LETTERS
LETTERS Get it? I have been a subscriber to The Washington Monthly for many years and have never before written a letter to you. The disgusting article on Gandhi in your July-August issue...
...They are no good...
...Walch's point is well taken...
...The disgusting article on Gandhi in your July-August issue ["Gandhi's Girls," Art Levine] forces me to do so...
...Dehmont proves by noting that the FB111 that turned back "could have" dropped their bombs...
...As for the impact on WWII of our bombing of Germany, Mr...
...I don't believe the UFCW deserves to be ranked with those who are labeled as crooks or racists...
...Taking his points in order: —I don't know what Mr...
...It was not shot down...
...There are many things in life for which I am thankful...
...The UFCW, he charged, has the most two-tier contracts in the labor movement and that proves it isn't acting in the best interest of its members...
...I cited the California grocery to show just how dangerous two-tier contracts can be, in that case leading employers to fire senior workers...
...Larson's argument for right-towork laws...
...My UFCW section did point to the good things about the union, including its strong organizing record and its "many wise and strong individual unions...
...Larson would concede that a rebel state of Mondale supporters would be divisive for our nation...
...When my benefits are considered, the economic spread between me and non-union workers is even greater...
...CHARLES A. HAYES Washington, D.C...
...The reason that I've reluctantly come to the conclusion that the sole motivation for the article was to do a hatchet job is that nowhere is there a mention of the tremendous number of good works of the UFCW...
...Hayes's defense that this is democracy at work, that is no justification at all...
...Steven Waldman replies: What Rep...
...DOUG DEHMONT Gaithersberg, Maryland Robert Coram replies: Mr...
...The author describes planes with skins able to deflect bullets and small cannon rounds...
...Dynamic" accounting assumes not "eternal high inflation" but an annual rate of 5 percent...
...It is...what...
...If you wish to suggest that Gary Hart would have made similar contributions had he not been brought down by media reports on his lifestyle, that argument should similarly be made on its merits and not at the expense of Gandhi...
...G. E. WALCH Springfield, Massachusetts By and large, Steve Waldman implies that what really separates the best from the worst among American unions is that good ones are responsive to their memberships, are democratic in structure and internal procedure, and are concerned about the concrete needs of their members...
...Our legal plan provides legal assistance when necessary...
...My vision plan provides eye exams and glasses (when needed) for me and my family...
...My pension plan provides for my retirement and guarantees my wife an income should I not survive to retirement...
...Under "dynamic" assumptions of eternal high inflation, annual pay adjustments not capped or denied by political action, and cost-of-living adjustments not curbed or denied, the liability was $544.4 billion as of September 30, 1985...
...If so, it fails miserably...
...H. T. STEVE MORRISSEY Washington, D.C...
...The editor replies We think Gandhi was a great man...
...More to the point, however, is that as bad as two-tier is, there is one thing worse: losing jobs...
...But it is a fact of life that employers frequently sell such contracts to union members over the objections of their leaders on the short-sighted basis that existing employees won't be hurt...
...Charles Hayes is a congressman from Chicaga Illinois...
...Finally, there's Mr...
...No, the UFCW is not perfect...
...The UFCW recently has organized and negotiated contracts for more than 2,000 workers in Mississippi's catfish processing industry...
...It is unfair to blame the union for the fact that economic conditions under the Reagan administration have made it easy for employers to exploit the fear of workers over potentially losing their jobs...
...It is a fundamentally inequitable way of spreading the burden...
...Being a Teamster makes me no more like Jackie Presser than being an American makes me like Ronald Reagan...
...As the Congressional Research Service noted, it is little more than an IOU to ourselves...
...In other cases it has weakened the union by dividing new workers from old...
...Up to $7 an hour better paid...
...But the reason the reformist Teamsters for a Democratic Union is now making progress is not so much a newfound distaste for mobsters, but a growing sense that the union isn't delivering for its members like it used to...
...It has raised more than a million dollars for leukemia research...
...But it doesn't deserve the calumny heaped on it by The Washington Monthly...
...I am, and have been for more than 20 years, a cardcarrying member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
...That was basically true during the Jimmy Hoffa days...
...I think Mr...
...Those who voted for Walter Mondale were not allowed to secede, refuse to obey federal law, and negotiate a separate tax code directly with the government...
...By that time, daylight precision bombing had become plenty effective...
...Hayes sets up a choice between twotier contracts and loss of jobs, but fails to mention the obvious third choice: having current members bear more of the burden...
...As far as I am concerned, it is merely offensive...
...Give me a choice between the UFCW and a racist or Mafia-run union and I'd choose the UFCW any day...
...The A-10 and the Soviet Sukoi-25 are armored and they do fly...
