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| Mageau on the attack |
By Catherine O'Reilly Collette
After reading Jim Mageau’s attack on me and on my husband Will, I have this response:
I am proud to be a union member, as I have been for the past 35 years, including the 27 years I spent working as a union staff member. During my working years, I gladly paid into our union’s pension fund for the benefit of the retirees who were drawing pensions. Now I am retired and I enjoy the pension I worked for. That’s how pensions are supposed to work. As a pensioner himself, I would have thought Mr. Mageau understood the concept.
If Mr. Mageau still considers himself to be a Democrat, he should be ashamed of himself for attacking unions, especially over pensions. As a proud Democrat, I believe in the right of working people to join unions and bargain collectively for better wages and benefits. Unions are working people’s best hope for a better life. Democrats believe in that. I believe in that. But does Mr. Mageau?
I am not surprised that Mr. Mageau would be so familiar with the quote he attributes to Lenin – that if you repeat a line often enough people might start to believe it. That’s what Mr. Mageau does himself, like claiming that Mageau v. Anderson
In fact, virtually every accusation, charge and claim in his “letter to the editor” are things he has said before. Time and again, his claims have been thoroughly discredited by the facts.
It must be very exhausting to be so filled with rage all the time. For this reason I feel sorry for Mr. Mageau. But that does not mean that his baseless attacks on good people like unionized workers and hard working town staff and volunteers should go unchallenged.
AMEN!!
ReplyDeleteCTown Resident
If he likes that Lenin quote, how about this one.....from John Lennon:
ReplyDeleteHe's a real nowhere man
Sitting in his nowhere land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody.
Yup.....that's Jimbo alright.
Good job Cathy
Frank Glista
I do not disagree with your statement about people having the right to join a union and collectively bargain with employers. However, I recently heard a weird claim. Being relatively new to this area, I thought I might ask you since your resume seems like you might know. The issue is that I heard that if you want to be a teacher at a public school in RI, you have to join the teacher's union and will not be hired if you do not. Is that true? It seems kind of strange if it is.
ReplyDeleteI don’t usually respond to anonymous comments, but you asked an interesting question. A teacher or other public employee in RI does not have to join the union. However, unions are required by law to represent all workers…. to bargain contracts, file their grievances, attend hearings, etc. Therefore, the law requires that the non-member pay a fee to the union for these services which is less than regular dues. This called an Agency Shop fee. A teacher who doesn’t want to join the union for religious reasons, for example, can pay the lower fee for the required representation. The vast majority of teachers choose to join. When I was a local president in the public (non-teacher) sector the one person who refused to join had numerous grievances that I was required to handle. This took time and resources, so an Agency fee only seems fair to me. Why should everyone else in the workforce be required to pay for the freeloaders who oppose unions until they have a problem on the job? Thank you for your question.
ReplyDeleteCathy Collette
Can you imagine the issues Town workers, especially the police department would have seen, had there not been union protection under the likes of Mageau, DiBello,and their assorted partners. Councils come and go but Town workers must be safe from personal agendas and vendettas. It's because of unions that the Town runs so well.
ReplyDelete