I felt compelled to write after reading a letter recently submitted to a local media outlet by Carolyn Faggioni, a social studies teacher from Floral Park Memorial High School and member of the Sewanhaka Federation of the Teachers Union.
She seems to be concerned about the Supreme Court nomination and the problems on a number of issues, including the recent attacks on public sector unions if a Republican wins the White House. I understand her argument on collective bargaining and non-union workers, but that didn’t have anything to do with public sector unions protected by the Taylor Law and Triborough in New York.
Those non-union workers and minimum wage workers did well because of the collective bargaining of the private sector unions that have been destroyed by NAFTA under President Bill Clinton and will totally be destroyed by the Democrats and President Obama with the new Pacific trade deal. When Wonder Bread closed their doors, 18,0000 bakery union members lost their jobs all based on bad trade deals like NAFTA. You can’t have a strong nation without a strong private sector and strong private sector unions producing products in the United States.
It doesn’t work having strong public sector unions depending on tax dollars. Neither party has really helped the unions’ concerns, but electing more liberals will only destroy America or turn us into Greece or Europe, where we see the problems of strong public sector unions and very high unemployment for the private sector plus austerity and fighting. If we had those private sector unions strong again and those industries like textiles, steel and auto manufacturing producing in the United States, the public sector unions wouldn’t have to worry about the right-to-work rulings.
But now with raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, open borders and illegal immigration and a liberal ideology, you can kiss goodbye any support for unions from many corners including the public sector. Bad trade deals, illegal immigration, raising the minimum wage and liberal thinking will be the end of a strong United States.
It’s sad to see that our colleges and some teachers are teaching liberal philosophy and half truths, not telling the whole story and not teaching with an open mind. We can make America great again if we understand and open up to real ideas and solutions without thinking we can have it all for free.
—Patrick Nicolosi
