Madam, - David Humphreys (January 9th) makes good points concerning Irish people's affection for the US Democratic Party and its implications for our own country's affairs.
It is worth saying, in the light of the forthcoming national agreement talks, at which the issue of the right of workers to be represented by a union is sure to be an important issue, that all of the candidates for the Democratic nomination support the Employee Free Choice Act, a measure that would oblige employers to acknowledge their employees' right to union representation where a majority express the desire to join.
Even on the other side, no Republican candidate proposes abolishing the National Labor Relations Act, a desperately flawed piece of legislation which nevertheless obliges employers to recognise unions if a majority of employees vote for union representation in a secret ballot.
Since we are soon bound to hear the usual whines from employer organisations that US multinationals in Ireland will be frightened away by any modest extension of workers' collective rights, it is worth remembering that the public representatives of the same multinationals seem to have few difficulties with legal rights for unions and their members back home. - Yours, etc,
PAUL HARDY, Letteragh Road, Galway.