Editor, Daily Nexus,

I had a long list of things I was going to say in rebuttal to Tia Thompson’s letter (“The Reader’s Voice: Workers Don’t Always Have All the Options You Think,” Friday, Oct. 18, 2002, Daily Nexus) about being “forced” into the union upon accepting a clerical position here at UCSB. About how onerous it is to be expected to pay a fair share of your dues in order to have recourse and having a group of hard-working clerical staff spending a great amount of their time and energy wrestling with the professionals that make up UCOP’s negotiating team. I was going to talk about all of that, but instead I’ll just sum it up briefly. You complain that the clerical union automatically covers you, even though you don’t want us. The other side of that coin is that maybe we don’t want you either. But here you are. So, when our sturdy bargaining team finally achieves its goal, you’ll benefit from that effort just the same as the rest of us who spend the extra 60 cents per month to become members and sacrificed time and energy to get out there and make our statement before God and everybody.

I wrote a long, sappy letter to the Nexus, thanking everyone who supported the clerical staff and the lecturers on strike, and I meant every word; but thank God, the Nexus didn’t print it – I can’t imagine where I was getting all that sloppy stuff. Nevertheless, on behalf of C.U.E. I do thank all of you sincerely. It was too cool to see the students out there with us, walking, discussing the situation, even leading chants! Even if all you did was pin a button to your backpack, you have our thanks. At the risk of getting sappy again, I tell you, this campus so rocks!