Tradesman trying improve mailing

Over the past few months, we have heard from a number of union offices around the state about late mail delivery of The Building Tradesman.

Local union offices have let us know that the paper is arriving in members' mailboxes days after it should have arrived. We understand that this can create a major problem in sending out meeting notices and other information that needs to arrive at members' homes in a timely manner.

In the case of the Tradesman's editor, our April 27 edition arrived 15 days after it was placed in the mail - a wholly unacceptable performance.

Our paper is delivered into one post office on Wednesday and into another on the Thursday prior to the Friday publication date on the paper. We haven't missed a deadline with the mailer, nor has our mailer missed a deadline in delivery to the post office - in the eight years since our paper went to an every-other-week schedule.

Our mailer sorts the papers per postal service regulations, by region, zip code and even down to each individual postal carrier route, to make it as easy as possible for the paper to be delivered in a timely manner. We have been told that the paper should be treated as first-class mail. Unfortunately, in all-too-many cases, that's not happening.

The Tradesman staff and our mailers have had several telephone conversations and meetings to try and alleviate the problem. Postal service officials have pledged to look at delivery routes and place "publication watches" on individual papers, to see where the problems might be. To date, delivery continues to be erratic.

This is to let our readers and local unions know that we understand there's a problem, and we're trying to work out a solution. But we all know what a bureaucracy the U.S. Postal Service is, and solutions are hard to come by. We'll keep trying.

Endorsements made for June 11 ballot

The Political Action Committee of The Greater Detroit Building Trades Council has made the following endorsements for the Monday, June 11 primary election.

Schoolcraft College Board of Trustees - Kevin McNamara

Chippewa Valley Board of Education - Denise Aquino, Frank Bednard, George Sobah

Livonia Board of Education - Terry Morecki

Wayne-Westland Board of Education - Matthew McCusker

'Sweatshop' not in Nike's vocabulary

An offer to allow customers to personalize their shoes with an embroidered name backfired on shoe manufacturer Nike.

Jonah Peretti, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, attempted to get the word "sweatshop" stitched on a pair of shoes he ordered from Nike. But the giant footwear manufacturer refused to fill his order, "because your personal I.D. contains profanity or inappropriate slang," said a letter sent to him by Nike.

As reported in America @ Work magazine, Peretti countered, "I chose the I.D. because I wanted to remember the toil and labor of the children who made my shoes. Could you please ship them to me immediately."

Several exchanges later, Nike officials wrote Peretti they would not personalize his shoes with anything "inappropriate" - and didn't bother responding to his final request: "Could you please send me a color snapshot of the 10-year-old Vietnamese girl who makes my shoes?"

Peretti's exchange, in the words of a national news magazine, became "a global news event," with his and Nike's correspondence being forwarded and re-forwarded across the Internet. The story appeared in Time, the Wall Street Journal and The Village Voice.

Weekend highlights union history

The labor movement will salute Detroit's 300th birthday on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 18-19, with a "family fun weekend" at the Detroit Historical Museum, Woodward and Kirby, in Detroit's Cultural Center.

Union members and their families will be admitted free all weekend, and can take self-guided tours of the museum's interactive displays of life and labor in Detroit over the past three centuries.

Visitors will be able to watch an operating assembly line that melds a Cadillac chassis and body. Other exhibits - including the Streets of Old Detroit - take visitors through old shops and stores.

Throughout the weekend, labor films - including the new "Skywalkers of the Motor City" - about Detroit iron workers and a new video telling the story of Detroit's electrical workers, will be shown.

The phone number to an events hotline is (313) 628-4890.