Voters Had Their Say

Despite spending more than $4 million of AFL-CIO money, despite an AFL-CIO threat to sue the state of Idaho if the words “right to work” even appeared on the ballot, despite the appearance of Screen Actors Guild President Patty Duke on a TV commercial against right to work and despite the best efforts of The Times to completely distort the real meaning of the growing right-to-work movement, the Idaho citizenry reaffirmed the state’s right-to-work law by 54% to 46%. It wasn’t even close.

Can we expect The Times to report the facts that led up to this unprecedented failure of Big Labor to turn out the vote on what they call an anti-union law? Can we expect to see an analysis of the vote profiles that shows, irrefutably, that right to work won in the two Idaho counties considered strongholds for the AFL-CIO? How will Times labor savant Harry Bernstein explain the fact that union members, not union-busters, gave victory to the right-to-work law in Idaho?

Stand by for the smoke and mirrors. Prepare for another dose of 1930s trade unionism. The Times labor coverage is a prime example of what media guru Marshall McLuhan called “driving into the future while looking through the rear-view mirror.” Union members whom I represent deserve better than what we are getting from The Times.

MARK McINTIRE

Board Member

Screen Actors Guild