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"Right to work" a good idea: Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor
Editorial Cartoon

"Right to work" a good idea

Sussex County Council is considering a proposal for an ordinance to assure businesses and workers that the county is Right to Work (RTW), which means that workers have the right to choose to join a union or to not join a union when holding a job with a private company.

Delaware remains in the minority states without RTW — some 22 states. These states, like Delaware, are not your happy growth states. 

Funny thing is, Sussex County on its own has become the economic growth center for Delaware. Time for the county to step up and join the lineup.

Right to Work mirrors the changes happening very fast in the U.S. economy. 

The mindset of the younger generation of workers (including those reared in Delaware) and of the younger business leadership is to work in or establish companies that rely on flexibility and adaptability.

Younger workers do not want to be pigeon-holed into one job, one skill. They want to be free to elect to join any union and to be free to leave that union — opt in or opt out. They do not want to be locked into one job-one union or pay union fees that are unrelated to their work or personal life and reduces their take-home pay.

The key for Sussex is to get more companies to consider locating in Sussex. Companies are screening on right to work. This policy decision for Sussex County will not “cost” the county. 

Phoebe Cottingham

Millsboro

Climate deniers cling to flawed logic

The flawed logic and purposeful blindness of the climate change deniers continues, as evidenced by last Saturday’s anti-Clean Power Plan column by David Stevenson.

Let’s briefly review their past arguments. First, they claimed there was no climate change, but anyone who can read a chart knows that’s not true.

Then they said that change was not due to use of fossil fuels, but the graphs aligning rise in carbon emissions with rise in global surface temperatures belie the reality overwhelmingly accepted by climate scientists.

Then they said that alternatives to fossil fuels were too expensive, but the plummeting costs and skyrocketing growth of solar power reveals the lie in that. These deniers now have shifted to saying that, well, yes, bad things are indeed occurring but we really can’t do anything about it. 

Mr. Stevenson argues that the Clean Power Plan will only deliver a modest reduction in global warming. Let me offer the view that a decrease of greenhouse emissions from the power sector of 32% from 2005 levels (EPA estimate) would be a significant and important contribution to our collective welfare.

The Clean Power Plan also curbs other harmful pollutants that contribute to respiratory problems, among other ills. The plan would also save electricity consumers $155 billion over the next decade.

We are just one country; if other developed countries could be so successful in reducing emissions and curbing global warming we might yet be saved from some of the nastier repercussions of our fossil fuel folly.

Roger Reinicker

Hockessin

NFL protesters should strike instead

Do the "multimillionaire athletes" embarrassing our flag and national anthem, which so very many of us have served with dignity and faith, have the right to protest?

Of course they do! But rather than doing so against our symbols of American values, why not do it against the elements that create the "inequalities?"

When coal miners, steel workers, automobile laborers, teachers, and so on object and protest against whatever the 'inequality' they object, they go "on strike." They do not take out their frustrations against our national symbols. 

If these "multimillionaire athletes" really want "positive" actions, they should go "on strike." They certainly will gain the support of fans, rather than losing their admiration for them!

Dean Lomis

Newark