Union labels

IN his article about newly elected Screen Actors Guild President Alan Rosenberg [“His Union Divided Cannot Stand,” Oct. 4], Patrick Goldstein asks the interesting question, “Why do baseball players have a more effective union?”

Well, besides the obvious -- that the majority of baseball’s union members are working -- two of the most glaring differences might also be:

1. Baseball players do not live under the threat (at least not yet) that owners are going to field teams of no-name players in Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.

2. Baseball is not fractured with a pitchers’ union, a catchers’ union, a shortstops’ union, a ball-boys’ union, etc., with each fighting over whose contribution has a higher priority in the bigger scheme.

MICHAEL ROUSH

Woodland Hills