Union Leaders, Parable Both Err on Strike

I have been a grocery clerk for 28 years. Those in our “courageous” union leadership, like all madmen, have recklessly led us into a doom from which now they can find no exit. They have exhausted all the money, benefits and holidays and are reduced to spouting empty threats and slogans, waiting for some mythical contract that simply isn’t coming. They sit back comfortably with their families, shaking their heads at the “evil” employers, but collect their paychecks without missing a beat (how about forfeiting your pay in a show of solidarity?), while women and children have lost all and are reduced to near poverty because of their arrogance.

Over the years, the union has become a separate entity representing only itself. Never, in almost three decades, have I seen it reverse a wrongful termination or protect anyone dealt with unjustly. Then, periodically, we mysteriously vote dues increases on ourselves, which is akin to voting an increase in your electric bill.

Yet like a docile flock of sheep, we quietly accept and numbly follow along ... this time over the edge of a cliff.

Viktor Racz

Corona

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Re “Listen, Grocery Strikers, and I’ll Tell You a Tale,” Voices, Jan. 3: As most people know, nothing is free, especially health care. In Eric Hainline’s parable, the miller (a conglomerate of supermarkets) is the hard-working man, and the laborer (the retail clerk) is a thief who has attached a hose to the miller’s goat for free milk.

In reality, of course, the retail clerk negotiated a wage package that included health benefits. To say these were free or, as your parable implies, stolen, is indeed another cute story.

Michael Munoz

Lomita

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Hainline’s simplistic parable misrepresents important facts in this lengthy labor dispute: Free “goat milk” has traditionally been part of the laborers’ compensation package; the “hose” was originally installed by the millers themselves under earlier collective bargaining agreements; finally, two out of three mill owners in this town have locked their laborers out of their mills. Is it therefore surprising that the laborer angrily rejects the traveling stranger’s unsolicited advice?

Richard Vinet

Irvine

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Like grocery clerks are stealing health insurance from poor, downtrodden corporations? Like they are paid enough to be able to afford their own medical insurance or expenses?

Excuse me!

Jean Gerard

Los Osos

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Nice tale by Hainline. With all the benefit cuts occurring by employers these days, I can picture a tale of him hiding behind his white picket fence when a day comes when good, law-abiding citizens turn to crime just to scrape up money to buy medicine for their children.

We are constantly told by big-business advocates to rely less on government and invest our trust more in the private sector. Even when these corporations are posting record profits, they constantly make an attempt to cut pay and benefits to the employees (who also happen to be consumers and customers) who have helped them post those record profits.

If the grocery stores can survive such a large boycott for this long, they must have been making a pretty penny -- even while paying their employees a decent wage and medical benefits.

Paul Bruyn

Huntington Beach