Letters To The Editor
BUSINESS AND LABOR
Kaiser says story wrong
The April 27 Spokesman-Review story, for which I was interviewed, described Wednesday’s decision of the National Labor Relations Board’s General Counsel relating to Kaiser Aluminum’s lockout of Steelworkers at five plants. The story contains serious inaccuracies.
On Wednesday, the NLRB’s General Counsel granted, in part, a Steelworker appeal from the decision of the NLRB’s Oakland regional office to dismiss charges arising out of the labor dispute with Kaiser Aluminum. The Oakland regional office had found that the Steelworkers’ charges were so lacking in substance that the office dismissed them without even a hearing on the charges. The Steelworkers appealed this dismissal. On Wednesday, the General Counsel agreed with the regional office’s dismissal of the vast majority of the Steelworkers allegations. However, with respect to two allegations relating to the legality of the lockout, the General Counsel reversed the regional office and found that the Steelworkers’ allegations warranted a hearing before an administrative law judge. In other words, Wednesday’s ruling is important because it means that these two Steelworker allegations still have a life. Now, whether the allegations have any merit will be the subject of a trial.
Steelworker leadership has every reason to want to portray Wednesday’s events as a federal government decision ruling the lockout illegal. But that is simply a part of the Steelworkers propaganda machine, and untrue. We expect more from The Spokesman-Review. Wednesday’s decision is just the first step to a legal process to determine the legality of the lockout. That legal process, including appeals, could easily take years. Jeremy Sherman chief negotiator, Kaiser Aluminum
This is a different Kaiser
Re: “Seek constructive end to strike” by Rick Melanson (Letters, April 24).
I am not ashamed to say I grew up in a Kaiser household. I also remember Melanson, who worked at Kaiser as a foreman. He was an ex-military man who, for the most part, was a fair man. But it is apparent that his son does not understand Melville’s “Moby Dick” or the sociological reason for the Steelworker lockout at Kaiser Aluminum.
Kaiser is not the Kaiser Aluminum he was raised around or the that his father worked for. Ahab’s obsession for the whale was for revenge. Steelworkers are pursuing a course of action designed to make this aluminum producer accept the fair sociological responsibility it has for the people who purchase and make its product.
The monster (whale) was driven only by the desire for survival and instinct. The laws of government and humanity did not apply to it. Henry Kaiser has long since passed away. The man who runs the current corporate entity known as Kaiser Aluminum has no such business ethics, but needs to be reminded of his responsibilities for the community’s health. Guy Nasato Steelworker, Spokane
CUBAN REFUGEE
`I am outraged’
Where am I? I awoke Saturday morning, April 22, in a world I do not know or understand. The news told how Elian Gonzalez was reunited, rescued so to speak, with his father. Rescued from a loving family who meant him no harm.
I am outraged at the use of the Gestapo-style raid on a private home during the early morning hours while most of the world slept. No outrage from the media and little, if any, outrage from private citizens.
Have we become so used to our government using storm trooper tactics on American citizens? Are we become so used to these Ruby Ridges and Waco tactics that we do nothing to stop the outrageous actions of a government that is suppose to be “a government of the people, for the people and by the people.”
Are the militants correct about their belief that our government is in the process of depleting our constitutional rights, little by little? It might seem that the militants are right as exemplified by the Gestapo-like raid on the home of an unarmed family trying to resolve a very difficult question about this small boy in the courts.
Has Pontius Pilate Reno sacrificed Elian for political reasons? The only one really pleased is Castro. Freedom in America is in jeopardy and under siege by Clinton, Reno, Gore and the Democrats, and no one seems to care.
Wake up, America. Vote! Benjamin J. Newbold Rathdrum, Idaho
Reno should step down
Re: the Elian Gonzalaz disaster.
Attorney General Janet Reno is very harmful to this nation and needs to lose her position. Why not be totally truthful? The United States of America is no longer a free country but a country that is under tyrannical rule. Rebecca Griffith Spokane
Good for Reno - she has guts
When I heard the news this past Saturday that Elian had been reunited with his father, I was overjoyed for them. It was about time someone got that little boy away from those wacko relatives. Hurray for Attorney General Janet Reno. At last, someone with the courage to do the right thing.
It’s unfortunate that it’s too late for Reno to throw her bonnet into the ring. She might just be what we need in the White House. I’m sick of fence-sitting politicians who are afraid of themselves and everyone else.
If the relatives and protesters are unhappy with this recent turn of events and burn our flag and holler foul, well, Cuba isn’t very far away. Ann Kirihara Spokane
Removal `most barbaric act’
The process of removing Elian Gonzalez from the home of his Miami relatives was the most barbaric act I have witnessed via television. A televised act of the worst scenario of child abuse!
As an educator for 38 years, 15 of which I was an elementary school counselor, I became so shocked, saddened and very upset that this happened in our country. We would expect this treatment from Castro, but not here in America. What a traumatic experience Elian had to go through, and will continue to do so for many years.
Did anyone ever hear of the slow, methodical, caring and loving approach to reuniting Elian with his dad? I guess not! Even serial killers are better treated than the way they took Elian from his home. Tony J. Antonucci Spokane
OTHER TOPICS
We are in a spiritual war
We are as much in a spiritual war as in the political war. The two are intertwined.
Changing mankind. Liberals say we need more police officers, more prisons, more coercive laws. Most conservatives, i.e. George Bush, say mankind must be changed internally. When one is baptized, literally speaking, he goes through rites representing burial and resurrection. The old man dies, the new man is born. There is a change of heart where one thinks and feels in a new way.
We conservatives understand freedom is a gift from God accompanied by an individual base living within God’s laws. Liberals see freedom as under a group-based society with unlimited freedom, with little if any individual responsibility. Donald B. Reed Spokane
Violators must be dealt with
Ruby Ridge, Waco and now Miami are all examples of civil disobedience.
Ruby Ridge would never have happened if Randy Weaver had turned himself in instead of hiding behind his wife’s skirts. Waco and Miami would never have happened if those involved had obeyed the laws. If the people involved in such confrontations do not want to obey the laws of this country, they should leave.
Laws and law enforcement are the only thing separating us from jungle rule. I trust local, state and federal law enforcement to do the right thing 100 percent more than I trust a crazed mob led by a lunatic. Ed B. Booher Airway Heights
Lead-in-water statement erroneous
A correction must be made to the April 6 article by staff writer Zaz Hollander. A statement was falsely attributed to me that suggests certain amounts of lead moving through the Coeur d’Alene River and into Lake Coeur d’Alene could be “absorbed” by people. I would never make such a statement.
First, it is conjecture with no scientific proof to back it up. Secondly, lead concentrations in the water are too low to be of human concern.
Recently, the watershed coordinator for the Department of Environmental Quality said at a public meeting, “If you are swimming in the lake, you would have to swallow enough water to drown before there is a health risk.”
I usually correct reported misinformation directly with the reporter. But when a reporter’s inaccuracies are repeated in the general public, as in the letter to the editor, April 14, they must be publicly corrected to avoid taking on the appearance of fact. Holly Houston Coeur d’Alene Basin Mining Information Office, Hayden Lake
Editor’s note: The Spokesman-Review stands behind its story as reported.