Letters to the Editor | Oct. 21, 2022

During this campaign season, voters have been asked which issues mean the most and which might affect their vote. They are usually asked if the economy is primary. Or perhaps abortion and reproductive rights are more important. These are, indeed, important, as are voting rights.

But in the long run, these all pale next to climate change. What will any of it really matter if we cannot breathe healthy air; if we are fighting, perhaps warring, over an increasingly scarce water supply; if incredible, long-lasting droughts destroy our food sources and constant wildfires sweep through our forests? This is what voters should insist our leaders deal with. There is very little time before it is too late.

Joan Chinitz, Philadelphia

IBEW Local 98 applauds the U.S. Department of Labor for committing to new guidelines on workers’ eligibility for overtime compensation (“Getting your business ready for new OT rules,” Oct. 18). Fortunately for those of us in the American labor movement, we’re covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, a protection our union forefathers fought for and won, dating back to FDR’s administration. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, a former labor leader whom I greatly respect and have met with several times, deserves credit for once again standing up for workers’ rights by pushing to dramatically increase the salary cutoff for workers to earn overtime pay (currently less than $35,568 a year). The Department of Labor is also reassessing rules governing exemptions from overtime laws in order to make more employees eligible for overtime pay. These are fantastic new developments for the American workforce, the backbone of our nation.

Mark Lynch Jr., business manager, IBEW Local 98, Philadelphia

Here we go again! OPM (other peoples’ money). More mismanagement of taxpayers’ dollars to a third-party firm to place students’ cell phones in Yondr pouches during school hours — $5 million of taxpayers’ money. Really? Put the phones in a ziplock bag, labeled with the student’s name during school hours, at a minimal cost. It’s not rocket science. This proposal is just another insult to the intelligence of city residents, and another excuse for the bureaucracy to line politicians’ pockets.

Fran Neiley, Philadelphia

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