operation.