[Vision2020] Did Wenders and Harkins Enjoy Their Tenure?

[Mark Solomon]

Phil,

I can't speak to the issues in WA you refer to, 
but I can speak to the mines and mills closing in 
the Silver Valley. It had little to nothing to do 
with labor costs and everything to do with the 
company finally being held responsible for the 
deliberate emissions of lead pollution into the 
atmosphere and waters of the Silver Valley. That 
plus the bust in the price of silver after the 
failed attempt of the Hunt brothers of Texas fame 
to corner the world silver market.

Mark Solomon

At 3:38 PM -0800 1/28/06, Phil Nisbet wrote:
>Nick
>
>Heff was not saying that a Union was not a good 
>thing to have, just that free association needs 
>to be the law.  The closed shop of many places 
>actually is loaded with corruption and nepotism 
>and examples of National Unions sticking it to 
>the guys on the shop floor for the sake of 
>politics abound.
>
>One of my favorite examples was back in the 
>1980's when the guys in the Steelworkers local 
>at the Bunker Hill voted to accept lower wages 
>to keep the mine and their jobs going, but the 
>cal by the local was negated by the 
>International which lead to mine closure and all 
>of them losing their jobs.
>
>I still remember in the early 1990's guys 
>lobbying for the International working a deal 
>with Jolene Unsold that ended up closing the 
>doors on all the mill workers from Forks to 
>Vancouver.  The lobbyist for AFL-CIO sat in a 
>bar in DC telling a bunch of Union mill guys 
>that they should be happy with the Unions call 
>since it would mean better jobs for their Union 
>brothers back East, as it was a trade off for 
>Unsold's supporting an AFL-CIO bill on health 
>care benefits.  Bother that the guys were losing 
>their jobs and would not get any benefits or a 
>salary for that matter.
>
>Nothing in Idaho law makes a union illegal.  You 
>have a union and that is why you are bringing 
>the suits you do in court for teachers.  But I 
>would point out that yours is just one union. 
>Technically, in a closed shop state, the IEA 
>could close your smaller union down and shut it 
>out.  You habe the right of free association and 
>to join what ever union or no union at all here, 
>so IEA does not have the right to try to close 
>the doors on your union.
>
>You noted just how effective your AFT has been 
>even in an open shop environment.  The reason it 
>can be effective is that the Union has to be 
>responsive to its members or its members will 
>quit the Union.  That does not allow room for 
>feather bedding by top Union brass or for the 
>nepotism and cronyism that closed shop areas 
>have in abundance.  Instead, the Union has to 
>work for its keep and get members by doing the 
>job its supposed to do.
>
>Phil Nisbet
>
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