BULLIES ON THE BUSINESS PLAYGROUND

Editors, Daily Planet:

A couple months ago in the Planet there was a brief story regarding picketers at Metro Lighting on San Pablo. Apparently they were striking because they wanted to unionize and join the Industrial Workers of the World, an organization dedicated to ending “wage slavery.” My immediate thought was, “This must be a joke,” but then I remembered this was Berkeley, where there are people who actually take this sort of thing seriously. But really, the Wobblies?

Further inquiry revealed it was not a joke to the owners of Metro Lighting, who are now being forced to spend a great deal of money on lawyers. Here is a locally owned business that makes quality products, pays its employees higher wages than most small businesses ($15-$19 an hour), as well as fully paid health insurance and two week vacations, which few small businesses can offer. If that’s wage slavery, sign me up!

Apparently this is the new unionizing tactic: harass small businesses that don’t have the money to fight back, and ignore large businesses that are far more guilty of wage slavery and bad treatment of employees. It’s the same tactic being used here in Oakland by the UFCW against Farmer Joe’s. Why are unions picking on small businesses and ignoring non-union companies like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s? If the striking Metro Lighting employees and their supporters at the IWW are so worried about wage slavery, perhaps they should be picketing the local fast food restaurants or national retail chains. Oh, except those companies might be in a position to fight back.

Owning a small business is rarely a path to riches—it’s mostly a path to stress, and the ability to, as the joke goes, choose WHICH 80 hours a week you work. If these idiots and their ideologue friends at the IWW succeed in driving Metro out of business, then who will gain? The owners will be out of a livelihood, and all the employees, including the strikers, will be out of a job. According to the IWW, working people should be entitled to the fruits of everything they produce. Fine. If the strikers would like to have all the money from everything they produce, let them give up working for others and go into business for themselves. Then they too will know the joys of wondering where the rent is coming from, being turned down for health insurance, having customers who don’t pay their bills on time, products that don’t sell, and all the other joys of self-employment.

For those of us who are not anarchist ideologues, perhaps now would be an ideal time to show our support for a small local business that is being harassed by purchasing a nice light fixture.

Jane Powell, Oakland

If you would like to make a donation to help Metro, thank you. Please make non-tax-deductible donations to Metro Lighting Legal Defense Fund, (Metro Legal), or click on the PayPal button below. We very much appreciate any support you can offer.

Sincerely,

Lawrence Grown and Christa Rybczynski