mr.radon

Sorry Marylou you do nothing to refute the fact Unions use someone's livelihood to extort money from employees by holding their livelihoods at stake. Especially in the case of Boeing where for years they had no closed shop. No wonder the Mob finds Unions easy pray. You don’t have much farther to fall from grace when your organization threatens people with their livelihood. You hide behind the fake fasad of “Oh they don’t have to join, but they have to pay and follow the collective bargaining agreement, and they can get fired if they don’t….blah, blah, blah” How many clubs ask you not to join but demand membership fees? Especially if I don’t want to belong to the club nor follow any of their silly rules. Not too many. I say if you pay a single cent to a union you're a member of the Union. Personally if you ever work for a place and go on strike, the battle is already lost. You should have quit a long time before and found employment somewhere else. I think Boeing would be a better place to work if more engineers like me voted with their feet and not with the union. They all get to wear the big "L" for looser right next to the AFL-CIO lapel pin

Seattle Times article below. Wait didn't you say they don't have to join? How can we believe anything you spout out about your union experiences? You didn't know people can get fired? You think it's right to threaten people by firing them from their jobs? But wait you don't have to join.. Blah, blah, blah... LIAR FACT: 2 Boeing workers fired, wouldn't pay union fee By Kyung M. Song Seattle Times aerospace reporter E-mail this article Print this article At least two Boeing engineers were fired last week for refusing to pay fees to their union, becoming the first casualties since the engineers union last year won the right to make dues mandatory. Paul Illian and Ken Hopping lost their jobs after the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) reported them to Boeing for failing to join or otherwise pay fees to the union. Two other engineers also refused to comply, but Boeing, citing employee confidentiality, would not confirm whether they were terminated as well. Illian and Hopping did not participate in last year's 40-day strike by more than 15,000 Boeing engineers and technical workers in the Puget Sound area. As part of that strike settlement, Boeing agreed to let SPEEA workers vote to end voluntary union dues and allow SPEEA to levy agency fees on even those who choose not to become union members. The measure passed by a 77.4 percent margin among technicians and by 64 percent among the engineers. SPEEA members pay $24.14 a month in dues. That's about 0.5 percent of monthly pay for Boeing engineers, who earned an average of $63,000 last year; technicians earned an average of $45,000. Nonmembers must pay SPEEA the same amount in agency fees or donate the money to charities. Workers can also opt to become "Beck objectors" and pay slightly reduced dues if they don't want to pay for political contributions or organizing expenses. SPEEA earlier this month turned over to Boeing the names of 20 people who had chosen none of those options. All but four eventually complied, according to SPEEA spokesman Bill Dugovich. The union contends not paying fees is unfair to the 20,000 SPEEA members, especially because nonmembers file grievances and benefit from contract negotiations as much as those who pay dues. Ken Mercer, a Boeing spokesman, said the company was disappointed that it had to enforce the contract and let the workers go. Illian and Hopping said they don't support SPEEA and believe the decision to pay dues should be theirs to make. Hopping, a software engineer, has worked for Boeing for 12 years. Illian is a 21-year Boeing veteran and developer of the Raven, a pedal-powered airplane. Illian, who is job hunting, said he never would have joined Boeing if union membership had been required. "They changed the rules on me without my permission," Illian said.

Depends on snow levels. One year jdog and I had to dig it out and collaps a big cornice before we could rap off that second rap station.

We've already been over this. Unions don't do this. You have to pay the local for the cost of collective bargaining. You do NOT have to join the union. Let's try to argue the facts here instead of making things up. Fact: You HAVE to pay the UNION!!!!!! Fact: If you don't pay you don't work!!!!! Fact: You have to request to only pay the "Beck" amount Fact: You have to work under the UNION contract!!! Wake up and smell the coffee. How can anyone say that the Court ruling for Mr. Beck single handedly made all the states Right-to-work states? It only prevents a Union from extorting political funds. You are still required to be card carrying union member in states without right-to-work laws just to work. You're delusional if you think that's how a labor union is run. Sorry, but this is reality.

