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To the editor:
I can see why the United Auto Workers union members felt compelled to elect Shawn Fain as their new president. I'm glad Fain is willing to strike to undo the damage of management and past union leadership.
Just what was UAW leadership thinking in 2009 when they agreed to horrible concessions, including no pensions for workers hired after that year? What union leader agrees to deprive future hirees of retirement income? This doesn't even pass the logic test from management's perspective, since the financial benefit for them is decades away.
A current example of a contract that never should be accepted is what Transport Workers Union Locals 2001 and 2055 are refusing from the MTA. They are currently in mediation after the MTA offered something that can't even be called a contract.
The MTA offered Metro-North Railroad employees who've been working without a contract since 2019 something that would allow management to alter pay and conditions. That's like having no contract at all.
Now if the news media and politicians treated management with the same scrutiny that they treat workers with, this would be loudly denounced and there would be calls for the firing of MTA Chair Janno Lieber. Governor Kathy Hochul touts herself as being from a union family. I guess the apple fell far from the tree.
Richard Warren
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