Letter of the Week:

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​Fair Working Conditions

Our Labor Day holiday celebrates the American worker and their contributions to our economy. It recognizes the role of unions and organized labor in the struggle for fair working conditions. That is why I was puzzled by the articles you selected for the Trib’s editorial page on September 6, 2026.

 

Kenneth Broadbent’s article, which supposedly promotes unions, is strange because it champions data center development. These facilities employ only a very limited number of people, and AI’s goal of eliminating workers is already underway.

 

Brad Pietryga’s article on choice and public schools is somewhat misleading. The problem is not choice. Everyone is free to choose a public, private, or parochial school for their children. The problem is mixing public tax dollars with private schools. Whether you call it vouchers, scholarships, or tax credits, it depletes public tax dollars. We know what improves student outcomes. The single most important factor is parental involvement, expectations, and support. That is where our emphasis should be. The word “choice” is a red herring that distracts us from the true goal of privatizing education.

 

Lastly, Nathan McGrath's article is not surprising, since he is the president of the Fairness Center law firm, which receives funding from radical-right organizations. Fairness Center provides free legal services to employees who file grievances against unions. The Center can afford to provide free services because billionaires who have never wanted to pay their workers a living wage fund it. 

 

Strange choices for a day when we should be celebrating our workers and our unions.

                                                                          Joanne Garing

Previously Published Letters: 

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Why We Need Bradstock To Replace Reschenthaler....​

Because Representative Guy Reschenthaler is up for re-election this year, it may be a good time to review his voting record:

—In the 2020 election, he called for all the votes for president in Pennsylvania to be discarded to change the election’s outcome in Trump’s favor.

—He voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill, which authorizes cuts to our social safety programs to provide tax cuts to the rich.

—He voted for measures that restrict voting.

—He voted to grant Big Business veto power over health and safety regulations.

—He voted to reduce fiduciary requirements.

—He co-sponsored a nationwide abortion ban with no exceptions. 

—He refused to support the Railway Safety Act.

—He opposed laws that protect communities from unethical use of AI.

—He voted against common-sense gun-safety measures.

—He voted against a $1.5 trillion infrastructure investment bill.

—He voted against lowering health care premiums and against allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.

---He voted against collective bargaining.

—He opposed regulating the cryptocurrency industry.

 

The MAGA-supporting Heritage Foundation gave Reschenthaler an 83% voting score, whereas the AFL-CIO gave him a 0% voting score because he does not vote for working people. His votes are anti-family, anti-women, anti-worker, and anti-children, and favor big corporations and President Trump.

                                                                              Debbie Gaab

 

 

 

Right To  A FAIR WAGE....​

When I saw that your article (PA is losing people, 8/2/26, triblive) was written by someone from George Mason University, I knew what to expect, and the article did not disappoint. It repeated the same old, tired, failed policies from the radical right that put us in the mess we are in today. As a slogan, right-to-work sounds wonderful, but in fact it is a disaster for the working person. 

Most workers have experienced wage stagnation for decades as corporations keep moving jobs to low-wage areas overseas. As the working man struggles to maintain a decent standard of living, corporations are recording astronomical profits. Offshoring jobs has doubled corporate profit margins. Profits have also increased due to the Trump tax cuts. The corporate tax rate went from 22% to 25% to 12% to 14%, a decline of 40% to 50%. 

Additional factors in the rise of corporate profits include the growth of monopolies, which give companies the ability to price-gouge American consumers, and the Federal Reserve's low interest rates, which reduce corporate debt and leave a larger share of corporate income as profit. (raising interest rates would reduce inflation) Taken together, these factors have contributed to a massive increase in U.S. corporate profits, from approximately $500 to $800 billion annually in 2000 to approximately $3.8 to $4.4 trillion in the mid-2020s, resulting in a 760% increase in a short period of time.

In my opinion, it is not the workers who caused the hollowing out of Pennsylvania but corporations, with an assist from our federal government

                                                                              Joanne Garing

 

Social Security....​

The political right hated FDR. They called him a traitor to his class. For decades, they have been trying to dismantle his New Deal. Those social safety net programs were wildly successful in reducing poverty and income inequality in a fiscally sound manner. However, the radical right has chiseled away at unions and fair labor standards, depressing wages for middle- and low-income workers. By reducing banking and financial regulations, they have placed our economy at greater risk of crisis, as we have seen in the Savings and Loan crisis and the 2008 and 2020 recessions.

 

Now, President Trump and his billionaire friends are coming after our Social Security. Politically, they cannot end the program because it is popular, but they can decimate it with a thousand little cuts. Trump is reducing its revenue by cutting taxes, forcing out thousands of government employees, reducing our pool of working immigrants, and tightening eligibility requirements, supposedly to attack nonexistent fraud. All this is meant to damage a very efficient and effective government program so they can continue their lie that government is the problem and we must privatize programs. Please contact your representatives and ask them to fix Social Security ASAP by eliminating the tax cap and raising the payroll tax rate. Do not let Trump defraud our Social Security insurance system the way he did his business ventures.

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                                         Sandy Kramer

 

Citizens United....​

The Supreme Court’s disastrous, misguided Citizens United decision opened the floodgates to corporate political spending. The result is massive corruption, with big money polluting our government and our economy. Dysfunctional Washington, with its gridlock, is not addressing the problem, so the states are stepping into the void.

 

Many states have: transparency laws that fight “dark money” by requiring donor identification; laws limiting corporate spending; laws preventing outside groups from coordinating their strategies with the candidates; and some form of public financing for political campaigns. 

 

The states of Hawaii and Montana have proposed a novel approach to curb corporate political power. Rather than trying to restrict corporate free speech, they are redefining state corporate law. Corporations are artificial entities created by state charters. As such, the states have authority over the privileges those entities possess, and they are declining to grant corporations the legal authority to spend money on elections. We will see whether these state laws withstand expected legal challenges.

 

Pennsylvania ranks among the most corrupt states in the U.S., in part because of its lack of campaign finance laws. We allow unlimited corporate spending. Contact Harrisburg and let them know this must change. We want campaign finance reform, a ban on lobbyists’ gifts, stronger ethics laws, and greater transparency and accountability.

                                                                   Debbie Gaab

 

 

One Man Show....​

Even though President Trump has called our soldiers “suckers” and “losers”, he seems to relish putting them in harm’s way. He’s said numerous times, no new wars but in one year his administration ordered 14,415 military strikes in seven countries and the Caribbean. We were neither attacked nor threatened. These actions were simply by his choice…acting like a king needing no congressional support.

 

He claimed his actions kept us safe, but as many people do, I believe it did the exact opposite, making us less safe. His actions created geopolitical instability and galvanized world opinion against the philosophies and policies of our current military warfare engagements.

 

It seems to me his military actions were unconstitutional and violated international law. Additionally, I see these military engagements as a humanitarian disaster, with thousands of civilian and military casualties. And, financially, the long-term cost of the Iran war alone is projected to exceed $1 trillion. This includes the daily $1 billion operational cost, the replacement of depleted munitions and military hardware, base repairs and long-term health care. This war has sparked inflation and disrupted energy markets, putting the world economy at risk. The Iran war is costing a great deal in economic, military and human terms and delivered very little tangible benefit.

 

I’m hopeful that as Congress hears MORE from us, they will stop HIS IMMORAL-UNLAWFULL-ONE-MAN-SHOOT-EM-UP-SHOW.

                                                        Mary Ann Lauffer

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