Chupacabra clip file

Well, I've been too busy working, goofing off, and fish wrestling to write much. Have a look at a couple of letters I clipped from the Chronicle;

-Ships can look elsewhere

Ship owners show a lot of gall to ask for U.S. naval action off the Somali coast when they refused to pay for it for years. Most at-risk vessels are registered in Liberia or Panama so their owners can avoid taxes and work rules. Let these tax dodgers rely on the Liberian navy instead.

W.D. Moore
Houston


-Right-to-fire state

In regards to Joseph W. Gagnon's anti-union article about Texas being a "right-to-work state," I think he has it wrong. (Please see "Meet the union organizers / Stealth labor campaigns may be coming to such right-to-work states as Texas," Outlook, Sunday.)

All states are right-to-work states. Texas is a right-to-fire state, which means that an employer can fire an em-ployee without reason, cut his pay without reason, demand that he work long hours for substandard wages, provide no health care, no vacation pay and no pension plan.

Gagnon also stated that campaign donations are obtained from union dues. Being a lawyer, he should know that is against the law. All donations are voluntary, no different than the PAC fund he may donate to in his law firm. Another thing Gagnon didn't mention is that he belongs to and pays dues to a closed-shop union called the State Bar. If a lawyer does not belong to the Bar, he does not practice law in Texas.

Unions have brought working folks a decent wage, health insurance, pensions and safe working conditions.

MIKE REAGAN
Pasadena