My Response to a Personal Attack
By the Head of the Georgia AFL-CIO
By Harry Kelber
On February 13, I received the following e-mail from Charlie Key, president of the Georgia AFL-CIO, to an article I had written about "Heavy Pension Losses." I am posting Key's e-mail in its complete, unedited version, after which I will respond.
Key wrote:
"Harry last I heard you were not even a union member so quit whining about rights. All the information you are whining about is available though to members and non-members alike. So instead of whining like so many other free riders, why don't you get off your ass and do the research on the questions you raised. And without doing the same kind of research the AFL-CIO and CTW don't have the information you speak of and if you know as much as you pretend to you would know that."
--Charlie Key, President of the Georgia AFL-CIO
Kelber replies;
"Dear Brother Key:
I am sorry to disappoint you, Charlie, but I am a member in good standing of a local union of the Communications Workers in New York State. You should have figured that out by yourself, for how could the AFL-CIO have recognized my candidacy for a seat on its Executive Council and granted me time to address the delegates at the 2005 convention if I were not a member?
I wrote about the loss of millions of dollars in pension funds through the Madoff scandal, because, contrary to what you say, this detailed information is not widely known among union members, who would like to know what our leaders propose to do about our pension problems.
Instead of spending time in dreaming up ways to attack me and "free riders," you should be worrying about what unions can do to protect working families who are losing their jobs, their homes and a part of their pension income. If you want to discuss the real issues facing workers and their unions, I am sure we can find common ground.
One final word of advice: stop repeating the word "whining." Learn some new words of attack against people who displease you. As for me, I never learned how to "whine" and I never will.
In Solidarity,
Harry Kelber
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