From the fall 2008 issue of the IBEW Journal

IBEW Members Speak Out

The political season always means a spike in the number of letters to the editor. As you have seen in the previous pages, we have devoted a great deal of space to the opinions of IBEW members.

Read on for a sampling of the letters from members regarding the upcoming presidential election.

Bush’s Third Term?

Thanks for your articles on the policies and record of the Bush Administration and their Republican allies in the Summer 2008 Journal. I am an eight-year member of IBEW Local 5 in Pittsburgh. It would take a one book-sized Journal to list all the bad moves these people have made in the last eight years (and you could send us a postcard to list where they’ve done something right). Still, I wanted to add a few related facts.

The budget deficits of the Bush Administration have given us a record national debt. The $4 trillion they have added to the debt is more than the debts of all other U.S. administrations in history put together, except for Reagan and Bush 41. As a result, we are spending more yearly ($260 billion) on interest payments for debt service than we spend on the combined budgets of the Department of Energy, Education, Health & Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior and Justice.  [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/5/08, p. A-1, from Washington Post, Michael Abramowitz and Jonathan Weisman.]

The Bush Food and Drug Administration has admitted that scores of deaths (81 so far) were caused by an American firm importing the blood-thinning drug Heparin into the U.S. from China. Yes, this is the same administration that refused to allow the re-importation of American drugs from Canada because of the ‘national security threat’ posed by the possibility that foreign terrorists might poison the drugs before they came back to our country.

And lastly, in an issue right up our union’s alley, the Bush Defense Department has admitted that 16 U.S. soldiers and marines have been electrocuted by faulty wiring performed by private contractor Halliburton’s subsidiary KBR at U.S. bases in Iraq. Our military used to do its own wiring, but since 2001, the Bush administration uses private contractors. KBR uses devices imported from China, such as water pumps that can’t be sold in the U.S., because they fail to meet our safety standards. Five years of no-bid pass-through contracts in Iraq, with no oversight, have helped the bottom line of KBR immensely.

Now John McCain is running for Bush’s 3rd term.  American taxpayers, consumers, workers soldiers, and citizens are all paying the price for the first two Bush terms.  When you combine these groups, they comprise the vast majority of the United States.  The Bush Republicans’ banking buddies, their energy buddies at Enron and Halliburton, and their oil buddies at Exxon and Saudi Arabia, are all getting record profits.  (Exxon is G. W. Bush’s #1 lifetime corporate campaign contributor, and they have had three years of world breaking profits since the Iraq war started.)  To quote the Industrial Workers of the World: “Whose side are you on?”

Mike McCampbell
Local 5 member, Pittsburgh

A Heavy Heart

As an active member of Jersey City, N.J., Local 164 for 34 years and a retired member for the past three years, I have usually taken the lead of our representatives when it came to politics. I just cannot believe what I have just read in the latest IBEW Journal. I find it hard to believe the leaders of my international union have been so duped by the Obama campaign. I understand your concern for workers’ rights; it has always been one of my concerns too. I don’t happen to feel the rights are in as much danger today as they have been in the past. We do have a Democratically-controlled Congress.

There is a much larger issue facing us today. Obama espouses socialized medicine. Guess who’s going to pay for that? He makes promises that he cannot possibly keep. His solution for our illegal immigration problem is to legalize everybody—that’ll work. The man is a magical orator with no substance. I would hope you would reconsider your recommendation.

James P. O’Brien
Local 164 retiree, Jersey City, N.J.

On the Mark

I have been an IBEW member since 1993 when I was employed by Niagara Mohawk Power Corp., now National Grid. I had no choice but to join the union since my job was represented. I had some bad experiences with organized labor in the past and felt about unions the same way I feel about most organized religion and fraternities.

The latest IBEW Journal was great! I am not a fan of the current administration, partly because I am a lifelong Democrat but mostly because of their policies. The four cover stories were right on the mark. Keep up the good work.  I am proud to be associated with this union! 

Kevin Sio
Local 97 member, Skaneateles, N.Y.

In the Summer 2008 issue of the Journal] you really told it like it is. I hope it will wake up some of our brainwashed members. Too many people take our benefits for granted and forget about the battles the unions have won to achieve our standard of living. Keep up the good work.

Leonard Nicholson
Local 18 member, Los Angeles

Political Propaganda?

