Ad - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, August 21, 2002

Getting rid of unions
might help fresh start

Dear Sir:

Unions are usually re-
garded as the friends of the
working people. In a tradi-
tional setting the big com-
pany makes profits for
their owners or share-
holders, the union makes
sure that decent working
conditions exist and the
warkers get their fair share
of the profits.

A smart union will con-
sider the viability of the
employer when posing
their demands so that they
don’l, as the proverbial
owner of the goose that
laid the golden eggs, kill
the goose and cut off the
supply of eggs.

Our golden goose has
been on its deathbed twice
in the past five years. No
golden eges have appeared
for a long time now, nor
are they likely to if we
keep feeding it the same
diet that has kept it on life
support.

A number of factors
have brought us to our pre-
sent plight. All these fac-
tors are going Io have to

Sounds
familiar

Dear Sir:

Steve Weatherbe’s Aug.
7 letter (“Proclamations
are a waste of time”) lif-
ted me out of my chair and
prompted a stiff (albeit
heterosexual response).

Weatherbe dismisses
homosexuals and gay pride
advocates as immoral, Ci-
ting the gay marriage issue
as a tiny minority ramming
its’ behavior down socie-
ly’s throat, he gloats how
“We Christians still have
our transcendent, mystical,
sacramental marriages
sealed by God.”

“The first Christians ...
won converts by living a
life distinctly different.

from jand-metally ‘superigr-

to those.-around them. Per-
haps it is time to live apart
again.”

I spent 20 years married
to someone who grew into
a devout, fundamental
Christian and you two
sound like kindred souls.

Our childrens' fairy
tales and my fine art books
were hidden or destroyed
and “anyone attending a
public school had a one-in-
a-million chance of be-
coming a decent human
being.” Pages of bra and
girdle ads were removed
form Sears catalouges. Mi-
chelangelo’s statue of
David is “pornography”,

I learned that Satan in-
vented chocolate and
French fries and that the
planet Earth is literally
6,000 years old. Evil
scientists in the days of
Methuselah were
responsible for genetic
tampering that produced
dinosaurs, marijuana and
mosquitoes,

I learned on a Christian
video not to listen to
music by black people as
their music has its reots in
Voodoo. And don’t play
any Freddy Mercury re-
cords backward. Any
music that doesn’t extol
Jesus is “Satanic and
against God.”

My son attended a year
alt the Smithers Christian
(High) School but would
not be allowed to return
unless he learned to “keep
his mouth shut.” It seems
that on his own time and
off of school property he
had the audacity to ex-
press his own belief to
schoolmates that he
thought sex before marri-
age was alright.

Nothing would make
me happier than for all the
holier-than-me judgmental
Christian elitist snobs to
go “live apart” again, I
have many good Christian

‘friends and acquaintances
who do not judge and con-
demn.

But all the ivory tower
variety like Mr Weatherbe

‘would do us all a huge fa-
your by going off to some
distant istand by their per-
fect selves.

Jason Katz,
Terrace, B.C,

CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD |

The Mail Bag

be addressed if we are
going to have a viable
operation in the northwest
that wil! employ our
people and bring us back
to some degree of prosper-
ity.

The log. jam right now
is old union agreements,
employee wages being the
biggest production cost
component. There are na-
tional implications to un-
ions if they cut a deal loc-
ally to address our pro-
blems. Offers of a profit
sharing plan are also ana-
thema to unions.

This would put employ-
ees on the side of the
company with a direct
stake -in profitability and
would compromise their
influence, if now the very
need for unions it is far
easier to let the northwest
strupele than to set a pre-
cedent that could come to
haunt them elsewhere.

When unions are cap-
able of bringing an entire
region to its knees to pro-
tect outdated agreements
that don’t fit present cir-
cumstances, it is time to
take a good look at those
unions and explore alter-
natives.

It has come to the point
where the union has be-
come an obstacle instead
of a friend to the workers

FIUTHEAIN

Pete Weeber

and communities of the
northwest.

There are ways out of
this dilemma, Perhaps it is
time for union members to
take control of their own
lives and look beyond pre-
sent unions for direction.
Anything is better than the
present state of decline
and deadlock.

A fresh start might get .

us returning to some de-
gree of stability and pro-
sperity, even if the golden
eggs are mediums instead
of extra larpe.

Pete Weeber,

New Hazelton, B.C.

{Editor's note: Peter
Weeber is the mayor of
New Hazelton and a re-
gional district director.)

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