Letters To The Editor |
Please thank Madeline Smith Moore for the very nice article in the September 2007 issue on "The 9/11 Quilt." This quilt was truly a labor of love and grief and needed to be acknowledged. I am responding to an editorial note in the Letters to the Editor for the Metro of October 2007, [re: Rettig Avenue] which says the City Council will likely determine the fate of Rettig Avenue remaining open or closed. The City Council does not make this determination. 'Rather, it is an administrative decision made by city experts from the Fire Department, specifically the Fire Marshall; the City Administrator's office; the Public Works Department's Transportation Services, which is the traffic engineers, and the Police Department. Our Council role is strictly advisory. In other words, while it says in the Ed. Note that city staff will submit recommendations to the Council via the Public Works and Public Safety Committees and the Council will act, this is just not the process. Instead this is a magisterial decision'done within the City Departments.' In actuality, we received a letter from Deputy City Manager Niccolo de Luca, saying that all the above Departments, especially Fire and Transportation Services, have rejected the idea of closing Rettig Street. That letter basically ended the discussion, unless somebody in the community wants to take it to some other level. 'In the interests of open communication, I sent a copy of Mr. De Luca's letter to the Redwood Heights listserv, and I'd be happy to send it to the Metro as well. In the interim, I want to stress again that what to do with Rettig is not a Council decision but an administrative one, and perpetuating this myth only makes an already difficult situation even more painful. I have been a resident of the Laurel since 1983 and a reader and supporter of the Metro since I have lived here. I am shocked you would publish such a biased piece of propaganda as your lead article in the October 2007 issue ("Update on Union Activity at Farmer Joe's"). There are always two or more sides to every story, yet you publish only one! I have shopped at Farmer Joe's since they opened at 35th and MacArthur and was thrilled with the new venue on Fruitvale Ave. I have encountered the informational picketers (distributing leaflets) on many occasions. On July 4, 2007, I went to the Fruitvale location and encountered the union leafleters. They were very courteous and informative. I was proceeding into the store when I encountered a Farmer Joe's employee, who was also handing out a leaflet. He was very aggressive, irritating, and angry. I decided to leave and bring my business elsewhere and have not returned. I wrote the Tams (whom I have gotten to know and respect over the years) outlining my experience, with no response. That is the last time I have spent my hard-earned food dollars at their stores. Shame on the Metro for its biased and misleading coverage, beginning with the photo on the front page, and its misleading anti-worker (anti-union) venom. The Metro is no longer the unbiased community resource we need. When the Metro decides to present fair and unbiased coverage of this issue (and other issues), I will consider returning as a supporter and a reader. It was refreshing to see the October article ("Update on Union Activity at Farmer Joe's") so clearly address the issues at Farmer Joe's Marketplace. Not a single employee at the store(s) has gone on record requesting United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 5 representation, but the owners (Joe and Diana Tam) have officially requested that their employees be allowed their federally protected right to a secret ballot election National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) vote, which the UFCW opposes for these workers. The divisive fact is that Local 5 doesn't even have a minority percentage of signed "card-checks," hence the "confrontational approach" as a business plan to force the Tams to sign away workers' rights. That's why the UFCW hasn't allowed the NLRB vote: they haven't been able to "house-call" the workers. The public has been harassed by Local 5, in the parking lots and on the streets. We have been abused and threatened by Local 5 organizers, executive board members and outsourced picketers. The community is behind the employees and the Tams, who have personally committed to improving both the Dimond and the Laurel districts. We appreciate that. Although public pressure has motivated local politicians to take a more active role, local businesses continue to fail, and few are reopened. We can't afford to lose more. Ed. note. The MacArthur Metro is a community newspaper. We welcome all points of view and stories and articles from the community. Certain guidelines apply, including coherence, relevance to the MacArthur Metro geographical readership area, and, generally, a limit of 500 words. For more information about writing or to submit a story, send a query to the editor at metroreaders\@earthlink.net. |