Call me a rich kid all you want but I'm not some silver spoon. I worked 40 hours a week while raising a baby boy from diapers, paying my way through college and for my heath insurance. I figured out a way to do it and did it. I now work for people and management I like and tolerate, places that respect the skills I bring to a job. If they don’t treat me well, I move on. I've also run two small businesses and have worked for some small one's that were great. I'm sure you have a lot of incentive to work harder knowing twenty poor guys with less time then you would get laid off first in a downturn, or knowing that they can't get bigger pay raises then you because the Union doesn't allow pay for performance. But then again that would be making a stupid assumption like you did right??? I'm glad you're happy with your Union, most people say they are making the choice between the lesser of two evils. I prefer not to make a choice between any evil. You avoided my whole point; how can it be fair that a Union locks someone out of a job because they do not want to join? Un-American, pure and simple extortion. Union’s strive to keep the over achievers beaten down so the rest of the work force doesn’t look pathetic and pulls up the underachievers; sad way to run a work force. As far as climbing being an expensive hobby, you’re really smoking crack there.

To get hired by a company and then have some Union gangster come by and say, "Pay up and join or you loose your job and your kids will go hungry." sounds real fair. What you refer to as the "Beck" amount is not Right-To-Work. You’re an idiot. Right-To-Work means you can work without having to join any Union. Therefore not pay any union dues at all and you can bargain your own contract with the company. America is all about freedom of choice and personal rights. If there is a Union in house fine, I want the choice to join or not. Threatening my job over the choice is not RIGHT. Another thing the idiot Union leaders haven't figured out is this. You go on strike over some piddly thing, get shafted out of money on strike. Win, but never make back the lost money, and then the customers which the Union members help drive away from the business during the strike never come back and half the workers get laid off. What a STUPID business plan that is. No wonder Unions are in decline.

My first impression was that the land purchase would allow the NPS to move the current road south and avoid the Carbon River flood area. Reading the new post it looks like the intent is to move the entrance/end of the road West. This would make sense since the washout occurs typically the last mile or so. I would not mind hiking the extra miles, it's a lot easier to rebuild or reroute a trail then a road. I can't think of a dumber place to have an access road then that one. Kinda like building a house on the beach. How much money needs to be wasted to save a few miles? Anyways, if they did move it back even two or three miles the area is so flat (flood prone) that the extra miles to get to the terminus of the Carbon wouldn't even be noticed. Maybe this would free up funds to get the West Side road open?

Non-Right-To-Work states suck. In '96 when I went to work for the Lazy-B half way though the first day's orientation class they pulled the hourly workers out. They came back thirty minutes later with funny looks on their faces. They were in a Union meeting. They were all handed union cards and told to fill them out. One poor unlucky bastard raised his hand and said he didn't want to join thank you very much. Well the nice shop steward said fine, but your not working at this company. WTF? Closed shops are the most extreme form of coercion and is ABSOLUTLY un-American. When SPEEA voted for the closed shop status I was glad I had already quit. More then a few great engineers also quit rather be FORCED to join SPEEA. More then a few got fired for not joining. I had some SPEEA rep come up to me and demand I join, it was voluntary at the time. I told him to F off. He said, "We went on strike and fought for everything you have. You should be forced to join because you reap the benefits I won you through sacrifice." I firmly replied, "Sir, I was given a job offer commensurate to the skill sets I bring to this company. I had several to select from. If this company didn't give me the wage and benefits I felt I deserved I would not be working here, so F-off!" I didn't like the Lazy B's management and pigeon hole tactics so I left. I'm pretty sure that if 80% of the Boeing work force did the same, wages just might go up on their own. Unions are just plain evil, they sit in hell just to the right of the Anti-Christ. What union labor does to a prospering business: (no smiles though) What they do to workers: (no smiles though) Another good union example. My friend worked for Conrail. The Buffalo yards were always backed up. Well a new manager showed up and told the work force and union management, “Get this yard running on time and get everything unloaded on time you can go home early.” These guys figured out how to get eight hours work done in 5 hours and then left, getting paid for eight. The manager got the Buffalo yard running like a dream. Top management came by to see how he did it. They saw everyone leaving at noon and were shocked. The manager told him the deal he made with the union. Unimpressed the manager was fired on the spot. The new manager figured, hey they can do 30% more work then before to fill in the 3 hours they took off every day. Wrong, delays and more delays. Union guys were putting in tons of overtime and the yard was always backed up. Extortion. Another good example. Friend of mine works for Boeing as a Boiler operator. Well they went to an automated system. The week before the switch the Union files a complaint with the city of Seattle stating without proof that Boeing is not in compliance. The City demands Boeing prove its plan again and until they do Boeing they can't switch. But they’ve already laid off the six workers. Does the union recall them? NO. These boys worked 12 on 12 off for seven months, seven days a week. Rolling in the overtime. All to a man said they wanted the overtime, anyone of them could have turned it down and necessitated the recall of at least one worker. It took Boeing seven months to convince the City that it was in compliance after all. Nothing was found wrong. Once again a perfect example of the union and its workers reaming not only the company but the poor worker without tenure. Pure EVIL.

