RANDOMLetters Boo! to Strike Threats
But why? The “progressive” red tape gone redder and the maddening regulations and taxes have made the costs of doing business in California more costly. Let’s talk about the Affordable Care Act, which has made health care unaffordable, driving up premiums or forcing cuts in hours and layoffs. Supersizing fast food worker salaries sounds like the best solution, but every economist with experience or intellect will argue that minimum wage increases create inflation, not wealth creation. Minimum wage laws actually harm youth and minorities, many of whom struggle to find work already. When voters downsize government, then all employees can enjoy supersized careers with more wealth and better opportunities. Arthur Christopher Schaper Torrance I had to fight mightily hard against the temptation of refuting, line by line, every half truth, exaggeration, and mischaracterization of the labor movement in the past 150 years in your letter. I had to resist the temptation, just to avoid getting sucked into your false narrative of labor and the labor movement’s battle to keep open the path to upward mobility for working class Americans. “Is it moral,” for organized labor to use tactics to force employers to negotiate better working conditions and safety? You damn right it is! It is organized labor’s raison d’être. It is not coincidence that the middle class has shrunk at the same rate as the decline of unionized workforce in the United States. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, organized labor made up 11.3 percent of the workforce or 14.4 million union folks. Numerically, union workers in the United States reached its peak in 1978 with 20.2 million, but as a share of the workforce, organized labor has been declining since 1954. The consequences of this decline
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Helicopter Use
demonstration occurring on the exact spot where there is the highest concentration of law enforcement in the entire 51.44 square miles of Long Beach. The LBPD failed to respond to numerous inquiries by Random Lengths News concerning generalities of its airship’s “normal patrol operations,” as well as the specific reasons why the airship circled the July 19 protest for at least 45 minutes.
efforts underway by the U.S., Russia, France, and the United Kingdom regarding Assad’s surrender of his chemical weapons to international control; but, we must continue our close watch on the Assad regime until those diplomatic efforts are proven verifiably successful. I am glad that our President postponed the military action vote in Congress—a vote that I had requested. I do, however, remain cautiously optimistic about a diplomatic resolution. My position on the issue of Syria is that all diplomatic efforts, both from the United States and the
international community, must be exhausted before Congress votes on whether to authorize a military strike. If military action does ultimately come up for a vote, know that I will continue to gather all of the facts and listen to people just like you. Time to get back to work. Rep. Alan Lowenthal Long Beach
Bill O’Reilly Owns Up to Error
Fox News commentator O’Reilly apologized for incorrectly stating that no Republicans were invited to participated in the anniversary march on Washington for the Martin Luther Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Well, OK. But on his Fox hour back in 2006 O’Reilly commented (twice) that it was “a historical fact that American troops massacred German troops at Malmedy” during the Battle of the Bulge. O’Reilly was taken to task by MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann. To date, neither O’Reilly nor Fox have issued an apology. I’m still waiting. Val Rodriguez Signal Hill
The Syria Debate
The issue of chemical weapons in Syria has been one of the toughest issues I have confronted since becoming a member of Congress. As a Congressman, especially as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, it is my responsibility to weigh all the options when it comes to decisions like these. I approach these tough decisions with an open mind, and I make them knowing that I represent hundreds of thousands of voices and differing opinions. The use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime, or by any country or dictator for that matter, is simply unacceptable. The United States and the overwhelming majority of the world have condemned the use of chemical weapons such as sarin gas, which
October 4 - 17, 2013
To be fair, the PRAR reply notes that the flight time involved was part of the “normal patrol operations that day,” which means it would have been flying the skies of Long Beach anyway. But a question that might be worth asking is whether such an expenditure is necessary during periods when the police have no more exigent need for the airship than to continually circle a small, peaceful
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used to decimate over one thousand of his own people on August 21st. I understand that Syria is undergoing a civil war; and, trust me, I understand that this civil war is not ours to fight. I also understand that our country and the international community cannot stay silent when a dictator like Assad carries out such ruthless attacks and violates international agreements like the universallyaccepted Chemical Weapons Convention. Peaceful diplomacy must always be the preferable solution. I commend the new diplomatic
The Local Publication You Actually Read
Random Lengths News championed the working man on its latest cover “We have rights. We are not afraid” [Sept. 6-19 edition]. All well and good. No worker should ever be afraid to organize and protest. The First Amendment not only protects the freedom of speech, but also the freedoms of association and petition. However, do strike-threats actually improve working conditions? And unions, are they moral in their current organization? I would argue no to both questions. In 2003-2004, grocery workers went on strike throughout Southern California for better wages and health benefits. How many supermarkets ended up closing because of those strikes? How many consumers faced harassment and embarrassment from striking employees? I have neighbors in the Harbor Gateway who no longer have a neighborhood store where they can shop, in part because of unionization, in part because of the cost of doing business in California. Strike-threats depress commerce and hurt all members of a community. Union membership does not guarantee higher wages, either. Ask teachers working at a local charter, and they will share that they make more money than the traditional schools. Talk to the members of the Aviation Safeguard Association, which recently broke away from the LAX Chapter of the SEIU, and they will share that their salaries increased! For the record, it is immoral for unions to force workers to join a union and pay dues, only to see those dues support candidates and causes which the individual worker does not support. Such compulsion is a violation of the First Amendment. Regarding the Aug. 29 Fast Food “Day of Rage,” I respect the frustration of fast food workers. Let every newspaper print this reality loudly and proudly: fast food employees, and California workers in general, are not being paid enough.
has been the contractorization of jobs—the breaking of labor into contracts and sold to the lowest bidder. These labor contractors are generally not unionized and few offer job security or benefits worth mentioning. Perhaps more importantly, this contractorization of jobs has led to the outsourcing of jobs. With contractorization, much of the United States workforce are made into a permanent class of temporary workers. I have friends with college degrees stuck in temp jobs where they don’t know how long one assignment will last, when the next assignment will arrive, or whether they will receive sufficient amount of hours to pay for transportation, rent, food and utilities. And, the story is largely the same wherever labor is contracted out. So in those places where workers are trying to get organized, and in those few sectors in the economy where unionized workers are trying to get recognition, I believe that every American that wants to see the pathway to the American dream reopen should get behind these workers and support them. Terelle Jerricks Managing Editor,
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