President column ‘best yet’

President Ron Gettelfinger’s columns are always right on target, and the November-December 2009 one concerning health care reform was the best yet.

This is one of the most important issues of our time because it relates not only to UAW members, but also to the entire nation.

Thank you for keeping us so well informed.

John Gailbreath
UAW Local 1863 retiree
Spring Hill, Tenn.

Missing the point on reform

As long as we force employers to provide health insurance to their employees, we are missing the point about true health care reform, which should be a universal, single-payer system.

Businesses have closed because of the existing high costs of providing health insurance. Manufacturing has declined because of high health insurance costs. Companies doing business overseas do not have to pay for health insurance. All other industrialized countries of the world, including Iraq and Cuba, believe health care is a basic human right and provide health care to their residents.

The recent legislation passed in the U.S. House will only perpetuate an already complex medical bureaucracy and allow the insurance companies to profit more than ever.

We need to get the insurance companies out of the picture. It’s wrong and a conflict of interest for them to make so much money off sick people.

We need more health care, not more insurance.

Maria Termini
UAW Local 1981
(National Writers Union)
Newton, Mass.

Keep fighting for us

I really enjoyed your cartoon (Solidarity, November-December 2009 “From the readers”) about the middle class.

I’m one of countless college graduates who struggle to enter the middle class. After many months of searching, I was hired by a small grocery that pays minimum wage and doesn’t offer any health benefits. So I pay for health care coverage for my Type 1 diabetes needs.

Please continue your fight for the middle class, economic stability and health care reform.

Alicia Shantz
Dearborn, Mich.

(Editor’s note: The writer’s parents, Scott Shantz and Marsha Shantz, are members of UAW Locals 900 and 6000, respectively.)

Buying American saves jobs

On a recent trip to California I was amazed at the ratio of foreign vehicles to American ones. (I even had trouble finding an American one at the car rental agency.)

I think more has to be done to make the public aware of how many jobs are affected by purchasing and lost by not purchasing an American union-made car.

Ken Sherrill
UAW Local 140 retiree
Davisburg, Mich.

Perplexed by GOP

I don’t understand the GOP. When they were in power, they made a mess out of two wars, gave a lop-sided tax break to the wealthy and wanted to privatize Social Security by having us invest in the stock market.

If the GOP and their cheerleaders at Fox News had their way, I would’ve lost my pension and my health insurance.

At least President Obama cares about workers.

The GOP acts like candle makers who are opposed to electricity.

John Barszcz
UAW Local 167 retiree
Comstock Park, Mich.