Thomas Finch – 2/4/05

This page was last updated on February 5, 2005.

‘The fools will believe us’; Thomas Finch; Beaver County Times; February 4, 2005.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“The lead story on the front page of Tuesday’s paper was about US Airways and its dire financial straits.

“In spite of all the employee concessions and selling more seats, it is still losing money due to increases in fuel costs and competition from low-cost airlines drawing away potential customers.”

[RWC] “Selling more seats?” Where does Mr. Finch get his information? According to the US Airways web site, the number of passengers boarded dropped in each of 2001, 2002, and 2003. The figure for 2004 wasn’t posted at the time of this writing. In any case, selling more seats doesn’t help unless the seats are profitable.

Mr. Finch ignores the fact that even after the concessions during the first bankruptcy, US Airways was still the high-cost airline. If that weren’t true, how could “low-cost airlines draw away potential customers?”

“Then, I go to the editorial page and see more Democrat-bashing coming from letter writer Paul Dici of Ellwood City blaming unions for having ‘strangled this part of the country for years’ while ‘a Democrat sat in the mayor’s chair.’”

[RWC] How is that “Democrat-bashing,” unless the mayors weren’t Democrats? For what it’s worth, labor union management isn’t solely responsible for the state of western Pennsylvania. There is plenty of blame to go around – businesses, dying markets, union management, government – and it’s all at the local and commonwealth level.

“I guess he didn’t read the article The Times did awhile back about how the robber-barons who ran the steel mills used to force their new employees to join the Republican Party or they didn’t get hired.”

[RWC] That “awhile back” was more than 70 years ago and before today’s labor laws. While we should never forget the past, far too many people want to live there. It’s odd Mr. Finch failed to mention unions blackmailed the U.S. government during World War II to get what they wanted.

“Or about how the unions turned that all around and got their members decent pay and benefits and turned most of them into Democrats.”

[RWC] And just how did labor union management turn most members into Democrats and keep them in line, Mr. Finch? If labor unions are such a good deal, why do they need closed shop laws – as in Pennsylvania – and why are union members such a small percentage of workers (less than 10% of private sector workers belong to unions)? Why doesn’t labor union management want to obey the same financial disclosure laws as other businesses?

“Maybe he doesn’t remember that having a good-paying union job meant that you could achieve middle-class status - own your own home, have two cars and maybe some money in the bank.”

[RWC] Does Mr. Finch mean you couldn’t have these things with a good-paying nonunion job? Mr. Finch wants us to believe all union jobs are “good-paying” and all nonunion jobs pay subsistence level. If that were true, why wouldn’t the nonunion workers organize into unions? After all, there are no laws against organizing even in right-to-work states.

“Republicans have always been anti-union, and since they’re the ones in control now, they blame every plant-closing/lay-off/bankruptcy on those ‘greedy union workers’ whose exorbitant demands caused their company to fail while they give tax breaks and concessions to owners who outsource/relocate jobs overseas.”

[RWC] I don’t oppose the concept of labor unions, only what most of them have become. Many – most? – of today’s labor unions are simply fund- and vote-raising tools of the Democrat party and other socialist interests.

I also don’t blame all plant closings on labor unions. There are many reasons why companies go belly up. Usually, a company fails for a combination of reasons, including labor costs, poor management, taxes, a dying market, et cetera.

“What Republicans want is to have a rich ruling class while the rest of us are slave-wage, non-union peasants.”

[RWC] Where do folks like Mr. Finch come up with this stuff?

“If he wants to focus blame for US Airways, he should blame his hero, Bush. He and his rich oil-buddies are laughing all the way to the bank with the money they’re raking in from gouging the airlines for their high-priced jet fuel. Then, they smirk and chuckle and say, ‘Gee, we can blame this on the Democrats, too - and the fools will believe us.’”

[RWC] Mr. Dici didn’t refer to President Bush as a “hero” or anything similar. He merely stated we couldn’t blame President Bush for the ongoing problems of the domestic glass industry. Would Mr. Finch have us believe domestic glass companies were in excellent condition and took a dive only after President Bush took office? Probably, because that’s what he’s trying to sell us about US Airways.

“Gouging the airlines for their high-priced jet fuel?” I worked in the oil industry for 20+ years and never ceased to be amazed at how folks like Mr. Finch believed there was some worldwide oil industry conspiracy to price oil products above their market value. On the subject of gouging, what does Mr. Finch call it when labor union management picks on one company to strike during contract “negotiations?"

Let me get this straight. US Airways has been the high-cost U.S. airline for at least two decades and the reason for its problems is President Bush? Mr. Finch apparently forgets US Airways agreed to be bought by United Airlines in May 2000 to avoid bankruptcy, eight months before President Bush took office.