I joined the union while very ignorant on what it really stood for but everyone else in my department was in the union. I immediately began to realize issues that the union stood for that I strongly opposed.  I have stayed in the union partly out of peer pressure. The more I researched and educated myself, the more I found that was against my personal beliefs and convictions. The most recent IBEW Journal is a great example of this. I do not want to knowingly give money to an organization that funds publications devoted to political propaganda such as this latest Journal. I know that the union always supports Democrats because they do a good job of making the working class believe that they care.

I care much more about their moral views and Obama's radically liberal views are total opposite of my own. I don't care how much he may support workers as long as he is also for socialist government and late-term abortion. I cannot support him or any organization that does, including the IBEW. I will also be discussing these issues with the guys in my local and making them aware of my plans to terminate my membership.

Kevin Smith
Local 978 member, Charleston, W.V.

New Energy, New Jobs

I have read many articles these past months on solar power. Yet the administration, our presidential candidates, Congress and the media talk only of the benefits of drilling for more oil. Perhaps a fresh perspective is needed in these times of increasing unemployment. A solar project now nears completion at Florida Gulf Coast University. The 2-megawatt-a-day facility cost the university $17 million dollars, according to the Sun-Sentinel, a South Florida newspaper. It might be advantageous for our industry to do a comparison to study the longevity of the facility and the estimated maintenance costs over the life of the facility. Prominent in the cost study should be the wages paid to American workers, including the taxes paid to all the branches of government by the installation workers, component manufacturing workers, maintenance workers and their employers for the entire duration of the facility life. Also feature the number of gallons of oil saved during the life of the facility. Money not exported to foreign governments but spent here by American workers and their families. Wouldn't it be wonderful if solar energy came out ahead and proved cost effective while putting money back into the American economy?

Peter Lombardo
Local 3 retiree, New York

Out of Step?

When I ask individuals about the official position of the union versus their own political views, I rarely find that the support is there for the platform of the Democratic Party. These veteran workers do NOT see themselves in line with Harry “the war is lost” Reid and Nancy “won't allow a vote on offshore drilling” Pelosi and Barack “would not have voted for the surge even knowing it has worked” Obama. How can the union leadership support what the Democratic Party has become? This is the truth of how people feel, not what you seem to push. How about polling members to see what they think?  

Dave Clizer
Local 401 member, Reno, Nev.

Divide and Conquer

It is apparent that whoever wins the presidential election will inherit an empty walnut shell. In the past Daniel Patrick Monahan was correct when he said, "It seems as though the Republicans of his day were trying to borrow the government into debt so far that we couldn't afford social programs." With the same plan now, their overkill is devastating the economy. The oldest strategy is to divide and conquer. Divide up our jobs, plants, factories with those overseas that want them and conquer our nation's economy. 

H.C. McGarity, Jr.
Local 20 member, Dallas

The Wrong Candidate?

Even before I started to read the Summer 2008 IBEW Journal, I knew which presidential candidate the IBEW would be endorsing. Likening this election to “A New Deal” is probably correct, no matter which candidate is elected -- Sen. Obama or Sen. McCain. We will encounter more and more sinister government controls, bigger and ever expanding government and fewer liberties for the American people. 

One of the most glaring distinctions with Sen. Obama is his pro-death (abortion) voting record. He is the most pro-abortion candidate in American history. How could anyone vote for a presidential candidate that would remove limits on abortions that could kill our future union brothers and sisters?
There are other presidential parties and other candidates. Spend some time researching their platforms.

Richard E. Grumbine
Local 777 member, Reading, Pa.

As is typical of the IBEW Journal, propaganda abounds. Is it good for working families that the IBEW is importing illegal aliens from Mexico to take union jobs here? No apprenticeship, no safety training, yet they can hit the job a running making journeyman's wages. I feel so much better that the union and the Democrats are protecting our jobs ... so concerned about our welfare.

Is it protecting working families to tax and regulate the companies they work for right out business or worse, all the way out of the country? I don't understand why anybody in their right mind would start a company in this country. All that does is invite the government into your life to tell you how to run what's yours.

The Democrats can't wait to raise our taxes. I guess my husband doesn't fit the definition of a working man. For the past 10 years he's worked 6-7 days a week, most times 12 hours a day. That's his schedule right now and it's the norm for him. He doesn't qualify as a working man to Democrats though. He's a rich bastard who needs to cough up more of his paycheck.

Yep, we're a country full of freeloading Socialists who think they're entitled to other people's money. I used to be a Democrat but when I finally realized, back in 1994, how much that party seemed to be getting a lot like the Communist party I swore "never again," and I meant it.

Becky Laffoon
Wife of Local 47 member Thomas Laffoon, Diamond Bar, Calif.