Teamster tremors

I just finished rereading Bruce Green’s letter, “$10.87 an hour” (BDN, Aug. 7), and thought it begged a response. I am also a member of a union, the Teamsters, and am far from asking God to bless them. In the few months that I have been forced to be part of this organization, they have done nothing to make me believe their claims to be looking out for my best interest are sincere.

How can I say things like this? Easy. Once I had passed my probationary period, the union made sure they got all the back dues very quickly. I had four months’ worth of dues taken from me in three weeks. That’s $116 for those who don’t know, or about a month’s worth of groceries. Maybe Mr. Green can afford to have this kind of money taken from his check, but it’s hard for me. And not once did the union ask me if this would create a hardship for me or offer to let me make another arrangement.

When I asked my shop steward about this, he said it was the company’s fault, the same company that has made no other mistake in my pay since I’ve worked for them.

Then I had to wait another month in order to get my benefit package. When it comes to taking my money it didn’t take as much time. Of course, I was told I was covered, even though I had no group or policy number or a list of what was covered.

I’ve been around unions my entire life and all that time I’ve heard a lot of talk about protecting workers’ freedoms. Yet, despite that talk, unions won’t give workers freedom not to join. I guess too much freedom would be a bad thing. Craig D. Brann Old Town