CSU Union

Re “Even Poor Norma Rae Got to Vote on the Union,” July 25.

Melanie Stallings Williams speaks out against fair-share fees for university employees and, given her credentials, it isn’t hard to see why. She is an attorney and professor of business law and thereby completely prepared to defend herself in the workplace should she run afoul of management. Oh, but wait, she is also director of graduate programs at Cal State Northridge’s College of Business Administration and Economics, so she thinks she is management. Well, that certainly gives her a clear view of employment issues at Cal State University from a completely unbiased perspective.

Perhaps Williams would be willing to personally and at no cost to employees represent custodians, clerical workers, technical assistants, student services professionals, health care workers, police and the trades when CSU disregards their employment rights or subjects them to harassment or discriminatory practices. This is what unions are called on to do, regularly, for employees who benefit from negotiated union contracts and benefits, but who do not pay their fair share of the costs to secure these gains. . . .

It will take a strong union presence to maintain an equitable and efficient workplace. Without active participation of represented employees, the system cannot work. This means that everyone must pay their fair share if we are going to continue to fairly represent faculty and staff and move CSU forward as an employer of choice. Quality education for the people of California cannot be achieved without a quality workplace. Now is the time to make that happen by supporting state Senate Bill 645.

VIRGINIA WATTS, Labor Relations Representative, California State Employees Assn., Northridge

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What will they think of next--a politicians’ union?

Government employees (having been one several times over the last 20 years) are already lacking in motivation in many regards. They don’t need the “help” of unions in controlling their lives more--this would only make the infamous bureaucratic wheels turn slower and more inefficiently. . . . Let individuals decide, at least, whether they want to take the union pledge; don’t enforce it just because some politician has to make good on a promise made in smoke-filled rooms in Sacramento.

I recommend that you call your representative and Gov. Gray Davis to tell them to kick this bill back where it belongs--in the local landfill with the rest of the trash.

LARRY M. MONROE, La Crescenta