Letters: Equal pay, healthy groceries, UC Davis needs, Trump’s choice, great men
Lead on equal pay for equal work
Re “State’s largest union sets strike for Dec. 5” (Capitol & California, Nov. 23): California has a chance to step up and take a lead in the country – again. The SEIU, a union which represents 95,000 workers, is asking that gender discrepancies in pay be remedied.
The union denounced a proposed wage increase of 12 percent over four years as inadequate because it fails to address gender pay inequities in the state workforce.
An October story had the headline “In California state government, women earn 80 cents on the dollar compared to men.” It’s time to fix this. The SEIU is willing to strike over the issue. Let’s see whether California can meet the challenge.
Barbara Bergmann,
Sacramento
Food description is insulting
Re “Migrants can’t afford the rich produce they harvest in California” (Page 8A, Nov. 25): The reporter reached a startling conclusion based on scant data and anecdotal evidence. If he had shopped for groceries in a West Coast Mexican market, he would have found all of the fresh vegetables mentioned in the article as well as many fruits, at low prices compared to the supermarkets.
If he sat for a meal with our family, he would have been treated to much of that nutritious and wholesome food. Compared to fast food, authentic tacos are low in calories and carbohydrates, while high in protein, iron and other nutrients.
My family does not suffer from the medical conditions described in the article. We are neither fat nor malnourished. Describing our food as garbage is an insult.
Lupe Hernadez, Roseville
UC Davis needs student housing
Re “UC Davis shelves plan for railyard food center” (Local, Nov. 23): Rather than spending millions to move the World Food Center to the Sacramento railyard, the next UC Davis chancellor should address the biggest problem for students and the city of Davis – the lack of on-campus student housing.
UCD keeps boosting enrollment without a commensurate plan for where students will live. The result is a rental vacancy rate below 1 percent and students commuting from Winters, Woodland and Vacaville, hardly a sustainable practice.
UCD’s draft long-range development plan proposes to add 7,000 students by 2027. The plan estimates that only 40 percent of those students will be housed on campus, which will overwhelm our small town. Before expanding, UCD needs put some of its more than 5,000 acres to better use.
Greg Rowe, Davis
Cabinet choices reflect strength
Re “Trump names two women to key Cabinet positions” (Page 1A, Nov. 24): The New York Times story lacks historical precedent. President-elect Donald Trump will not be the first chief executive to populate his Cabinet with critics and rivals. Abraham Lincoln included three in his Cabinet who had run against him in the 1860 election and who had used outrageous invective against him. The article made it sound as if putting a president’s detractors in his Cabinet is an aberration.
Robert Bradford, Folsom
You can’t trump these guys
Re “Trump set to pick trade-deal skeptic for commerce post” (Page 9A, Nov. 25): Trump, Trump and every day more Trump. I just visited Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home; Ash Lawn-Highland, James Monroe’s home; and Red Hill, home of Patrick Henry, all in Virginia, and Hyde Park, home of Franklin D. Roosevelt in New York. Send us a man to match these men, but we got Donald Trump.
William J. Hughes,
Sacramento
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This story was originally published November 28, 2016 at 2:01 AM with the headline "Letters: Equal pay, healthy groceries, UC Davis needs, Trump’s choice, great men."