Nonprofit Workers Deserve Decent Wages

To the Editor:

In his argument against nonprofit strikes (“Advocating a Nonprofit Strike Is ‘Unseemly and Disturbing,’” Letters, June 29) Erick Swenson employs extreme scare examples (emergency-room personnel at a nonprofit hospital, disaster workers taking off in the hurricane season, ad nauseam).

What he ignores is the plight of nonprofit workers as victims.

They are victims of government cutbacks that are starving the nonprofit sector.

They are victims of wealthy board members who sometimes take compensation or, worse, take business advantage of their connection with the nonprofit.

They are victims of profit-maddened pharmaceutical and insurance companies that exacerbate the condition of the communities they serve.

And sometimes they are victims of nonprofit executives who enjoy fat salaries.

Some nonprofit workers are willing to endure low wages, burnout, and even substandard conditions.

But most are entitled at least to respect and to compensation that permits them and their families to live decent lives.

Richard Magat
Bronxville, N.Y.