Letter: Taxpayer Weighs in on County Union Strike

Dear Editor;

Our family has owned a house in Will County since 2002. My husband worked in Will County as did I.

In 2006, his company announced there would not be any increase in pay for employees making over $17.25 an hour. Luckily my husband was making $18.35 (after 20 years with the company) so he was above that threshold. But each year our health insurance plan cost increased by at least $10 a week and the deductibles and copays increased as well, so in effect his salary decreased.

A year later the company started finding reasons to fire anyone making over $17 an hour. In 2010, it was my husband who got fired. He found a new job paying $5 less an hour, but it was the best out there. Meanwhile, I have kept a pretty steady income of about $40,000 over the last five years. We contribute to our own 401K out of that pay. We do not, and have never had, a pension. We pay our insurance, which increases in cost, deductibles and copays yearly.

I am telling you this because we are average in our neighborhood. We are the people (who live) in the county. We are the ones paying the taxes that pay county workers' salaries. It is an insult to us that people who work for the county we live in make more then the average person living in that county, pay less for insurance and get raises each year that they do not believe are raises.

These people are out of touch with reality of life. When a person makes 2.5% more then they did last year that is a raise even if you call it a step increase. If my husband's hourly wage is $13.50 this year and next year it goes to $13.83 an hour, a 2.5% increase, that is more money in our pocket which is therefore a raise. You can call it a step increase if you want but the end result is more money in the pocket of the employee, which means a raise. 

Please do not bend on what the board is offering the union employees. Fire them all and you will have a lot of people lining up to take those jobs. Qualified people are waiting and will be very happy with a 2.5% step increase being a raise. Start over, do not give in to their unreasonable demands.

I do not say this out of jealousy, but out of the reality that the people (who live) in the county do not get even close to the benefits and raises that the county employees do. Please consider your taxpayer base, not the employees who are only seeing a skewed view of reality.

Thank you very much,

Nora Parkman
Plainfield