Vote For The Middle Class, No surprise, And a veto against -Letters to the business editor

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.postgazette.com/pg/07072/768902-28.stm

Letters to the business editor

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

No surprise

I am concerned about the article "New Union Rules Could Have Significant Impact on Workplace" (March 6), written by Allison L. Feldstein, a corporate attorney against the Employee Free Choice Act.

Of course corporate attorneys disagree with this legislation; they have been teaching union avoidance to employers for years. This legislation would eliminate a lot of the questionable activities that currently go on in an organizing campaign. Employers have fired, threatened and coerced employees with the long drawn-out process that is currently in place. Studies show that workers want a union but are afraid of retaliation from the employer.

I will never understand why companies should have a say whether employees want a union; employees sure don't have a say whether companies belong to the Chamber of Commerce.

Yes, the business community is against this legislation because employers would rather dictate what employees wages, benefits and working conditions will be.

DENNIS R. FLEMING, South Park

Vote for the middle class

On behalf of the working men and women of Allegheny County and southwestern Pennsylvania, I want to extend a "thank you" to Congressmen Jason Altimire, Mike Doyle, Tim Murphy and John Murtha for their votes in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Area working families are struggling to make ends meet and our middle class is disappearing. The best opportunity for these working men and women to get ahead economically is by uniting with co-workers to bargain with their employers for better wages and benefits.

Corporations give CEOs contracts that protect their pay and benefits but deny employees the same opportunity. They routinely intimidate, harass, coerce and even fire employees who try to organize to bargain for a better life for their families.

The Employee Free Choice Act would safeguard workers' ability to make their own decisions without these company abuses, provide for contract mediation and arbitration, and establish meaningful penalties when employers violate workers' rights.

It's time to level the playing field for working families and help rebuild America's working class with the Employee Free Choice Act.

JACK SHEA, president, Allegheny County Labor Council

And a veto against

Here we go again! We have been informed that our great president is going to veto yet another pro-labor piece of legislation -- the Employee Free Choice Act -- if it passes both houses of Congress.

Also, President Bush has promised to veto a new anti-terror bill if it contains a provision that would allow Transportation Security Administration airport screeners to unionize. I guess the blue-collar workers don't stand a chance.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says that any attempt to organize the TSA workers would threaten the government's ability to respond quickly to possible threats. What a joke. Just ask the victims of Hurricane Katrina about how quickly the government responds in an emergency! How about the speed in which the Bush administration has implemented the 9-11 Commission recommendations?

Time and time again blue-collar workers are faced with a government that could care less about them -- other than grabbing more taxes out of their pockets and outsourcing their jobs. When will we wise up and say, "Enough is enough?"

MIKE CEOFFE, Lawrenceville