ON BEHALF of the 38,000 Massachusetts public employees represented by AFSCME Council 93, I write to express my strong objection to Joan Vennochi's disparaging statements regarding public employees. In her July 10 column, Vennochi writes, "A me-first mentality is not unusual for public employee unions." This gross generalization is both unfair and inaccurate.
AFSCME alone has thousands of members working for the state Department of Mental Health and Department of Mental Retardation. These members have devoted the better part of their lives caring for the most vulnerable members of our society. In this line of work and in virtually all public sector jobs, people must always put those they are responsible for serving before themselves. That's what public employees do. It is the very nature of the public sector job.
Perhaps if Vennochi spent a day watching an AFSCME member bathe and feed a mentally retarded adult with severe physical handicaps, she would not be so quick to paint public servants with such a broad brush.
ANTHONY CASO
Executive director
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 938
Boston