Looks like the semi-random road wash out problem may get solved. Building a better road to a Rainier treasure Making it easier to get to the Carbon River Glacier on Mount Rainier is my kind of economic development. Washington's congressional delegation is finally working across party lines to seek the largest expansion of the national park in 70 years and improve public access to the iconic mountain. Complementing the efforts of elected officials are skilled activists and community leaders focused on the same outcome. The 3.5-mile hike to the glacier from Ipsut Creek Campground via the Carbon River entrance to the national park is an absolute delight. A modest 1,300-foot elevation gain ends at the smudged face of a glacier as rugged as the mountain. On the way, the trail moves in and out of inland rainforest, opens up for stretches along the Carbon River and dangles hikers over streams and waterfalls with log crossings and a terrific oh-no-please-you-go-first suspension bridge. The hike, however, is the end of the story. All of the heavy political lifting is away from the trail and miles back down a road that frequently washes out. Access through the park's less-visited northwest entry has long been complicated by road-destroying floods and a growing impatience with expensive repairs. In a typical cycle of destruction, the National Park Service spent $700,000 to repair the road only to see it wash out again. The solution is to expand park boundaries with an 800-acre purchase of land in the Carbon River Valley from the Marsh and Thompson families and Plum Creek Timber Co. Their interest, support and goodwill are key to assembling the property and making this work. Credit for moving this along in Congress goes to Rep. Jennifer Dunn, R-Bellevue. Her party standing and influence with House Resources Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., has been essential. Despite her substantial efforts, the legislation had been stranded for lack of support in the Senate. That was mercifully resolved last week when Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., offered to introduce a companion bill. The park would pick up another 3 miles of the Carbon River within its boundaries, and have the room to relocate vulnerable roadways. This is still a work in progress. Congress has to authorize the expansion. Next, the delegation's appropriators — Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Bremerton, Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Spokane, and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. — have to plug purchase money into the 2005 Interior Department budget. Nothing is easy. Dunn is retiring this year. And Nethercutt and Murray are Senate campaign opponents. For a handful of gateway communities to the park, this is too important to be a partisan issue. Enumclaw, Wilkeson and Carbonado see the expansion as part of a longer-range plan to attract more tourist dollars into their communities. Reliable park access is a foundation. Improved visitor facilities are the next logical step. The city of Enumclaw and community partners have plans for a dazzling welcome center on the park's west side. Helping to channel local enthusiasm on park expansion is Heather Weiner, regional director of the National Parks Conservation Association. She speaks with authority about Mount Rainier annually drawing 1 million visitors — who spend $30 million in surrounding communities — and generating 775 jobs. Her real strength is knowing how things work. A refugee from 10 years of environmental lobbying in Washington, D.C., Weiner can fit the pieces of the puzzle together: finding a partner to sponsor a bridge loan — Cascade Land Conservancy — if time is critical for the sellers between legislative approval and appropriation of the money; securing a good mix of business and community leaders to sign a supportive note to Cantwell. Weiner helps choreograph a dance of legislation, which features cities, chambers of commerce, tribal concerns, congressional relations, the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service. The original proposal started out as a 1,000-acre expansion, but was pared to 800 acres when the Muckleshoot Tribe expressed concern a portion of the land extended into the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, and impinged upon traditional tribal hunting land. This has been a complicated but important effort: buying valued property in part to build a better road to get more people into a national treasure. Many good instincts are in play: civic-minded landowners, persistent politicians, skilled activism and sound investment of the public treasury. See you at the glacier.

