Strike deal is hardly a 'win-win'

Gee, isn't that swell? The strike is over.

"I think it was a win-win for all parties," Park Ridge-Niles Elementary District 64 Philip Bender said in the July 15 Daily Herald. The politically connected unions won. The school bureaucrats won. The contractors got their money's worth for their bribes ... uh, campaign contributions, and Illinois grafters ... oops, politicians won, too. Everybody won, except taxpayers, the kids and common decency. The Herald left out a few things. For instance, Naperville Unit District 203's questionable use of tax dollars to provide a free, celebratory lunch for hundreds of union workers. Can unemployed taxpayers go over to the district offices with their kids for a free thank you lunch? It also forgot to print the pay scales of the poor union workers along with the number of district employees at the $100,000-plus salary level.

I'm sure thousands of unemployed and struggling taxpayers, those who are being foreclosed on and seniors who can't afford their real estate taxes might be interested in them. The kids won't miss the cut programs or resources.

After all, District 203 has proved there is such a thing as a free lunch, at least for some people. The Herald should do a public service and publish an article explaining the difference between the union's actions and a common shakedown or protection racket because I don't see any.

Illinois is on its knees. The response of politicians, public education, contractors and the unions seems to be "I got mine. Give 'em another kick."

William Boyer

Roselle