Edwards on Organized Labor

* My, how kind of right-wing former Rep. Mickey Edwards to tell us what’s “wrong” with the labor movement (Column Right, Nov. 23). Forget 12 years of vicious union-busting under Reagan and Bush. Never mind our obscene labor laws, which make it virtually impossible to organize new members while permitting employers to fire (oh, excuse me, “permanently replace”) current workers who dare to exercise their so-called “right” to strike. No, the only real problem is that labor is dying by its “own hand.”

Edwards’ arguments about recent labor strikes would be laughable if not made in earnest. The flight attendants at American Airlines went on strike only after American unilaterally implemented changes in work rules that made it impossible for these low-wage workers (starting salary under $20,000) to plan their own work schedules; this was a fight the airline picked, not the other way around.

With regard to NAFTA, labor was winning this fight until President Clinton opened the federal checkbook. Far from being “toothless,” unions, with their dedicated members walking precincts and making phone calls, have made the difference in the political careers of many in Congress who so cavalierly dismissed labor’s legitimate concerns over job losses and the exploitation of workers, union and non-union alike, both here and in Mexico.

Even with all of this, I think people like Edwards may be surprised at labor’s resiliency in the coming years. With the continual erosion of America’s high-wage manufacturing base, the need for a vigorous union movement in maintaining some reasonable standard of living for our working middle class will become more and more pronounced. A few changes in anachronistic, anti-union labor laws may be all that is needed to cause an explosion of union membership.

DAVID P. KOPPELMAN

Los Angeles

* Mickey Edwards should take off his blinders and come out from the cave in which he is living. If he did he would see the reality of working life for millions upon millions of Americans, who work far away from the “Harvard boutiques” that Edwards is apparently hanging out in.

American workers, give thanks. Edwards has informed us our “wages are decent, benefits are generous, and workplaces are clean and safe.” I recommend Edwards subscribe to The Times. He would have seen the sickening articles about Latino workers whose lives have been sacrificed in the cause of expediency and profit. He would have discovered that our official unemployment rate approaches 10%. The “generous benefits” he sees are denied to 40 million people. He wants a world where labor is denied its most basic right, the right to withhold its labor. Edwards doesn’t like conflict, except, it seems, when his beloved entrepreneurs (read corporate leaders like those at American Airlines who do everything they can to create monopoly markets in violation of free enterprise) break strikes and destroy the lives of people who have the audacity to reject the status of company lap dogs.

Over the past 15 years U.S. wages have been reduced dramatically. People feel less secure at their places of work. Hundreds of thousands of good jobs have left the country. We have greater inequality in wealth and opportunity. Somebody’s agenda has been implemented, and it sure wasn’t the agenda of the AFL-CIO.

JIM WOOD, Secretary-Treasurer

L.A. County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO