Rating: 
Summary: So far out of touch, it is frightening.
Review: This book is a poorly researched, droning diatribe against unions, concluding that somehow these organizations have too much power in our society. Yet, the facts are that the labor movement, which is ironically in serious decline, built the middle class (why else do UPS drivers and their free loading brethren at Fed Ex enjoy decent wages and benefits) and that any serious student of history will acknowledge that the only way we will close the huge and growing disparity between haves and have nots in this country is by the resurrection of the labor movement.
Finally, Chavez never clearly articulates the grave social ills that unions have caused. The Savings and Loan Crisis? Enron? Worldcom? Lower wages? Less people covered by health insurance? Higher taxes? Immoral behavior? Corrupt America? Give me a break. If anything, unions curb corporate power and if there is one given in today's world it is that corporations need to be curbed.
Linda Chavez, I think, is uncomfortable about her betrayal of unions. She obviously makes a great deal more money working for corporate and right wing think tanks than she once did working with unions; now, she needs to justify her decision to opt for greed and the powerful. That is her choice but let us not be dragged into her own battle of conscience.
Rating: 
Summary: Very informative book
Review: This book is a well-written account of the considerable influence unions have on the US political system. Unfortunatly for American workers - this influence is spent lining the pockets of union bosses. Linda Chavez once again comes through with an important book that will shake up the status quo.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Redundant
Review: This sounds like one woman with a very large grudge. Yes, labour owns the Democrats and big biz owns the Republicans. No surprise there. How many different, (and same) ways can you say the same thing?
Rating:
Summary: What do communism, labor unions & terrorism have in common?
Review: What do communism, labor unions and terrorism have in common?
A few other reviewers have said things so well, I don't know what I can add, but I will say that two things in this book really stood out for me: one, today's labor unions and their tactics are based on communist principles (the president of the AFL-CIO is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America), including the espousal of violence to achieve their ends; two, labor unions are largely responsible for destroying our education system. The proof of both is in this book.
Here is a quote from "The Principles of Communism," by Frederick Engels, in which he discusses measures to eliminate private property and urge the revolution toward communism: "...Organization of labor of proletarians on publicly owned land, in factories and workshops, with competition among the workers being abolished and with the factory owners, in so far as they still exist, being obliged to pay the same high wages as those paid by the state."
And here is a quote from Betrayal (page 98): "...While private-sector union membership is in rapid decline, state and local politicians beholden to labor can force even nonunion employers to hire only union workers. A good example of this is the Project Labor Agreement (PLA), a scheme to use government power to give jobs exclusively to unionized workers. PLAs, which have been used in all fifty states and the District of Columbia, require that government construction work go exclusively to companies that are already unionized or that agree to recognize unions as the exclusive bargaining agent for all employees on the job, to use the union hiring hall to obtain workers, to pay prevailing union wages and benefits..."
In other words, a form of price fixing-an illegal practice in any other instance. So much for private enterprise and the free market. An interesting fact to remember is that those states in which employees are forced to be members of unions have higher costs of living, higher taxes, and lower economic growth rates. As citizens, we all suffer the abuses of "Big Labor."
Also from "The Principles of Communism" regarding education: "...Education of all children, from the moment they can leave their mother's care, in national establishments at national cost...."
I think we all know how fundamentally flawed the United States public school system is and how little influence parents truly have. What I didn't know but learned in Betrayal is how powerful the NEA is in maintaining mediocrity in our schools, even while pursuing ever-more liberal causes not related to education while demanding ever-increasing amounts of money. We're often told that the problem with education is the fact that our schools are underfunded, and the NEA knows that our knee-jerk reaction as concerned parents is to want our children to have the best we can afford and that money can buy. So of course we throw money (in the form of tax dollars) at the problem and expect it to get better. However, some schools-even failing, dangerous schools like those in Camden, New Jersey or Washington, D.C.-spend, per student, more than what many private schools charge in tuition. So the truth remains that while public education funding has increased by billions, our money isn't buying what it should-a first-rate education that should be competitive with and comparable to that offered by most private schools.
Ms. Chavez isn't the only one to decry the abuses of the NEA. Visit the website of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation www.effwa.org and read their pamphlet (in which teachers speak out), called Barrier to Learning: How the National Education Association Prevents Students and Teachers From Achieving Academic and Professional Excellence.
And the incidents of terrorism? Consider this:
--(1986) A hotel fire in San Juan, Puerto Rico kills ninety-seven people and wounds 150 others. The cause? Arson. Arsonists were labor union members of Teamsters Union Local 901.
--(1999) A truck driver for Overnite Transportation is wounded by sniper fire while driving along Interstate 240 near Memphis. The sniper? A member of the Teamsters Union.
--(1990) During the strike at the New York Daily News, union members torched a newspaper delivery truck (the driver barely escaped), created homemade bombs, and threatened to harm or kill newsstand owners if they dared to stock the Daily News. Union members wearing ski masks and armed with baseball bats, guns, and other weapons ambushed a truck taking replacement workers to the Daily News.
Incidents like this continue because of loopholes in the laws that essentially allow law enforcement officials to look the other way when terrorist tactics are used in the pursuit of achieving union ends.
You'll find this and so much more in Betrayal. By the time I finished this book, I did feel betrayed. I was furious and ready to do something to end the cycle of corruption. In the last chapter of this book, Ms. Chavez suggests ways citizens can do just that.
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