Unions can offer workers protection

This Labor Day, where have all the good jobs gone? Since 2001, more than 3 million manufacturing jobs have disappeared in the United States. Between 2002 and 2012, job-creating occupations will pay primarily low wages, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. We need jobs that respect workers' rights with family-supporting wages, good benefits and opportunities for workplace advancement. Our nation's middle class is built on jobs like these.

The jobs problem is not just that we are losing good jobs; it is also that the jobs we are creating are not as good as those we have lost. Study after study has found that the share of America's jobs with higher pay and better benefits is shrinking, while jobs in industries that are expanding pay less and provide inferior benefits. Low-paying, no-benefit Wal-Mart-type jobs are not the solution to the jobs problem.

More working people than ever -- some 57 million -- say they would join a union if they had a chance, according to a survey from Peter D. Hart Research Associates. But employers routinely harass, intimidate and coerce workers who try to exercise their right to form a union at work.

Under current law, few workers will have a chance to exercise their freedom to form unions. Employers routinely wage a vicious war on workers trying to form unions, using legal as well as illegal tactics. The bipartisan Employee Free Choice Act would strengthen protections for workers struggling to form unions by:

» allowing employees to freely choose whether to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation;
» providing mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes;
» establishing stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations.

Passing this legislation would be a good start. However, our elected leaders also need to stop signing bad trade deals that send good jobs overseas and start helping to create family-supporting jobs. And we must address our nation's health care crisis.

Today, Labor Day, let's make sure good jobs with good benefits are our No. 1 priority. For our nation's security and future, nothing beats a good job.

Reactions to gas cap guarantee its failure

Hawaii lawmakers just don't get it. Their gas tax is about to severely harm our state's economy.

For three simple reasons, their gas cap will not succeed. First, if gasoline wholesalers anticipate that the real market price will go above the "price cap," they will charge the maximum. Second, the wholesalers will supply less gas than otherwise at the "price cap" price, assuming the "price cap" price falls below the market price. Third, consumers will demand more gas at the below-market-price than they otherwise would. As a result, the policy will only exacerbate the problem. That is, increased demand for gas relative to a falling supply will result in even more upward pressure on prices and shortages. They are just adding to the problem!

Our state Legislature has imposed the highest gasoline taxes in the nation at more than 57 cents a gallon.

A common sense solution to lower the cost of gas would be for them to lower the tax. Changing the laws of economics with paper and ink is destined to backfire.

True heroes of Katrina are the survivors

Later we can hold our politicians' feet to the fire. Later we can laud the rescue workers who are doing the jobs they were trained for.

Right now, let us praise the poor people who are the true heroes of the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe, the citizens who followed orders, who did what their government told them to do, went where they were told to go, and when they arrived, found they had been deceived. And in the face of the horrors they encountered, they remained good citizens and waited and waited and waited for the promises to be kept.

Let us grieve for those who didn't make it, and those who won't make it, and let us hope for those who are left.

Fans are still waiting for UH to take field

As a University of Hawaii alumni who lives in Southern California, I am very disappointed with the result of the USC vs. UH game. Regardless of the fact that UH is rebuilding, when are we going to field a competitive team? Are we to accept status quo and be a mediocre team or are we going to step up and be a top 20 team? Maybe I am unrealistic, but it's hell taking the flak here in Southern California from the so-called Trojan fans here, and I am wondering whether we should even field a team.

Hate me or not, but we do get the live feed here, and I am fed up with the results. Sure we beat WAC teams, but should I even watch the non-conference games? During the game, I had to reach for the remote and watch the Angels instead because at least they are competitive.

News story miscast remarks as accusations

I take strong exception to the fictitious expansion of my remarks in the Star-Bulletin's Sept. 2 story, "City transit contract is criticized."

In answering the reporter's questions, I said only exactly what I knew happened to me -- that at the last minute our scope of work was drastically reduced and that we were replaced by another firm, even though we had been selected by the prime contractor, Parsons Brinckerhoff, to be on the public-involvement team since April.

I never questioned that firm's capabilities or implied that it was tied to political favoritism. When asked why I thought this happened, I said I didn't know.

I did say that I felt the process was tainted because until a week prior to the signing of this contract we were in positive discussions with the prime contractor about moving forward with a large role. It was a huge blow to discover we had been knocked out, especially when we had prepared by staffing up for it.

Your story has shifted the focus to the qualifications of the firms instead of questioning the insertion of any other firm at the last moment -- changing the composition of the original team.

I believe that had the Star-Bulletin done its job, it would have been clear that something was amiss in this process.

Instead, the story ascribed accusations about favoritism and qualifications to me. Such accusations never came out of my mouth.

Accomplishment did belong on front page

Obviously Harold Okada (Letters, Aug. 31) is not a baseball fan! What the Ewa Beach West Oahu team did in the Little League World Series warranted front-page coverage because we islanders are so proud of their accomplishments and what it meant to win for the United States.

Amid the daily news of our soldiers getting killed, the gas crisis, increasing taxes, etc., what could be better than having happy news for once? We will get back to Okada's priorities of sad news later.

We are indeed so proud of what they did for Hawaii and the United States, and words around the world attest to what they did is what baseball is all about -- winning with fortitude, determination and sportsmanship.

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