...My wife and I have drawn our wills using the plan...
...REED LARSON Springfield, Virginia Mr...
...As for Rep...
...The UFCW, in addition to having negotiated most of these contracts, also began earlier than most unions...
...Larson and conservatives support right-to-work laws...
...if it does not, it will cease to exist...
...The effect would be similarly destructive for unions, which is, of course, why Mr...
...You stated: "The liabilities of the civilian CSRS [Civil Service Retirement System] pension fund are...
...At the same time, the union leader who fails to be concerned over the possible loss of jobs in order to make a principled stand against two-tier is inhuman and not doing the job to which he or she was elected...
...Four aircraft turned back because of the of the failure of high-tech equipment...
...Current workers are invariably better off represented by the Teamsters than by no union at all...
...During the recent testimony of Secretary of State George Shultz, I could not help but compare his wailing and complaining about how he was being treated with the awesome authority and dignity of General Marshall...
...Yes, the UFCW is my union...
...More that 100 civilians were killed...
...But the writer didn't note, as he could have if he had done his homework, that the union conducted an aggressive program that forced the company to back off, to rehire or upgrade many of the affected workers, and pay $1 million in back pay for workers who had lost their jobs or had their hours reduced...
...Ignore all of this and Mr...
...tacticians, frustrated by inability to hit precise targets, took to bombing cities...
...The author says the "technology...
...The truth is that American area bombing began as a result of the Battle of the Bulge, when our strategists thought Germany was not beaten and would have to be terror-bombed into submission...
...They will receive increases of up to 95 cents an hour and such minor things as bathroom privileges...
...Since the UFCW is a democratic union, members have the right to vote on their contracts...
...Dehmont should read the Strategic Bombing Survey...
...It's sort of like, oh, Western democracy...
...Ideally no concessions would be necessary, but if unions feel strongly that wage cuts are needed to save jobs, they should spread the pain equitably, not thrust it disproportionately on to those who aren't yet there...
...Workers who vote to screw over future workers deserve criticism whether they did it by secret ballot or by drawing straws...
...I do know that the UFCW has made as one of its goals the elimination of two-tier structures where they exist...
...American labor laws proscribe a rather familiar formula for deciding whether a shop will be unionized: you have a vote, and if a majority says yes, then it's unionized...
...It's misleading, too, to say that the CSRS fund has $17.5 million in assets...
...Hayes cites as proof that I set out to do a hatchet job is proof that he didn't read my article very carefully...
...Nobody in the labor movement likes two-tier contracts...
...These benefits are paid in whole by my employer...
...In the Washington area, for example, the most recent negotiations made huge strides in closing the gap between the tiers...
...Recent retirees under the plan that covers me earn more in retirement income than non-union workers are paid for full-time employment...
...While he is correct in his narrow definition of interdiction bombing, civilian readers do not understand the fine distinction between strategic, tactical, and various types of interdiction bombing, especially when strategic aircraft make tactical attacks and when tactical bombers make strategic attacks and when both can perform interdiction attacks...
...My daughter, 18 and a college sophomore, has never had a dental cavity, thanks to her parents' care and our Teamsters's dental plan...
...The author gleefully quoted an official with a California grocery chain that the company fired senior workers and replaced them with workers at a new hire rate (there is not a second tier in that contract...
...But under "statutory" assumptions, as determined by actual experience, the liability was $190.2 billion, for a decrease of $400 million in the most recent year of record...
...537 billion as of September 1985 ." Fact: The government keeps two sets of books on the CSRS unfunded liability...
...If the FB111 crashed before the raid, it proved the unreliability of high-tech equipment...
...Morrissey is president of the National Association of Retired Federal Employees...
...Better data in Cleveland Your remarks on the Venice summit ["Tilting at Windmills," July-August] apply equally well to meetings in academe...
...Moreover, the percentage of UFCW contracts that are two-tier is twice the workforce average...
...I just stated two of them...
...To be sure, I'm better paid than non-union workers in my industry (food warehousing...
...struck out against Quaddafi ." Actually the raid inflicted heavy damage with excellent accuracy...
...WILLIAM E. COOPER Iowa City, Iowa Anti-Union article While no institution created by human beings is perfect, I was shocked that The Washington Monthly labeled the United Food & Commercial Workers Union as among the "worst" in the labor movement ("The Best and Worst of American Unions," Steven Waldman, July-August...
...When a professional conference is held in San Diego or Miami (typically in winter), chances are the papers will be higher in number and lower in average quality than when a similar meeting is held in Cleveland or Indianapolis...
...Whether any particular union or local is good or bad is a function of luck because the principal factor forcing a union to be responsive to its membership is missing...
