Salon | Letters to the editor

_______________ THE RELUCTANT CAPITALIST: SINGING THE UNION BLUES BY HEATHER CHAPLIN (03/19/99)

I'm so tired of the fuzzy-headed thinking that informs Heather Chaplin's columns. Perhaps she thinks it's daring to so aggressively counter the current intellectual trends, but without any real intellectual weight behind her ideas, she is merely out of step.
As far as her nostalgia for unions goes, unions themselves are to blame for their decline in fortune. People have no fondness for unions because unions chose to make themselves an obstacle to productivity, forcing absurd work rules and ridiculous red tape on employers, leaving U.S. union employers less able to adapt to changing times than more aggressive Asian rivals. It's no accident that the most dynamic sectors of the U.S. economy aren't unionized, while unionized sectors of the economy have suffered long, slow declines over the past few decades.
That being the case, unions have no relevance for most of today's workers. The oppressed workers with inadequate pay scales today are not $20 per hour auto workers, but employees trapped in the bottom rungs of the service sector: in fast food, low-level office jobs and the like. Unions are indifferent to these people, offering them nothing. If unions are not interested in organizing workers who need help and could benefit from collective bargaining, why should anyone celebrate them?
The bottom line is that unions sold out decades ago. In the first half of this century, unions fought for the poor and disenfranchised. But once they managed to negotiate deals to make themselves part of the middle class, they cut the poor loose and were content to look after themselves. They also became a big enough cash cow to engender all of the featherbedding and corruption that has made unions so repulsive to people today.
I don't feel sorry for unions at all. I feel sorry for the people they could have helped if they hadn't completely betrayed the trust people once had for them.
-- Andrew Norris
Austin
Heather Chaplin's got it right: If you draw a paycheck, you'd better have a union to stick up for you. She's also right when she implies that organized labor in America has been getting just what it deserves: shrinking numbers, hostile legislation, loss of popularity and weakened powers, both in politics and on the plant floor. Big labor was too complacent for too long. It forgot how to be part of the communities it was supposed to serve, and now it must rebuild its crumbling house -- and I don't doubt that it will, because the need for organized labor will always exist. The bosses, like the Bourbons, have learned nothing, and still employ exactly the same tactics they used in the 1870's: scabs, finks, goons (yes, I mean skull-crackers, thugs with brass knucks and saps), vicious cops, corrupt judges and tame newspapers. Murder? No, they don't seem to be up for that nowadays, at least not in the U.S. and Canada, but in Guatemala or the Philippines, who can say? In short, there's nothing the bosses won't try, and that's an old, old unionist lesson that American workers will have to relearn.
-- Ed Sackett
American Association of University Professors
Local No. 1698

_______________ STAR WARS LITE? BY JOSHUA MICAH MARSHALL (03/18/99)

With the suddenness of lightning striking out of the blue, the president and Congress pass a new "Star Wars" bill. This is one of those moments in history where we must stand still and pay close attention. Following the stunning unilateral use of Tomahawk missiles, which were sent impudently and illegally over the air space of nations who we didn't bother to either inform or seek permission, we continue our quest for the utter and total domination of the Earth.
Already we rule supreme under the seas, on the ocean's surface, on land, in the skies and soon we will rule the heavens! This total domination will mean we can do as we please and no one can touch us except for small "terrorist" actions. Even these will be futile, for we already have shown how our muscle can flex even into lands that thought they were far from our reach.
The only remaining danger to America will be our own arrogance.
-- Elaine Supkis
Petersburgh, N.Y.

N E X T+P A G E+| Paglia's disregard of facts; anti-Clinton Christians' racist background

_______________ THE RELUCTANT CAPITALIST: SINGING THE UNION BLUES BY HEATHER CHAPLIN (03/19/99)
	I'm so tired of the fuzzy-headed thinking that informs Heather Chaplin's columns. Perhaps she thinks it's daring to so aggressively counter the current intellectual trends, but without any real intellectual weight behind her ideas, she is merely out of step. As far as her nostalgia for unions goes, unions themselves are to blame for their decline in fortune. People have no fondness for unions because unions chose to make themselves an obstacle to productivity, forcing absurd work rules and ridiculous red tape on employers, leaving U.S. union employers less able to adapt to changing times than more aggressive Asian rivals. It's no accident that the most dynamic sectors of the U.S. economy aren't unionized, while unionized sectors of the economy have suffered long, slow declines over the past few decades. That being the case, unions have no relevance for most of today's workers. The oppressed workers with inadequate pay scales today are not $20 per hour auto workers, but employees trapped in the bottom rungs of the service sector: in fast food, low-level office jobs and the like. Unions are indifferent to these people, offering them nothing. If unions are not interested in organizing workers who need help and could benefit from collective bargaining, why should anyone celebrate them? The bottom line is that unions sold out decades ago. In the first half of this century, unions fought for the poor and disenfranchised. But once they managed to negotiate deals to make themselves part of the middle class, they cut the poor loose and were content to look after themselves. They also became a big enough cash cow to engender all of the featherbedding and corruption that has made unions so repulsive to people today. I don't feel sorry for unions at all. I feel sorry for the people they could have helped if they hadn't completely betrayed the trust people once had for them. -- Andrew Norris Austin Heather Chaplin's got it right: If you draw a paycheck, you'd better have a union to stick up for you. She's also right when she implies that organized labor in America has been getting just what it deserves: shrinking numbers, hostile legislation, loss of popularity and weakened powers, both in politics and on the plant floor. Big labor was too complacent for too long. It forgot how to be part of the communities it was supposed to serve, and now it must rebuild its crumbling house -- and I don't doubt that it will, because the need for organized labor will always exist. The bosses, like the Bourbons, have learned nothing, and still employ exactly the same tactics they used in the 1870's: scabs, finks, goons (yes, I mean skull-crackers, thugs with brass knucks and saps), vicious cops, corrupt judges and tame newspapers. Murder? No, they don't seem to be up for that nowadays, at least not in the U.S. and Canada, but in Guatemala or the Philippines, who can say? In short, there's nothing the bosses won't try, and that's an old, old unionist lesson that American workers will have to relearn. -- Ed Sackett American Association of University Professors Local No. 1698
_______________ STAR WARS LITE? BY JOSHUA MICAH MARSHALL (03/18/99)
	With the suddenness of lightning striking out of the blue, the president and Congress pass a new "Star Wars" bill. This is one of those moments in history where we must stand still and pay close attention. Following the stunning unilateral use of Tomahawk missiles, which were sent impudently and illegally over the air space of nations who we didn't bother to either inform or seek permission, we continue our quest for the utter and total domination of the Earth. Already we rule supreme under the seas, on the ocean's surface, on land, in the skies and soon we will rule the heavens! This total domination will mean we can do as we please and no one can touch us except for small "terrorist" actions. Even these will be futile, for we already have shown how our muscle can flex even into lands that thought they were far from our reach. The only remaining danger to America will be our own arrogance. -- Elaine Supkis Petersburgh, N.Y.
	N E X T+P A G E+\| Paglia's disregard of facts; anti-Clinton Christians' racist background