To the Editor:

While I don’t know exactly what was behind a sudden change of heart from Aaron Mitchell ’05 as regards union workers at Yale, I do know that his first column was right and his second was wrong. I am very appreciative of the hard work that many, perhaps most, members of Yale’s unions do. But I am also entirely unappreciative of the small but significant minority that just can’t be bothered.

The saddest part of the whole thing is that workers who actually do their jobs are being duped by union bosses (read “thugs”) into parting with a significant portion of their wage so that the bottom 10 percent has someone to fight for it. While Mitchell may have given in to pressure tactics, I have no such intention: I assert unashamedly that Yale’s unions are bad for Yale and for its workers, and I believe that Yale generally treats its workers well. If any union “bosses” disagree with this, I invite them to speak with me directly; I will not respond to their bullying, and I will not retract my comments. As Joe DeFeo ’01 famously said, “Workers of the world, get back to work!”

Ian Richard Fisher ’03

February 19, 2003