Letters and comments for March 8, 2011

Fantasic performances

To the Editor:

The EOU Choir and faculty continue to produce fantastic performances year after year.

The people in our community are very lucky to have the opportunity to have seen “The Phantom of the Opera,” the “Flashback to the 60’s” and the numerous occasions that we have been visited by the virtuosic Portland Opera.

Last year’s Beatles show was really inspiring. I am wildly excited to see future shows.

Thank you for your effort. Keep up the good work!

Dale Tovar, BSA Troop 514

La Grande

Union-busting move?

To the Editor:

The powers that be at the La Grande-based regional office of Boise Cascade must think that the people of La Grande and the surrounded area are totally ignorant. They have repeatedly stated that the La Grande sawmill was closed because of the market conditions.

In early 2009, regional management informed the employees of the La Grande plant that if they didn’t agree to accept a freeze of their contractual wage increase, that Boise Cascade would close the plant and purchase the sawmill facility in Pilot Rock. The employees voted to not accept the freeze. They had gone on strike and given concessions in the past and never regained what was lost.

Well, Boise Cascade closed the plant and purchased the plant in Pilot Rock (although not necessarily in that order).

I, myself, cannot understand how market conditions can justify the closing of one plant and still justify the purchase of another plant.

Th Pilot Rock facility is operating with non-union employees.

The market downturn just presented an opportunity and an excuse at the right time. The whole idea, in my opinion, was to get rid of the union.

I spent 38 years working in the La Grande plant and probably would not have lasted that long if I were as ignorant as the local management seems to think we all are.

Ron Miller

Union

Paper can do better

To the Editor:

Pssssst, since when have polar bears been damned?

According to The Observer editorial page cartoon dated March 2, they must have been. The comic showed two people walking together in cold winter conditions, and the caption said, “I hope the damn polar bears are happy!’’

Mr. Kramer, you can do better than that in a family newspaper.

Lucy Gilchrist

La Grande