DITTO You better get along with whoever, and you better have the same goals/ambitions. We saw a lot of 12 Step pysco-groups up there disolve. We caught a ride back to Anchorage with a guided group. This group failed and they seemed to be blaming a non-productive member of the team who was sleeping in the back. (guides I found out to not test your physical condition prior to leaving) Two man team is the way to go, but do some climbing with them before hand. Ask pencile pusher if he's still around.

Social life RuMR?!? You’re one to talk. Married with children and haven't trolled for jail bait in years. At least I don't need permission to leave the house to boulder or whatever. Also, no comptroller to nix that new set of cams I want to buy. Tim, you get kicked out-a Canada too?

Eye candy distracted him while walking from the car to the VW door last night. Or was it my pink shirt?

I'm part of a corperate team designing a five to ten year action plan for our engineering departments. Bascially I can see the writing on the wall. Even our engineering jobs are getting moved overseas. Right now we are looking at merging three engineering departments into one, and outsourcing much of the work. We will soon just be defining the interfaces and requirements. Local engineers will manage the coordination between the various players but all the drawings and parts will be designed and released by cheap overseas engineering centers. Sorry, but I have to admit that I'm working to quickly make myself un-employed. I should have gotten into finance or medician, engineering is getting outsource too. Kinda hard to outsource a local heath care worker.

You two tools. There are other routes up Mount Si. I like the old trail myself. Like Mount Si is never crouded in the summer?!?!?!?! That trail is so wide, you can pass anywhere you want. Anyway,m there are so friggin' many hikes just minutes away from Si. I'm so disappointed I can't hike Si in solitude............right. ----OR---- Just go hike it after dark. When did you hike last RuMR? I agree with jdog, you've got nothing to stand on.

Is this going to be the regular route up or the old trail???

We had the Trango Tent and AT skis. We spent Sunday night on Pan Point due to wind and snow. Three Russians camped next to us, said they were heading for the summit. Wonder if they made it. Sonw heading out was deep, we got a lot of snow that night. Plus the wind shifted 180 degrees on us so durring the night the wind came right at the vestibule. Wouldn't have been bad but my partner has to piss three times during the night and crap twice. I felt sorry for his frozen ass. Wished I coulda gotten to Muir while the weather was nice.

Think about what you want. If you're looking for a boot to ski and climb lighter and a less stiff boot ay be the consideration. If you are just going to be yo-yo skiing then you might go for a heavier stiffer boot. Go to a good store with a broad selection. Ask a qualified sales person for their advice given your planed useage. I got a boot at REI but hated it so I was able to return it. I ended up getting a great boot off some web site. I ski and climb in Denali's. A little heavy and stiff but worth the support when skiing.

I climbed it late in the year, August. Was a literal rock throwing fest. I would think there are a few spots that you would want to move fast and a few chutes that may/may not slide that you need to cross. Route finding without good weather down low sucks. I think the approach will get you in shape for the climb If you do it, post a report, would be very interested in the trials of a winter climb on that route.

