Union busting bad for everyone

While Nancy Hershberger (Fence Post, March 10) makes several good ethical points, others need factual correction. Wisconsin is not about negotiable details. The givebacks have been agreed to. It is about union-busting, about eliminating any negotiating in the first place.

Not all public salaries are extravagant. Don’t blame the wrong people for the recession and the loss of good-paying jobs overseas. If public schoolteachers were “weaned” into Social Security, they would see a 50 percent drop in their pension taxes. Teachers pay for their pensions. Payment also comes from the lower salaries compared to professional positions in the private sector. The larger salaries better fund 401(k)/403(b) plans.

Last, and most importantly, the pension fund shortfall is due to past legislators and governors of both parties failing for decades to make required employer payments to the fund — a practice that would have the IRS put private employers in jail. Again, don’t blame the wrong, even if most convenient, target.

A final (plagiarized) thought: If you are silent or applaud when they come for your neighbor, your friend, your brother, what will happen when they — as they certainly will — come for you?

Stanley Weitzenfeld

Arlington Heights