Letters To The Editor

Sat., Dec. 12, 1998

‘TIS THE SEASON

Most givers were young people

I was privileged to be a bell ringer for the Salvation Army at the Valley Mall on Dec. 5. During that hours, my helper and I noticed the very large majority of givers was made up of people 20 and younger, most of them in their teens. And most of their giving was done on their way into the mall, not waiting to drop a little loose change on their way out.

We agreed this speaks well of our youths. What they gave was hard-earned money, I’m sure, but they still wanted to share. Way to go! Lee Wynne East Spokane Kiwanis

Don’t let passing fad spoil Christmas

While watching the news a few days back, I saw a segment about Furbies. They were talking about how it’s the No. 1 toy this Christmas and how two individuals were sent to the hospital after trying to get a Furby.

Today, while looking through the classifieds, I saw Furbies ranging in price from $100 to $350.

Come on, people, it’s just a doll. You do not have to fight over it. Take Tickle Me Elmo, for instance. A couple of years back it was the hottest toy. Now look at it - it’s on the bottom of the toy box. Get your child a gift that comes from the heart. And remember, Furby is just a toy. Tyler P. Bjorkman, age 13 Spokane

HEALTH AND SAFETY

And a sewer runs through it

I was happy to read recently in The SpokesmanReview, “EPA announces Coeur d’Alene Lake safe for humans.” My question is, what about the Spokane River below where they are dumping partially treated sewage from Hayden?

In August, my wife was infected by a parasite from the river. Only after a month of antibiotics was she able to continue our fitness program.

Then, on Oct. 15, I came down with flu-like symptoms which I ignored for two days. But under pressure from my wife and daughter, I went to the doctor, who took a culture and found it to be an E-coli infection in my urinary tract. I am certain this was conttacted by swallowing water from the river when swimming. I have been on antibiotics for more than a month and a half, wearing a catheter. I am not only uncomfortable but very angry.

Shouldn’t Congress investigate delinquent agencies like EPA, instead of President Clinton’s sex life? D.J. (Buzz) Irvin Spokane

High protein can mean high risk

Re: “Pump up the protein” (IN Life, Nov. 29).

While it’s easy to extol the benefits of high-protein diets, there is serious cause for concern.

The kidneys are vital organs that serve to filter out waste products from the bloodstream. They are damaged by such high-protein diets. The damage may be especially problematic for kidneys that are already stressed from diabetes or hypertension. Many people who are on high-protein diets are exactly the people most at risk of sustaining damage to their kidneys.

In addition, effects of high-protein diets on homocysteine levels (recently found to be a marker of cardiovascular disease) remain to be determined. Remember that a low-carbohydrate diet will lack valuable phytonutrients - chemicals in plants that serve protective functions, such as preventing various cancers.

What’s the answer? The Mediterranean diet - high in monounsaturated fat; low in animal fat and animal protein; moderate in fish, nuts, legumes, and whole-grain, complex carbohydrates. This is the diet of populations with the greatest longevity. Avoid processed baked goods containing partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, which promotes atherosclerosis, similarly to saturated fat, but is included on nutrition labels in the polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fat count. Cook with canola or olive oil instead of hardened fats such as margarine, butter or shortening. Use meat only as a condiment. Eat vegetables or fruit with every meal. Prepare brown rice instead of white rice. Eating your calories rather than drinking them will promote earlier satiety.

Lose weight by combining aerobic exercise with a healthy diet to ensure the best permanent success. Lara Hume, M.D. Spokane

HEALTH CARE

Permit me a little soothsaying

I gather that staff writer Jonathan Martin’s Dec. 4 article, “Mental health giants want it,” wasn’t meant to be humorous and think it my civic duty to point out some of the doublespeak involved.

Just as exotic dancer means erotic dancer, managed care means managed cost. And “The companies are bidding for the small but critical ‘utilization management’ job - monitoring care to assure patients get the right kinds of treatment” means the companies are bidding, bribing and politicking for the new and profitable benefits minimization job - harassing health care providers to assure enough health care is denied patients to assure profit for the companies. David Grubb Valleyford, Wash.

BUSINESS AND LABOR

This isn’t Kansas, Toto

Has anyone ascertained the sociologocial, psychological and demographic fallout of the Kaiser strike? Statistically, as unemployment rates rise, so does domestic violence, substance abuse and suicide.

Demographically, 2,100 Spokane community members are affected by this strike. Factor in spouses, children, and extended families, and the figures rise dramatically.

Who’s paying for this loss of income? Certainly not Kaiser. Those of us lucky enough to have financial support from family may be the minority. After all, Spokane people apparently consider themselves lucky to earn $6 an hour.

Parents ask why their grown children leave. Simply, it’s because we’re behind most of the country in wages. But our living costs are as high or higher than many better-paying areas.

As the strike continues, we can only hope union members and their families don’t become ill (we have no health insurance), hope banks understand when we can’t make house and car payments, hope we don’t need food.

How do Hurwitz, Haymaker, Walker and Ashe sleep at night? I guess they don’t worry about providing for their families. Perhaps the payoff is to have no conscience.

I have no wish to work for a company that, like the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion, needs a heart, a brain and a little bit of courage. Ruth Mead Chattaroy

Hurwitz is the missing link

Re: “Striking Steelworkers,” Dec. 4. Shame on you, Susan Ashe; your nose is growing. You said, “There’s no factual basis” for linking Maxxam to Kaiser’s strike.”