I never knew till this happened, the top of all ball caps have a METAL rivet (beenie). This is what gave me a burn on the top of my head. So availability is not a problem. You just need the courage to stand on a ridge during an electrical strom; that might be a problem.

Got together with my sister to climb the ridge (forget which) on Mount Evans in Colorado, very nice hike/climb. You can drive up Mount Evans, so we had an easy way down, but not back to our car. The ridge was wonderful, not technical or nothin. Waited for my sister at the summit, egged her on. When she arrived her hair was standing up and a fast moving storm was rushing over us. We quickly left the summit and headed back. The ridge gave us little opertunity to get lower. All of a sudden I started to hear the buzzing sound one does not want to hear. Then I felt intense pain on the top of my head. Felt like I was getting zapped by a spark plug multiple times. Instantly I yelled to my sister, I heard her walking sticks skitter over the rocks as she heaved them away from her. I finally realized what was causing my pain, by this time you could smell burnt hair. The metal beenie on my ball cap was conducting static electricity like a spark plug to my scalp. I threw the hat and squated down. As I got down I heard the loudest boom as a bolt hit a rock next to us, I remeber the bright flash and my shadow as the bolt lit the area up. We stayed in this position for 30 minutes. Every five or so I would ask my sister to remove her hat, her hair was our static charge gauge. We ran like hell when it stopped sticking straight up. I figure I used up a couple of lives right there. The only thing going through my mind was reciting the procedures for CPR in case my sister got hit. When we got back to her Rover we both had the shakes. A few drinks later we started to mellow out.

If you're on the Ledges and hear people climbing the Gib chute, try not to knock too much crap on them. It has enough objective hazards as is.

McViegh could not have afforded the postage to mail enough fertilizer to the Federal Building he blew up. The smell also would have clued someone in. I have no doubt that what the Department of Homeland Security did was legal. My whole point is how pointless it was. I'm surprised that the government caught this letter. Maybe I should congratulate the administration. After all they wasted money to inspect a letter going to the average Joe citizen. They're not just focusing on letters to law enforcement agencies or governmental buildings. But then again, do we want to mortgage our kids future to inspect letters? Isn't there a better place to allocate these scarce resources? I laugh at the fact tons of illegal drugs, thousands of illegal immigrants and hundreds of criminals penetrate our borders in a continuous stream. If the street price for coke or heroin (stuff you can't easily grow local) were to quintuple I might feel safer. If Mexico and Canada starts complaining because we prevent 9 out of 10 illegal immigrants from crossing our border I might start feeling a little safer. Maybe the only reason they inspect letters like my dad's is to advertise to the average Joe that something is being done with the billions sent to the department of Homeland Security. Maybe this is all a publicity stunt.

After talking with friends it seems the thing they hit on was no return address. See the attachment in the second post. I feel I might be releasing a national security secret here, but if all that is required to poison my parents is a fake return address I feel real secure. Sad state of affairs. I wonder if they scan in the letters to check for hidden codes or just to forward amusing ones to co-workers. If I get a reply from the people elected to represent me I'll post'em. I also wonder if this will get my parents put on some special "watch list". What about local mail?

The front of the letter.

My folks immigrated to the US in the 60’s; we have family in England, Germany, and Austria. Last week my dad received a letter from his sister in England. To his surprise it was opened. See the attached pictures. The scans show the customs sticker used to reseal the envelope. They had opened it for inspection, inserting a note explaining it was done for his safety. I could understand this if it were addressed to the President but for personal correspondence from relatives in a friendly country (England) to be inspected like this is ridiculous. I wonder if letters from Tony Blair to George Bush get that same treatment? I'm writing my congressional representative and Senators. WTF? The government can spend money to inspect personal mail because it might contain an ounce of anthrax but keep illegals from crossing the borders who could be backpacking 50 pounds of anthrax? No! If we allow letter inspection, why not allow machine gun nests along the border with interlocking fields of fire to gun down all those potential anthrax smugglers? I'd feel a whole lot safer. (tongue in cheek)