Some perspective on wages

This letter is written in response to Henry Martinez “My View” submission of March 21. While you are certainly entitled to accurately report the state of negotiations between

IID and IBEW, fairness compels me, as a member of the public, to point out a few things.

In the first three paragraphs, you do a lot of salary comparisons. Thank for reporting just how underpaid EMTs, firefighters and nurses (mostly women plagued by gender bias) are. You also mentioned what a poor county this is -- I agree.

One way for that to change is for entities, such as yours, to raise the pay to at least the state averages.

Moving on you mentioned that not a single IBEW member has been laid off or furloughed due to the pandemic. That just really shows how valuable these highly trained professionals are and recognizes how dangerous their jobs can be. Your chances of dying on the job as an electrician are higher than if you are a police officer or firefighter. Check OSHA if you doubt.

You mention testing for COVID, and I agree with you: There needed to be much more testing. Let’s face it, this pandemic went wild, largely because our leaders wanted less, not more testing.

Your article’s complaints about the costs of pandemic mitigation measures is like complaining about the heat in an I.V. summer. Those costs are being felt worldwide. It’s not called a disastrous pandemic for nothing.

Mr. Martinez, you go on about basically what a good guy IID is for maintaining pay and benefits after the old contract expires. The public may not realize that most labor contracts require this until a new agreement is reached. What you are really doing is just living up to those contractual agreements.

Finally, I would remind the public that in the heyday of union membership, 1950s-70s, an autoworker, for example, made an average of about $35 an hour. Salaries like these created a middle class. Last I checked, autoworkers starting pay was $16 an hour. That’s 50 years later, folks.

As goes union membership and strength, so goes the middle class.

— G.K. Ainsworth