A friend of mine (yes, I have friends) recently told me he took umbrage with comments made last Tuesday in Ranger Rick’s column titled, “The Economic Times They are a-Changing.”
He was so outraged by Rick’s assertion about purported high costs of union dues payments that he produced his own pay stub from Dec. 5, 1982, to back up his point.
He also asked that because Ranger Rick writes his column under an assumed name, he should be given the courtesy of rebuttal under a nom de plume. I chose the pseudonym George L. Deemer, which I used myself a couple of decades ago in an effort to avoid detection and trouble.
Ranger Rick posited, “I worked for a UAW company early in my career. In almost five years, I received a 7 cent raise in base pay and they helped drunk, drugged and chronically absent fired employees return to their jobs. The only thing they did for me is take money for union dues — I was never fired and rarely missed work, being on the job on time day after day. I didn’t need the union, but it sure needed my $40 a month ($40 was a huge portion of my earnings in those days).”
Mr. Deemer, also a member of the UAW, showed me his pay stub from 34 years ago, approaching the third year of the presidency of Ronald Reagan.
He took issue with the assertion that Rick paid $40 a week in union dues. His stub showed gross pay of $557.60 for 40 hours. His dues were listed at $27.88.
After being docked for federal and state taxes and social security as well, his take-home pay was $380.41.
The stub also reported he was making $11.81 per hour at his job, so his union dues amounted to a little more than two hours of work.
Mr. Deemer spent virually an entire career at this job before retiring. To this day, he says he is grateful for the living wage he was paid and the benefits he received as a union member and he wishes today’s employees were accorded the same respect.
He added that he still pays union dues, though a smaller amount, in his retirement.
Mr. Deemer also maintained that employees who were members of the UAW were not saddled with such outrageous paltry wage increases as 7 cents that he had to wonder about Rick’s veracity or his quality of work.
Mr. Deemer confessed to not being a wordsmith and very politely asked me to pass along his rebuttal in this form. I politely granted his request in the interests of equal time.
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