To the Editor:

Kudos to Randy Shaw for consistently great labor reporting in recent months. I don't know what happened to Harold Meyerson or Jonathan Tasini, but Shaw has become the first & best stop in understanding what's going on within labor.

Josh H. Pille



To the Editor:

Randy Shaw's article captures an extraordinary and long overdue development in the US labor movement. Finally, and in a dramatic fashion, leaders of the nation's largest unions have come out and clearly stated what many of us formerly in SEIU and now in the NUHW have been saying for years: the Stern-Burger-SEIU model of top-down organizing and secret, sweetheart deals with employers is wrong for workers, and Andy Stern is a rogue union leader.

That these national labor leaders have pledged material and moral support to UNITE HERE is especially encouraging, but they need to go further in two specific areas. First, they should terminate for once and for all the 'Cheat To Win' experiment and rejoin the AFL-CIO, making sure SEIU is not allowed to rejoin the federation on the basis that it's a company union. Second, they need to give moral and material support to the NUHW's effort to liberate those SEIU health care workers who want to get out of their corrupt union, and join the NUHW.

Charlie Ridgell
Oakland



To the Editor:

You go, UNITE HERE! You bet I'm with those loyal members. I've been a proud member of Unite Here Local 57 for 25 years, and my mom for 40 years! The difference between Unite Here members and SEIU is loyality to our union members. It comes from our hearts, and not from a bank! We are the union, not some appointee ... We will never give up in this fight. Unite Here is our union, not S.E.I.U. or a MADE UP union like Workers United.

Susan Scattaregia
UNITE HERE member



To the Editor:

Members of the international democratic reform movement inside SEIU have another name for 'the bosses union.' We call it "SEIU --Serving Employers Instead of Us." We say it's time for a change. SEIU needs new leadership. If you are a member of SEIU, join S.M.A.R.T. -- SEIU Member Activists for Reform Today http://www.seiusmart.org/

Monty Kroopkin,
Reform221 candidate for president of SEIU Local 221
http://reformseiulocal221.blogspot.com/



To the Editor:

The title of Robert S. Becker's article, "Afghanistan: No Exit Plan, No Exit, No End," hits the nail on the head. It seems that perpetual war is the game plan, no matter who occupies the White House. I am reminded of 1964, when we elected the "anti-war" Lyndon Baines Johnson, and millions died in Vietnam.

Marc Norton
San Francisco



To the Editor:

Pretty poor piece on the war in Afghanistan. Robert Becker provides nothing but rhetoric -- the same rhetoric we heard on Iraq. Obviously, the "exit plan" is to leave when there's a government in Afghanistan that can govern, without the populace being bullied by the Taliban. Afghanistan is where the 9/11 attackers and many other homicidal, suicidal fanatics were trained. It's also where Osama Bin Psycho was based before 9/11. Why would the US allow that scenario to start over again?

Now that Pakistan is finally showing an interest in combating the terrorists in that country, the US stands a much better chance of defeating the terrorists in Afghanistan if that sanctuary is eliminated. The US, by the way, is beginning to withdraw from Iraq, in spite of all the dire predictions from the peaceniks. Fortunately, President Obama is not the kind of "progressive" that wants to see his country lose wars.

Rob Anderson
San Francisco



To the Editor:

The total cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan exceeds $874 billion. Of this amount, San Francisco taxpayers paid $3.1 billion for total Iraq and Afghanistan war spending since 2001. To place this figure in perspective, this money could have provided 1,261,312 people with health care for one year or 9,173 affordable housing units or 1,145,538 children with health care for one year or 5,460,195 homes with renewable electricity for one year or 366,568 Head Start places for children for one year or 44,014 elementary school teachers for one year or 43,292 music and arts teachers for one year or 54,748 public safety officers for one year. Can we continue these war expenditures ad infinitum, especially with our faltering economy?

Ralph E. Stone
San Francisco



To the Editor:

Let economic conditions prevail, without attempting to alter it to create some other condition. Help those unable to provide for themselves, by teaching / aiding them to make it on their own to provide for themselves. Don't jump on the backs of one group, in order to continually aid another group of people needing help! The less politicians in our lives, the better!

Wayne Alba



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