In response to Roy Koval’s letter regarding unions (“Like having a fox guard the henhouse,” page A8, Oct. 12 Herald).

First of all, I believe his statement regarding his union contract giving 30 percent of his wages to his paycheck and 70 percent to health benefits doesn’t add up. Doesn’t he pay taxes? Also, what sort of union would allow 70 percent of wages going to health benefits? If that is true, all the more reason to have universal health care to help workers and employers.

As for political paybacks for unions, union workers have decreased from the 1950s from 35 percent of the workforce to 12 percent now. Large corporations and lobbyists are not only controlling politicians with money, they have also corrupted the Supreme Court. Hasn’t Mr. Koval heard of Citizens United, in which the court determined that corporations are people and there is no limit to the amount of money they can contribute to buy an election? This election is being bought by large corporations — some foreign — and if they get what they want even more jobs can go to China so they don’t have to pay living wages.

With regard to government giving payments to unions, I believe that is also bogus. Union workers pay dues to fund the union.

Democracies fail when the votes of all the people no longer count, when voter suppression is practiced, when elections can be bought by corporations, and voting machines are owned and manipulated by a candidate’s corporation.

Mary Carpenter
Kingston