Letters

Questions About Healthcare Reform

I am not so sure that the plan is a smart idea. I am repulsed at the notion that a person who fails to enroll in some policy or other will be fined.

Please explain how someone without the funds to obtain a policy, will benefit from a fine? I am of the belief that this entire policy is another mode of funneling large sums of money that will be hard to track.

Not to mention that each senator will seek to gain as much of the entitlement as possible (as we have seen with the senator that blocked the extension of unemployment insurance until a grant was awarded to his state) until the amount remaining will result in cutbacks to the constituency.

In the end, the public will be left with an ever-depleting share of the funds. What will be the condition of health care then?

AMES LEAGUE
Joseph P. Addabbo Family
Health Care Clinic
Jamaica, NY

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Cost Of Magazine

I am writing this letter because I am concerned about the rising cost of our newspaper, as in the current issue of Our Life And Times.

I would think that now is the time when everyone should be looking to save money, and yet our newspaper size gets larger and larger. Do we really need poster-sized pictures of our Union friends? Should we not be using recycled paper? And I might add that it is not easy to hold the 18-inch paper and turn the pages.

Think of how much money we could save and the example we could set in making the issues a smaller size and using environmentally friendly paper.

LUDMILA KRUCZYNSKI
Retiree, Wurtsboro, NY

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Against Arizona Law

New York City May 1 march

I am also proud of immigrant workers here from across the globe who are standing up against this attack. People come up from Mexico or elsewhere to work or quite simply to exist. NAFTA ruined Mexican farmers, just like other similar economic policies screwed with other countries. People come here to work and rights have to not only be protected but asserted.

MIKE HAIRE
Richmond University
Medical Center
Staten Island, NY

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More Info On Internet Site

I think we need to beef up the information on our website. For example I recently went there to research the legal rights of delegates (other than the Weingarten Rights for union representation) vis a vis management according to the NLRB, the Supreme Court and other legal bodies.

I have taken a quick look regarding this question on the Internet and have found that many unions provide very useful info for their delegates. If we have such information, I haven’t been able to find it. Can our website provide us with a similar help?

Every delegate will thank you for it.

EDUARDO SANTIAGO
New York Presbyterian
Hospital, Manhattan

Editor’s Note: You make an excellent point. Our website team is currently redesigning the site to make it more accessible, more upto- date, and more pertinent to members’ lives. We have limited resources, so it will take some time.

There are also several considerations that may not be apparent to everybody—restrictions based on national labor law and political funding legislation. Also, our members work under some one thousand contracts, so it is sometimes difficult to generalize.

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Let’s Hear From You

Our Life And Times welcomes your letters. Please email them to jamesj@1199.org or snail mail them to J.J. Johnson, 1199SEIU OLAT, 330 West 42nd St., 7th floor, New York, NY 10036. Please include your telephone number and place of work. Letters may be edited for brevity and clarity.

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