To the Editor:

It looks like SEIU has dug its own grave in the state of California. SEIU's war against the labor movement and progressives should leave no doubt that Andy Stern's battle plan against home healthcare and healthcare workers in general is losing ground. In fact, SEIU has become so alienated with progressives and working families that its own members are increasingly becoming dissolutioned with its leadership.

The SEIU and its president, Andy Stern, has been under scrutiny because of its dealings with Blagojevich in Illinois and its raiding practices of other locals, as well as its attacks against the rest of the labor movement and progressives across the country.

NUHW will definitely defeat SEIU once its frivolous charges with the NLRB and the PERB have been dismissed. Healthcare and homecare workers in California will finally have a chance to vote for REAL representation. Your dues monies will finally be going for good use and not for the purpose of attacking the labor movement and progressives.

Francisco Martinez



To the Editor:

While I still have friends among SEIU's leadership, this turn of events has me baffled. In short, why do this?

I can understand Andy Stern's bitterness and a sense of betrayal over the UHW, now NUHW. But that anger doesn't translate into a quixotic campaign against much of organized labor. Or, I guess it does, but where they'll get their support from is beyond me. If they have a case beyond sheer animus, they haven't made it very well. I think a face-saving retreat is in order. I certainly don't want to put SEIU on my enemies list.

However, I'm not sure we can blame Stern and SEIU for UnionFacts' opportunism. I can assure you if it weren't this, it would be something else -- or nothing.

Alec Dubro



To the Editor:

Powerful, well written even if the slant of the writer is painfully obvious. The inclusion of verifiable facts is the saving grace. This story is getting very little coverage beyond the "NUHW stole members money" angle in any East Coast local.

NUHW is telling a compelling story, even after wading through the rhetoric, but SEIU and yes, Andy Stern, have undeniably done great things for the labor movement.

I will continue to follow the story and try to report both the facts and my take on them as I see it. BeyondChron is doing labor a service by providing a voice and a focus for discussion. Discussion can only serve democracy.

Tom Maher
http://WWW.UnionMaine.BlogSpot.com



To the Editor:

Back in the day then-Governor Jerry Brown managed to avoid the issue of renters' rebates, requiring that landlords share their Proposition 13 tax savings with their tenants, by claiming that such rebates were a local issue. And then when he was Mayor of Oakland, affordable housing was not a local issue, but one for the state and federal governments. Brown is consistent -- responsibility for the issues of affordable housing and tenants' rights are always somewhere he isn't.

Alison Brennan



To the Editor:

Funny that divorced Catholics who remarry also have marriages that are considered illicit under Roman Catholic law, yet I've never heard the Archdiocese or Catholic Charities say "boo!" about extending benefits or adoption services to such couples. If the Archdiocese is really afraid of supporting illicit marriages, then they better really, really be afraid of those divorced and remarried folks, since they look like traditional Catholic couples blessed by the church. Talk about cafeteria Catholicism!

Ed Quinan



To the Editor:

As a gay married man, California 10/14/08, my marriage has no effect on the church. I was married in the City Hall to the man I have been with for 20 years at the time. Nothing changed. The world didn't end. I am grateful for the chance to make my love a legal commitment.

I didn't ask for the church's blessing, nor do I care. My husband and I are very well educated and deserve all the happiness that other people have and now we do. I can't wait for the people of DC to really get the same chance.

Keep the church out of my bedroom as I am keeping my bedroom out of the church. That is what this great, and I do mean great, country was founded on. Separation of church and state. My marriage doesn't have anything to do with straight marriage. Just happiness for my husband and me. YOU GO, D.C.!

Robert Kevin Souther



To the Editor:

Great big thanks to Catania and Mendelson! They stood up, loud and proud, against religious fascism, and they couldn't have been more eloquent. We need more leaders like them who will stop discrimination dead in its tracks. They effectively held up a mirror to the head Catholic bigot, and he clearly doesn't like his own reflection!

Flex Colby



To the Editor:

I cannot believe the New York Times thinks we Americans are being overpaid. OK, lower our wages, but how about if the Corporations lower their prices, less for food, less for homes, less for gas, less for clothes, but right now a family can't afford to buy decent, food, clothing or sometime enought gas to get to work, so many are being laid off now, people are losing their homes and cars. What is the idea to go back to the days of the robber barons, or are we becoming a third world country?

Nancy Hilliard



To the Editor:

I am Joe Elsbernd's older brother. This is an excellent tribute. Thank you. Should you need to contact me, my email is below. We have many memories, but Joe was the "memory keeper."

Bill Elsbernd



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