Letters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor Tiny Labor I have been a union labor lawyer for more than twenty five years and am troubled by both the recent split in the AFL-CIO and what appears to be the knee-jerk...
...Geoff Spenceley McKinleyville, California Empirical evidence does not support Barbara Boxer's statement that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are doing well in opposing a one-party system...
...I would have loved to read the Senator's answer to that question...
...Steve Weaver Via e-mail My father was a member of the IBEW for many years and credited that union with giving him his first real living wage...
...It is absurd to suggest that John Sweeney's leadership of the AFL-CIO laid the groundwork for labor's decline...
...Thanks to Barbara Ehrenreich and to The Progressive for putting it down in black and white...
...All letters may be edited for clarity and conciseness, and may appear either in the magazine or on its web page...
...Bernard Dalsey Whitewater, Wisconsin The editors welcome correspondence from readers on all topics, but prefer to publish letters that comment directly on material previously published in The Progressive...
...The same complacency that leads to 30 percent turnouts at the polls seems to be pervasive in the current membership...
...Ask Andy Stern how many local unions have been trusteed under his administration...
...Reid, along with all Senators of both parties, voted yes on the corresponding Senate bill...
...from the World Trade Organization...
...M. Bryant Fulton, Missouri Pulled Punches in Boxer Interview Regarding The Progressive interview with Barbara Boxer by Ruth Conniff (July issue): After reading a scathing recollection of John Negroponte by Paul Laverty, I was disappointed that there was no mention of Negroponte either in the introduction to the interview with Boxer or in the interview itself...
...I am not a blind supporter of Sweeney's policies and am fundamentally opposed to much of the AFL-CIO's support for a regressive foreign policy in Venezuela and Israel...
...Much more significant forces have been at work as the country moved to the right and supported the likes of George W. and his ideological cronies...
...Pelosi was among the majority voting no...
...Most union brothers and sisters today have no historical connection to their organization's past, nor do they grasp the significance of unity...
...However, I wonder why Ruth did not ask the Senator a key question: Why she consistently votes for the huge defense budget...
...I wonder whether Stern's distaste for the democratic culture of trade unionism may prove, in the long run, to be labor's poison pill...
...Barbara Ehrenreich touches on many of the dilemmas facing the labor movement (or lack of movement...
...This June, Democrats in the House voted 153-46, along with most Republicans, to defeat a resolution to withdraw the U.S...
...As a member of a union family, I also agree...
...Please include your city and state...
...HR 1268, an $81.4 billion spending package for war, was passed this May by a 143-54 margin among House Democrats, with Pelosi voting yes in overwhelming bipartisan lockstep...
...For the labor movement to be successful it will need to start educating the current membership...
...As a longstanding member of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), a current shop steward, and a 100 percent union kind of guy, I have found a large segment of the membership to be completely uninterested in union activities...
...Bringing in sheer numbers will be meaningless if existing workers are unable to mentor the new recruits...
...On key economic, foreign policy, and criminal justice issues, the Democrats, aside from a worthy small minority, are not an opposition party...
...One of the key differences between Sweeney and Andy Stern is that Sweeney remained true to the principles of union democracy and rank and file control, while Stern is committed to a corporate form of union organization that runs roughshod over the labor movement's best traditions of union democracy...
...Since Boxer voted to confirm this nefarious man as director of national intelligence-an individual who supported the Honduran military while it was engaging in abductions, torture, and murder-it is unfortunate that Ruth Conniff did not pursue this matter while questioning her in Washington...
...While the compromises that sometimes pushed the AFL in less progressive directions were often disheartening, without Big Labor's activism, I wonder just how much worse things could have been...
...Some members have never been to a branch meeting, and most never bother to read the union publications that are mailed right to the houses of all members...
...When I question how they can support a company that is stocking their shelves with goods made in Chinese sweatshops, they angrily reply that their first concern is with their own families, and Wal-Mart has the best prices...
...Ehrenreich hit the nail on the head when she suggested that the secret weapon is solidarity...
...I know he would agree with every word of the "Tiny Labor" commentary...
...While Ehrenreich does not come right out and say it, the tenor of her article falls in this camp, and I respectfully suggest the easy critique of John Sweeney and Big Labor's failure to galvanize the labor movement over the last ten years is just too simplistic and misses the bigger picture...
...Most of my co-workers refuse to follow suggested boycotts of consumer goods, and many shop at Wal-Mart...
...And ask the members of those unions how much their voices counted in the restructuring of the SEIU...
...Letters to the Editor Tiny Labor I have been a union labor lawyer for more than twenty five years and am troubled by both the recent split in the AFL-CIO and what appears to be the knee-jerk support of fellow progressives for the Change to Win movement ("Tiny Labor," by Barbara Ehrenreich, August issue...
...Howard B. Lenow Wayland, Massachusetts American workers have a lot of uphill battles...
...However, Sweeney, himself a dissident when he succeeded Lane Kirkland, initiated a host of reforms within the AFL-CIO, including a rededication to organizing, worker education, and most of all, progressive domestic politics...
...Larry Vigon Chicago, Illinois The interview with Senator Barbara Boxer (my Senator) by Ruth Conniff was very enjoyable and well worth reading...
...Letters may be e-mailed to: editorial@progressive.org...
...Ask Andy Stern why he has consistently opposed efforts to have his own position as president of the SEIU subject to direct membership vote...
...Also ask him why he opposes the unionization of the staff that works for SEIU local unions...
...As a letter carrier for twenty-three years, I am a lot less interested in who wants to be part of the AFL-CIO or the Change to Win Coalition than I am with the profound apathy that dominates many of the existing unions...
Vol. 69 • September 2005 • No. 9
