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Andy Stern, SEIU President
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  The president of the Service Employees International Union, Andy Stern, joins us in studio to talk about the state of today’s unions and their power in the next elections. He's also written a book called "A Country That Works", drawing on his own experiences as a social worker, father, organizer and labor leader to talk about where he sees the need for change in today's global economy. This program originally aired on January 31, 2007 |
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In the 90's I was an IBEW worker. I had come from a non-union job to the same job in a union at Raytheon. I know unions were once needed but my personal experience is they have strangled American productivity by pushing costs up so high, businesses HAVE to move to China and other countries. The most striking difference for me was the quality. The union shop quality was miles below the non-union job. I was constantly told to slow down so as to "not make anyone else look bad" I was too picky as an inspector because the item we were building "was just going to blow up anyway" (we made bombs etc. during the Gulf War). It's a wonder anything worked the way quality was all but nonexistent.
The other thing was the union pressured us to give to the United Way. Anyone who didn't was required to come in, listen to a talk and watch a film that NO ONE who gave was required to attend. Unions have seriously undermined manufacturing of all kinds in the U.S. Next time you go shopping, see how many "Made in USA" labels you can find. You may be surprised to not find any. Ask your unions why that is.
Lisa Stowell
Derry, NH
Transportation Commissioner Charles O'Leary is a disappointment. How can he dismiss trains out of hand when so much of the rest of the world uses them and uses them well. If one wants to drop of the kids, or do errands one would do that on the way to the train station!!! I lived in Westchester County, NY in high school and all the parents who worked in NYC took the train to work. They did whatever they needed to do on the way to the station and then parked there and took the train--excuse me but he is using very specious arguments against trains. As far as the electricity used to run an electric train, think of the energy used to take the oil out of the ground (or under the sea), then that used to bring it to the USA, then that used to refine it into gasoline and then the greenhouse gases used to bring each individual driver to work as most cars on the road have only one person in them. He is wrong, wrong, wrong. His thinking is either lazy and shows his age or else dishonest. And as he is showing, driving cars on roads is not free. If we subsidized trains the way we do air and car travel we could have an incredible system of trains. And one last thought, the other huge benefit of taking the train is that one is able to sleep, read, play cards or whatever while getting to where one is going, safely. Thank you, Lynn from Portsmouth