Hoffa in Iran?

Today's post is another of my Don Quixote letters, this time to the Insight section of today's SF Chronicle, in response to an article about efforts by Hoffa Jr. to promote unions in Iran. The letter speaks for itself.

Editor:

There is something painfully ironic about Mahtaub Hojjati's article ("Why Hoffa may worry Iran's mullahs") in today's Insight section (8/19/07) given the savage assault on American Unions for the last 27 years, including the pseudo-Democratic Clinton administration. Reagan sounded the trumpet by busting the Air Traffic Controllers' union, without regard to possible safety consequences; the attack continued with Republican "Right To Work" laws, Clinton's unseemly endorsement of NAFTA. Nowadays, unions are largely irrelevant and impotent.

Of course, corruption in the unions took a fearful toll as well, as leaders began wearing the same suits, driving the same cars and living in the same neighborhoods as management. Featuring Hoffa in this look at the tenuous hold of Iran's theocracy on its populace only adds to the irony.

The most egregious insult to our intelligence is the reference to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the United States has refused to sign for more than half a century, largely because it includes (in addition to the "right to form and join labor unions") such "economic" rights as food, clothing, shelter, education, and adequate medical care, regardless of one's ability to pay.! No matter how much hypocritical lip service we give to these principles, our economic system depends on the concept of "Work or Die."

Back when the unions were a meaningful force in our economy, there was a much healthier balance between workers and owners. It would be ironic indeed if that balance were achieved in Iran and lost here.