[The following letter is in response to an article in the August issue of the Electrical Worker reporting on a unity rally in St. Louis following the establishment of a Carpenters'-sponsored rogue electrical union, Local 57.]

I am a 22-year member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. What Douglas McCarron is doing to the IBEW is just the beginning and if not checked, threatens all of organized labor. We in the UBC do not support these actions and we do not support McCarron's destruction of unionism as we know it. We suffer under the yoke of McCarron every day.

The UBC in New York is infested with organized crime. McCarron and his district vice presidents have supported and kept in office common criminals. Of the nine recently indicted in N.Y., eight have confessed and are headed to jail. Twenty-seven union officers under McCarron are accused or suspected of criminal activity in N.Y. alone. The Empire Council of N.Y. has been recently seized in trusteeship for corruption. This is the reality of the UBC.

If you do not make a larger effort to expose and fight off McCarron and the UBC, this is the future that will be imposed by McCarron on all trades, including the IBEW. He just got five more years by removing, out-financing or silencing any opposition at the UBC Convention. This will only make him more aggressive. Many rank and file Carpenters do not even know about Local 57 and many refuse to believe it's true. The majority would not support such behavior.

The defeat of McCarron and his raiding will be a victory, not only to all of organized labor but can only help the rank and file Carpenter oppressed and fleeced by McCarron and his brand of unionism. Our funds have been raided for McCarron's personal use, our locals destroyed and our democratic rights gone. An educated Carpenter will not support McCarron's raids on your trade or any other. Timing is everything and the rank and file of the UBC are ready to revolt. No work, no health insurance, funds robbed and raided and families suffering, all due to McCarron's cutthroat unionism.

Let's hope the IBEW steps it up and joins with the other trades who will be next if McCarron and the UBC are not stopped.

Richard Dorrough
Albany, N.Y.

When President Obama proposed a publically-run universal health care system for the American nation, the private health care industry immediately spent hundreds of millions of dollars in order to protect their vested and horrendous profit interests.

Most of the funds were spent on propaganda to oppose and protect a loss of huge profit margins. Some may have also given favors to elected representatives to water down this bill and make people think it would be expensive to implement, lead to bigger government, higher taxes, socialism, less freedom. These elite few have convinced others to confuse social justice with socialism. It appears that this propaganda effort made quite a large percentage of voters buy this crap.

As the Nazi propaganda minister in Germany's fascist reign said, "It didn't have to be true; just make the lies and deceptions to be near the gospel truth. Keep repeating it often enough that the majority of Germans would come to believe it must be the truth."

It's ironic that 50 million Americans cannot afford to have this expensive private health care insurance. Yet all Canadians enjoy public health care, with no attempt to limit coverage for anyone here. And if we can't obtain the services here, treatment, entirely paid for by our tax dollar, will be available in the States. This much despised system (by privately owned and run corporations ) cost half as much in Canada.

Bernard Langdon
Toronto, Ontario, Local 353 retiree

I would like to say thanks to all the brother linemen of Local 400 and others, employed by JPL, that were working during the power blackout on August 30 in Monmouth County, N.J. The outage happened on very hot 90 degree afternoon about 4 p.m. and power was restored by 10 p.m. here in Ocean Grove. We had just bought at least $200 worth of meat in our freezer, and just becoming recently unemployed, I didn't want that to get ruined. The radio station wasn't sure when the power would be on, and we have a friend that works at the fire station said he was told it would be 24 hours. I was talking to some neighbors outside and telling them what I knew about it and how I knew how my union brothers would have it back on soon, and it was. I just want to say thanks from myself and my neighbors here on the Jersey shore. Y'all did a good job.

Douglas Emison
Local 898 member, Ocean Grove, N.J.