At the bottom of the column by Linda Chavez (BDN, July 7) it was stated that she has been a civil rights commissioner during the Reagan administration during the 1980s.

As I read through Chavez’s column, which accuses unions of corrupting politics and politicians, she claims to have also been an official of a union during the 1970s and ’80s, and that’s how she knew so much about union corruption. What I don’t understand is how, if she was a union official during the Reagan administration, could she work for a union-hater like Reagan, who fired all the union air traffic controllers, and at the same time be a civil rights commissioner?

I’m 80 years old and have been a member of many different unions, and if it wasn’t for organized labor, we would be working for 10 cents an hour like my mother and father did, with no Social Security or Medicare.

Chavez goes on to say that the Democratic Party is the party that benefits from all this corruption by getting dishonest contributions from unions and their crooked leaders.

Republicans fought against Social Security, Medicare and the minimum wage, so I can’t imagine a working person ever voting for a Republican.

I have a cap that has written on the front: “A working man voting for Ronald Reagan is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders.” I’ll have it changed to say: “A working man voting for George Bush is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders.”

Eli H. Zwicker Sr.

Brownville Junction