Regarding the May 1 letter “My job working in danger for peanuts”: The problem with unions is that we taxpayers pay members’ salaries, then the members pay union dues to have someone negotiate on their behalf to take more money from the taxpayers.

I work, or rather I used to work, in the private sector and was recently laid off, terminated at the whim of the business’s owners, who brought in a new plant manager. This doesn’t happen to union people. They have a bulletproof vest. They can’t walk in on Friday and be walked out two hours later wondering what happened and how they’re going to feed their family.

Regarding the writer’s $44,000 salary, I made $50,000 a year working 55 hours a week before I paid my taxes and health insurance. My deduction for my family plan, including dental, was $198 per week, $10,296 per year, and this doesn’t include co-pays for office visits or prescriptions.

Every year I had to fight on my own, face-to-face at a table with the plant manager and one of the owners, explaining why I deserve a raise of 3 to 4 percent, explaining what improvement I’ve made and what problems I’ve solved. I had to defend my worth, only to see my health insurance go up 5 percent each year, taking my raise and then some. The company matching 401(k) wasn’t bad, but after expenses for a family of four with a mortgage, there wasn’t much left to contribute.

I fought tooth and nail for everything I could get for my family. I didn’t have a hired gun who comes out of closed-door meetings and hands me a platter of goods paid for by the taxpayers of Rhode Island. After four years, I had two weeks’ paid vacation and two paid sick days. Union people get more vacation, personal days and don’t pay anything near what I paid for health care.

They don’t get let go without hearings and disciplinary actions and reassignments. It’s all handed to them without doing any of the dirty work themselves. It’s a hard club to get into, or to get thrown out of. I wish I knew somebody to get me in.

JASON BURNS

Johnston