...What a difference between these two men in fulfilling their responsibilities as Secretary of State of the United States...
...Indeed, one of the reasons the Teamsters have gained popular support during membership drives over the years is that workers think this is one union that won't be pushed around...
...LETTERS Get it...
...Is this supposed to be satire...
...The fund's assets increased by $17.5 billion that year...
...In arguing that these concessions save jobs, Rep...
...The socalled assets are held in the form of Treasury debt for which future taxpayers will be liable...
...Larson is president of the National Right to Work Committee...
...Thus, the single most important factor which permits (indeed, actually encourages) unions to "turn bad" is their power to compel membership or financial support as a condition of employment...
...Hardly...
...The author says, "Interdiction did not have the decisive effect on Germany that backers predicted...
...My prescription plan more than pays my union dues ($24 a month...
...Morrissey touts "statutory" assumptions as if they were somehow realistic...
...It apparently crashed in the water before the raid began...
...This is not only in bad taste, it is bad journalism...
...Dehmont is correct that the laser bombs were successful...
...First of all, it wasn't interdiction but rather strategic bombing that was used and American daylight precision bombing was decisive by any reasonable assessment...
...No reasonable man can say the laser bombs failed...
...JEAN V. MURPHY Falls Church, Virginia That was a great piece on Gandhi, right down to the solemn note that neither of his rivals had the "name recognition of a Gandhi ." SPENCER KLAW New York, New York Kiaw is editor of the Columbia Journalism Review...
...Are we supposed to draw some obscure relationship between Gary Hart's problems and this fictional report...
...The author claims U.S...
...Dehmont is to be congratulated for the fidelity with which he adheres to the Pentagon's world view...
...A plane that tough would be too heavy to fly...
...When employees can, without risking their jobs, leave or refuse to join a union which is corrupt, violent, Mafia-dominated, racially discriminatory, or undemocratic, that union has an incentive to change...
...Dynamic numbers Your July-August article, "How the Government Cooks the Books" [Phillip Longman], contained erroneous and misleading information on federal civil service pay and retirement...
...First of all, the UFCW has the most contracts of any union, period...
...If you want to raise questions about Gandhi's contributions to civilization, you owe it to your readers to do so in a context that objectively analyzes those contributions and does not focus on a Westerner's interpretation of his Yogic lifestyle...
...Phillip Longman replies: Mr...
...The UFCW continually sets records for organizing workers at a time when many unions cannot or will not organize...
...The more scenic meetings are by no means professionally worthless, particularly for the newcomer, but one can reasonably question whether they are worth the cost that taxpayers, via federal grant agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, often bear for such activities...
...Can you tell us...
...However, the evidence strongly suggests that the aircraft was hit during the raid and then crashed into the sea...
...Some bombs fell two miles from the target...
...They're based on a fantasy of zero inflation, zero pay increases, and the retirement of only today's civil servants, not those who are sure to be hired in the future...
...Marshall over Shultz Your article about General George Marshall ["Marshall Arts," Evan Thomas, July-August] was very timely...
...I enumerate my wages and benefits, not to forgive the real and perceived wrongs our leadership commits, but to show why the Teamsters remain a viable union...
...L. A. FRIEDMAN Mercer Island, Washington Aircraft over Libya "The Case Against the Air Force" [Robert Coram, July/August], contains the following errors: The author says equipment breakdown caused four planes to "turn back without releasing their bonds during the Libyan raid ." Actually, the planes could have bombed anyway but were told not to do so if they would risk hitting civilians...
...However, a considerable gap exists between that view and reality...
...The focus of the writer's wrath was two-tier contracts...
...The author says one of the FBIl Is was shot down in the Libya raid...
...The workers, mostly black females, were basically paid the minimum wage before the union...
...up to $20,000 a year better paid...
...The author might not agree that that is important, but probably not since grade school has he had to endure the indignity of placing one's bodily functions at the whim of someone in authority...
...Therefore, it is likely that it has the most contracts with any single type of provision, good or bad...
...My health care plan gives me and my family $1,000,000-plus protection...
...Few unions have been as active in the occupational safety and health areas as the UFCW...
...Yes, I was a vice president of that union, and my campaigns for Congress have drawn help from the UFCW...
...None of this excuses the indisputable fact that UFCW has been the leader in the establishment of twotier wage systems, which, although not as dangerous as mob control, are an insidious development in labormanagement relations...
...In fact, it is not journalism at all...
...I think your readers deserve an explanation as to why you chose to run an article impugning this man's name and reputation in such an offensive way...
...False...
...The idea of the article was simply to show what today's press would have done to him...
Vol. 19 • October 1987 • No. 9
