Unions improve quality of life

Rick Wilkening, Las Vegas

Wednesday, July 11, 2012 | 2 a.m.

On Sunday, William W. Moreland wrote about why some people hate unions. I can comment on why so many people love their unions because I am one of those individuals. I have been a member of the Carpenters Union for more than 41 years.

For 40-plus years, I have had health insurance. My wife and I are living off our union pension, which gives us a decent life and was negotiated with the contractors who signed the union agreement. Yes, we also get Social Security, but we paid in to it.

The fact is that unions provide a better quality of life by representing individuals whose lives are better by banding together, and it is because of this selective grouping that these people are not a drain on society. America was at its financially strongest point between 1945 and 1972, when 42 percent of the country was unionized.

We bought homes we could afford and new cars built by American workers.

We put our children through college and paid our taxes because we could, in many cases on one income. Americans did not whine about doing what was right, but today Mr. Moreland and those who think like him would have people believe that unions are a bad thing.

I love my union, and I can say that there has not been a year that I haven’t thanked God for leading me to its door.