letters
TO THE EDITOR
GIVE CIVIC A CHANCE
For decades Civic Stadium gradually
deteriorated as the owner (4J) hoped the
tenant (the Ems) would keep it in good
shape. Though the Ems did manage to
make Civic usable, they let the big stuff
go. When the Ems left Civic in 2009, 4J
surveyed its condition and their fi nances
and put out an RFP to be rid of it.
But Dennis Hebert was not one to let
Civic simply slip away and neither was
Natalie Perrin. In 2006 Dennis founded
Save Civic Stadium (SCS); Natalie got
Civic listed in the Register of Historic
Places in 2008. As it turns out Civic’s
timbers are sound, and largely as a result
of the tenacious activism of Dennis,
Natalie and SCS, the rescue of historic
Civic Stadium (built in 1938 by the WPA)
and its rehabilitation are now possible.
SCS responded to the 4J RFP with
a comprehensive plan to rescue the
landmark and become a tenant with a stake
in being good stewards of Civic Stadium.
Anchored by a professional soccer team,
Civic would host all variety of sports,
concerts and other entertainment. Local
sports teams would have a fi eldhouse for
indoor practice and Civic as a memorable
place to play tournament games. And,
as suggested in EW’s Slant (2/10), there
would be room on the site for both the
rehabbed Civic and a new YMCA.
Under SCS’s plan, 4J would receive
viewpoint
a steady income from lease revenues
that equal or exceed what they got from
the Ems. Meanwhile SCS would take
full responsibility for upkeep of the site.
Eventually SCS would purchase the
property at the (almost certainly higher)
market value at that time. See more
about this good deal for 4J, SCS and the
community at www.savecivicstadium.org
Yes, the stadium is an eyesore now
and the committee screening RFPs has
recommended the proposals that would
demolish it. But the 3,700-plus people
who’ve expressed their support for saving
Civic Stadium urge the 4J School Board to
give Civic Stadium a chance by bucking
the screening committee and accepting
the SCS proposal. It would be a win for
all of us.
Jim Watson
Eugene
PICKETING KIDS
Last week (3/8) was the opening rally
for Eugene’s school levy at Kelly Middle
School. Because of the horrendous cuts
on schools by the state, Eugene’s city
government is asking citizens to vote to
provide for some of the teachers that are to
be cut in the Eugene school district.
State funding cuts in education and hu-
man services have left Oregon schools at
the bottom, and our children the hungriest
in America.
Eugene teachers and parents spoke of
cuts year after year. We were meeting in
a library with no librarian and a projected
25 percent teacher cut at Kelly. Parents and
friends were crying. A business owner with
three children in Eugene schools said that
she may have to move her company to an
BY ROBERT A. OLSEN, PH.D.
Union Busting
Poor economics and poorer morality
T
he current recession has reanimated a
destructive human belief that some people
are less deserving of societal compassion
and concern than others. Many of those attempting
to reduce government defi cits by shackling union
membership and reducing existing public employee
benefi ts are implicit purveyors of this belief. These are
strong accusations but what these people advocate
is economic nonsense and moral wrongdoing.
The most recent period of strong middle-
class income growth was from WWII until about
1974, a period of strong unions and a progressive
tax structure. The public benefi ted with better
transportation, schools, housing and corporate
competition. Since 1974 middle-class incomes
have fallen along with the decline in strong unions,
increased international job outsourcing and the
weakening of regulations on business competition.
Most gains in worker productivity have gone to
enrich a super wealthy corporate upper class and
stockholders. Most middle class workers have lost
income and infl uence through de-unionization and
weak political representation, largely due to powerful
corporate lobbying.
In general, since 1974 human labor has not paid
off relative to investment in stocks and bonds.
The U.S. now has one of the most lopsided income
distributions in the industrialized world. About 10
percent of the population now owns about 70 percent
of all income and wealth, and there is no longer a
large, economically viable middle class.
The current recession is especially dangerous
because the middle class was the source of prior
economic stability and mobility. The latest economic
research indicates that where you are now born
4 MARCH 17, 2011
area with better public schools for her kids
and the children of her 75 employees. In
the school library everyone was moved to
support the needed school levy.
Outside a small, rowdy picket line
chanted “no more taxes.” I spoke to one of
the picketers. He and several others wore
EUGENE WEEKLY
economically, you will die. This is not the former
America, the land of opportunity.
What is wrong with reducing defi cits by cutting
union and public employee wages? Most of these
targeted people barely make enough to support their
families. If you reduce their incomes even further,
what can they spend?
Workers without college degrees in the public
sector make about 6 percent more than those in
the private sector, largely because they have better
pensions and health care. However, workers with
college degrees in the public sector make about
20 percent less than those in the private sector.
Thus there is little evidence that, in general, public
workers are living the “high life” relative to private
sector counterparts.
If one assumes that “economically,” union employ-
ees are representative of non-college public workers,
which they are, then they make about 6 percent more
than those in the private sector. This additional 6 per-
cent is due largely to pensions and health care and
amounts to about $1,600 a year. Are health care and
pensions luxuries? In most developed European coun-
tries they are viewed as rights.
What is wrong with reducing pensions and
benefi ts after an employee has been working for an
organization? Consider the following.
• When a worker and employer agree on pay and
the labor required to earn it, the employers realize
that pensions and benefi ts are really just another
form of delayed compensation. Pay is split between
wages and so-called “benefi ts.” To an employer op-
erating in a competitive economic environment, pen-
sions and benefi ts cannot be gifts because there
are no excess profi ts to spend. Thus when these are
reduced, after the fact, it amounts to forced under-
payment and expropriation of the worker’s labor. Re-
gardless of the economic rationale this is theft and
immoral behavior.
• If workers come to expect that pay will be sub-
ject to future reduction, they will only work for higher
immediate wages and ignore employers’ promises
about the future. This will make it harder for employ-
ers to hire better skilled and more productive work-
ers. Thus output quality and the general welfare will
suffer. For years governments have offered higher
pensions and benefi ts because they have been un-
able to generate the up front “cash fl ow” from taxes
to offer higher immediate wages. This is most pro-
nounced in the hiring of teachers.
• Pay cuts and layoffs in the public sector make a
recession worse as more people are forced into pov-
erty and out of the marketplace. Layoffs cost other
workers their jobs. The psychological fallout from
unemployment is immense and long lasting. People
become fearful and less trusting and committed to
community welfare. Political instability also increases.
So what are the alternatives to local pay cuts and
union busting?
• The Federal Government should help local gov-
ernments maintain levels of support, especially to
those most at risk, during recessions.
• Income tax structure should be returned to its
earlier 20th-century progressive form.
• Regulations need to enforce business competi-
tion and eliminate very large accumulations of eco-
nomic power in the hands of a few fi rms.
• Unionization should be encouraged, as unions
have proven to be a major means whereby workers
can bargain with powerful employerers for an equi-
table wage. Unions are a countervailing force to a
corporate America where the 500 largest fi rms now
possess about six times the wealth and income of all
U.S. households.
Robert A. Olsen, Ph.D., of Eugene is a UO graduate and financial economist.
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