There are 10,000 reasons to vote for Susan Collins for the U.S. Senate.

My union, the International Association of Machinists, gave $10,000 to Tom Allen.

Nobody in my union asked me if I wanted them to spend my money on a Democrat, or a Republican. I haven’t found one member in my union who was asked.

Not only did my union give that money to Allen, it had the gall to raise my union dues. My dues have gone up about 186 percent in 19 years. Maybe if the union didn’t give my money away, it wouldn’t have to raise dues.

At the recent Democratic convention in Augusta, my union sent four union representatives, paid for with union dues, to put up Tom Allen campaign signs. That was not OK’d by dues-paying members.

That doesn’t sound like democracy to me.

Mickey Meader, Lewiston