WORKERS NEED GLOBAL UNIONS
The only way to slow down the multinational greed merchants is to have international unions. There are many dedicated union people around the world, and these people need support.

Unions around the world need positive media coverage. George Meany, John L. Lewis, and Walter Reuther were very good in pointing out the uneven struggle between labor and capital. Today, nobody is using the media to further our fight. It is hurting us badly.

James H. Conrad
UAW Local 1887 retiree
St. Louis, Mo.

BIG INSURANCE IS BIG PROBLEM
Consumer Watchdog (Solidarity, March 2000) advised about cheaper auto insurance, but there are a few rarely mentioned problems.

Big insurance is the largest investment community on Wall Street.

This is your money going to invest in corporations that may be keeping unions out, exploiting workers overseas, destroying the environment, or hurting workers through safety and human rights violations. Furthermore, your insurance money may be going to support another political party.

Auto and health insurance must be no-profit, taxed-based (and therefore much cheaper) systems so that all citizens have access.

John Jonik
UAW Local 1981 member
Philadelphia, Pa.

OIL COMPANIES MAKE A KILLING
This year the price of crude oil has jumped significantly, but not as much as it did in the early 1980s. But the price of gasoline has exceeded the price peaks of the early eighties when crude oil cost $40 per barrel. The price of crude is about $10 short of its former peak, but the price of gasoline is about 10 cents more than its peak.

Are the Arab oil-exporting countries making a killing? Maybe, but nothing like the killing the oil companies are making. Could it be because the Arab countries are not the bad guys this time? Could it be that the bad guys this time are the ones who control all the refining throughout the world? You bet it is.

So is there any silver lining in this gray cloud? Yes. The oil company executives this year will regain the compensatory status they once held 80 years ago before the government forced them to break up. They will regain their position as some of the highest paid executives in America. And those of you who own stock in these oil companies should see windfall profits and stock dividends this year. I feel a lot better now. Don’t you?

Hugh Rousseau
UAW Local 599
Davison, Mich.

UNIONS ARE ONLY WAY TO GO
My future goal is to attend Western Illinois University in Macomb, Ill., and to further my education in studying computers. I have always been told by my father, Frank Budyn, strong union supporter and member of UAW Local 974, that unions are the only way to go. Since I look up to my father, I believe what he has to say about unions.

Unions are made of people willing to stand up for themselves and take care of others, along with their families. Never once did he cross the picket line to go to work at Caterpillar even when times were tough, and for that I am honored that he is my dad. My goal is to be as devoted to a union as my father is.

Carrie Budyn
Daughter of UAW Local 974 member
Peoria, Ill.

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