American workers deserve vacations

Jane ENGLE’S timely article “The American Vacation Does a Disappearing Act” [July 13] highlights one glaring fact about American workers. Compared to their European counterparts, American workers are cowards and stupid.

Yes, it is true that Americans are intimidated by threats to their job security if they take vacation time that has been already accrued. Furthermore, they have been easily brainwashed into believing that it is morally wrong to take something they have rightfully earned.

Little wonder we are the laughingstock of Western Europe. Greedy American employers just love to take back into income accrued vacation that [has] not been used.

The ideal solution would be to have a federal law guaranteeing four to five weeks paid vacation a year for all employees, like France and Italy do, regardless of tenure. But then again, Americans would be too scared to go out and put their names on a petition for mandating vacation time, such as the one being organized by Joe Robinson.

We have had several relatives from industrialized northern Italy come and stay with us through the years with their six-week vacations. The most [vacation] I could ever take was three weeks and not consecutively.

My countrymen should be ashamed for letting themselves be taken advantage of [as] so eloquently illustrated.

John Hunady

Montebello

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