Union bashing seems to be the theme this year in newly Republican states.

Republican party officials do this by painting the union workers as having rich pensions, great hours and benefits, and as being greedy.

I wonder why the politicians who make that claim do not place themselves in that same category. Their salaries are paid by citizens’ taxes, yet they do not offer to pay more for their pensions, work longer hours, work later in life before they retire, pay more of their wages in taxes, nor reduce the number of politicians that represent the people.

Gov. Paul LePage stated that the state needs to pay the hospitals what the state owes them, which was in excess of $100 million dollars. But that line does not hold true when he talks about the state workers’ retirement system.

The state of Maine owes its pension fund a lot of money, too. LePage promotes that the state should cut back the modest pensions for these workers, increase a tax on those folks alone, and advocates making them work until age 65.

That is not the path he chose for the hospitals.

I hope everyone realizes that those state workers receive only the state pension. They are not allowed to collect Social Security.

And then there is the wrongly named right-to-work legislation. It has nothing to do with someone having a right to work or someone finding a job for someone.

That law lets some workers who enjoy the benefits negotiated by their union not pay their fair share for that representation. The legislation creates freeloaders in places where unions have been voted in by the workers there.

In this anti-union proposal, 90 percent of the workers in a union may pay their union dues and the other 10 percent can choose not to. The problem is that the law mandates that the union still has to represent non-payers.

Compare that to families moving into a community and then those families decide that they do not want to be part of that community. They do not pay their property tax. The town still has to plow their road, educate their children, remove their sewage, provide water, fire and police protection, etc.

It’s the same scenario with a right-to-work state. Some workers do not pay their dues and the other dues-paying union members provide the funds to negotiate better wages, health care, pension, handle grievance issues and monitor safety, etc., for them while they freeload.

In the Sun Journal’s Perspective section of March 14, Scott Lansley refers to everyday union members as “thugs.” Why? Because they want to exercise their rights and go to Augusta and protest peacefully and make themselves heard?

These people are teachers, firefighters, laborers, mill workers, day care providers, nurses, clerks who work in the Capitol, road crew people, electricians, and a lot of other just plain good, hardworking, tax-paying, honest workers.

Lansley laughably refers to “union bosses.” Officers of their union local receive little extra pay, maybe a stipend of $20 to $100 per month, and get reimbursed their actual wages for any time they lose to do union business. Union leaders can spend money or act on an agenda only when voted to do so by their members.

Corporate CEOs may rake in as much as 100 times their employees’ salaries, plus such huge bonuses that count in the millions or hundreds of millions of dollars. So, who is the “boss”?

The far right, under the tutelage of leaders such as Karl Rove, continue to dupe the public into thinking the slander that actually applies to themselves should be tagged to people they oppose.

The true fight in Augusta this legislative season is not about someone’s right to work. It’s about a national agenda created by the right wing to demonize unions, vilify workers, shift the tax burden from the rich to the middle class and grab power for years to come.

It’s worker-bashing and union-busting. They are trying to get rid of unions.

None of that is necessary to balance a budget. It is also not ethical, not a way to promote jobs and will not elevate the middle class.

The workers’ standard of living needs to be raised. Why hop on a race to the bottom of wages and benefits?

Maine’s minority-elected governor has made many gaffes in such a short time. He could try to be inclusive instead of exclusive. Thirty-eight percent of the vote does not give him a mandate.

Ron Hemingway is vice president of the Maine Labor Council and recording secretary of USW Local 900. He lives in Dixfield.