The Spokesman-Review cites you as saying unemployed Pacific Lumber workers were targeted and recruited to fill Steelworker jobs at Kaiser.

I haven’t been around any turnip trucks lately, so I surmise that there must be a common thread between Kaiser Aluminum and Pacific Lumber. Could it be a parent holding corporation, Maxxam, headed by the same majority shareholder, Charles Hurwitz? If memory serves me, he acquired both companies in leveraged buyouts. He was the signatory for the loans, securities and money that finalized those deals.

Having such an enormous stake in both companies and in the outcome of the Kaiser strike, Hurwitz could hardly be faulted for calling a few shots himself. Shrewd businessman he is, he would be derelict to do otherwise.

Under these conditions, the Steelworkers are justified in targeting his joint interests in their fight for fairness, for the same reasons Kaiser targeted Pacific Lumber to recruit replacement workers.

Instead of trying to sway the public to pressure Steelworkers into accepting an open-ended contract, pressure the main string puller to bargain at the table. Robert “Bob” D. Hartman Spokane

Kaiser should heed its founder

Re: The Kaiser article, part two, of Dec. 7.

Kaiser quotes Henry Kaiser as saying, “Problems are just opportunities in work clothes” and alluding to the fact he would roll up his sleeves and lead the way to change.

I never met Henry Kaiser but everything I’ve heard or read about him makes me proud to be part of the legacy he created. He’s also has been quoted as saying, “Labor relations are human relations, nothing more or less. When a man is treated like a human being, when his ability, skill and good will are properly recognized, when his ambitions and anxieties are given due and just consideration, he is not only capable of superb loyalty, but of performing veritable miracles in production.”

The “problems are just opportunities” can be something we’re all, hourly and salaried, part of, which Henry Kaiser would be able to see today. The Steelworkers I know are not afraid of change, believing it’s inevitable and necessary.

I hope Kaiser management reads Henry’s other quote here, decides what it wants and brings that to the bargaining table, to fashion a contract that’s fair to both sides. The union is waiting. Al V. Benjamin Post Falls

Kaiser can’t sustain current regime

Maybe Kaiser is achieving the kind of numbers its claims, but I doubt it. However, if the company is, does it mean those in charge want the Steelworkers back but we have to live and work there 16 hours a day, five to six days a week?

I’m sorry, Ray Milchovich, maybe you can run a company like that long enough to make some good numbers, but the human toll will eventually grow to be too high.

You can’t scare us with your lies. We will last one day longer! Michael J. Hart Post Falls

Yes, let’s talk about high pay

Regarding comments by Maxxam Corp.’s Ray Milchovich and former state representative Lois Stratton.

Milchovich states the union’s proposal would “make them the highest paid workers in the aluminum industry.” He doesn’t mention his own income. When asked that on Mike Fitzsimmons’ radio talk show almost two months ago, Milchovich said that information is “available from public filings.” According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, he earns $14,903 per week. George Haymaker, CEO of Kaiser- Maxxam Aluminum, earned $18,500 per week in 1995. John LaDuc, a vice president, earns $10,576 per week. All, with 30 years of service, will qualify for a pension paying $200,000 per year.

I know not about the “highest paid workers in the industry” but it appears these executives are doing well.

Stratton “takes strong exception to the alliance of USWA with Earth First!” She states, “Earth First! is linked to tree spiking, destruction of private property, bombings, etc…”

Not so fast. Earth First! “joins” all Americans. The Department of Justice and the protectors of Americans’ saving, The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., as well as the supervisory agencies of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve and the Office of Thrift Supervision, have sued, on the taxpayer’s behalf, Charles Hurwitz. They feel he must return $1.6 billion to taxpayers. They claim he took it from a bank owned by the taxpayers: United Savings and Loan, of Houston, Texas. Jon Michael Yeager Deer Park

Kaiser, note Steelworkers’ mettle

If I were a businessman such as Charles Hurwitz, I would begin to realize that out of 3,200 workers in the Kaiser strike, only 12 have chosen to cross the picket line and return to work. This human chain of striking Steelworkers is strong and focused. People who remain focused and unbroken in the heat of a strike are potentially valuable workers.

Give these workers a fair contract in 1998 and they will keep the company strong. Roy R. Hollandsworth Spokane

Replacement workers, think ahead

Those poor, ignorant replacement workers are reaping what our parents’ toils and hardships have won. They should know the facts.

Look at the greed in big business. What makes them think the corporate good ol’ boys will give them fair wages and benefits without a contract? Kaiser seems to think it doesn’t owe the Steelworkers a thing. If replacement workers think Kaiser will offer them some security once this is all over, they’re in for the kind of rude awakening permanent employees have experienced.

Those replacement workers would be smart to look for the cloud at the end of their rainbow. I understand they’re signing open-ended contracts. They are giving up their family for money -the only thing that is certain - and must provide their own insurance. In essence, they are considered as contracting-out their services. This will end when they are hurt or can’t fulfill their contract. They are waiving access to binding arbitration (and if it comes to that, a jury trial).

Steelworkers are now in court with Kaiser and we’ll win only because of contractual language. Joan M. Bender Post Falls

Common issues are significant

No one said Earth First! and the Steelworkers agreed on anything other than that Charles Hurwitz-Maxxam Corp. should not be allowed to continue raping corporations and savings and loans, exploiting workers and the forests, and reaping monetary benefits from his illegal tactics. Thomas L. Fury Spokane

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