The Nation - April 30, 2018

2 The Nation.

Bills and Strikes

Hopefully, the West Virginia teach-

ers’ strike will establish a precedent

for other public-employee unions

that are increasingly dealing with

union-busting legislation rather than

employer-initiated anti-teacher di-

rectives [“It Takes a Crisis,” April 9].

In Michigan, even though the two

main public-educator unions (the

Michigan Education Association,

an NEA affiliate, and the Michigan

Federation of Teachers, an AFT affili-

ate) bargain directly with local school

boards, Republican legislative initia-

tives are an integral part of the bar-

gaining. For example, all employees

must pay 20 percent for health care,

regardless of the cost of the plan. If

a local votes to improve coverage for

its members in collective bargaining,

it is asking its members to pay a 20

percent surcharge on whatever new

costs are incurred in the health-care

plan. Similarly, Republican legislators

have increased the employee cost for

retirement benefits while slashing the

actual benefit.

So a strike targeted at any district,

no matter how large (Detroit being

the largest), has no bearing on state

legislation, which hamstrings the

bargaining not only with direct leg-

islative initiatives, but with a reduced

school budget as well. Kudos to West

Virginia; may the rest of us join you!

Sidney Kardon

huntington woods, mich.

Cold as ICE

While I sympathize with Sean

McElwee’s article [“It’s Time to Abol-

ish ICE,” April 9], all I gotta say is:

Good luck with that! The mainstream

Democratic Party is known for its

cowardice and will have nothing to say

on this issue, now or anytime soon.

Michael E. Peterson

I agree that all countries need to

control their borders, but ICE as

it is currently constituted, with its

ultra-authoritarian leadership and

overwhelmingly pro-Trump union

members, is little more than a de

facto goon squad wreaking terror on

immigrant communities. On paper, it

might well serve a necessary purpose,

but to reduce it to that necessary

purpose, it’s going to take a wholesale

purging of the agency as well as new

guidelines that are strictly adhered

to, restricting deportations to actual

violent criminals and not those who

are merely in the country without the

proper papers. Andy Moursund

This is exactly the type of demand

that the Republicans would love to

use against Democrats in the upcom-

ing 2018 election. It’s a bad idea on

all possible grounds. We have im-

migration laws to restrict and control

immigration. Those laws are legiti-

mate, to protect American workers

against having our communities

flooded with foreign labor willing to

work on the cheap. There is no sup-

port in the nation for open borders.

That means somebody has to round

up and deport unauthorized immi-

grants (or those who came legally but

later committed a felony, which le-

gally requires that they be deported).

It’s just that simple. If ICE is using

inappropriate tactics, let’s deal with

that. But to support demolishing the

entire police system responsible for

stopping unauthorized immigration

and deporting people who make it

across the border without permis-

sion just plays right into Republican

hands. And we know where that has

gotten us. You could not come up

with a better way to ensure that Re-

publicans keep control of Congress.

Entirely a bad idea.

Nancy A. Butterfield

Comments drawn from our website

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