Editor:

In 1967, I worked in Phoenix for the Maricopa County Hospital. During my year and a half there, there was a barber strike in which firebombs were flung and homes burned to the ground at the hands of union supporters.

In 1968, I went to Buena Park, Calif., and worked in an oil tool manufacturing factory. It paid well for the times and did its best to keep the union out by offering good benefits. But during my six months there, the industry went on strike, and I, along with every other employee, was advised to keep a defensive weapon at hand. We were picketed, but I never saw any violence. In 1969, I went to work for the Arizona Highway Department in Winslow. There was a union of sorts in place then, and it recruited heavily. The man who was my mentor, Bill, pointed out to me, at the time I was trying to decide whether or not to pay half a buck per year, that I had probably never seen a union executive out of work. His point was that union executives are management, too. The battle is between who gets to be boss. We workers were mere cannon fodder.

In 1980, in Globe, I had to leave my happy home and relocate to Phoenix due to the copper strike, an event that happened routinely every three years. This time, though, it lasted until thousands of workers had to leave. A full one-third left town for good. I wasn’t a miner at Inspiration, just a gas pump jockey at a local gas station. I was fired in order to make room for a friend of the owner and had to relocate after literally going door to door in every business in the area, looking for work. This is documented due to my application for unemployment benefits.

(I always wondered why an employee caught lying in an unemployment case was threatened with federal crimes, yet an employer never hears another word about it. If I am found innocent, doesn’t that make the employer guilty? I mean, somebody lied, and it wasn’t me!)

Either way, I do not blame the mining community locals for their support of the unions. They were surrounded. When surrounded, stick with them what brung ye. During the Babbit wars, I was in Phoenix, landscaping at $4 an hour for 12-16 hours a day. I recall the days of turmoil up here, even though I knew not a soul in the area. I always supported the miners. But the unions, as helpful as they were to pull us out of the Great Depression, have outlived their usefulness. Should we need them again, let them arise again.

Norm Johnson

Safford