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Unions can help workers get more

Your article is exactly what I hear when I go out on bay area construction jobs. I have a question I ask myself every day: Why don't more workers stand up for their rights under the law? It seems, in Florida, we constantly look to the employer for insight into labor issues. What about labor?

If people want more money, then form a union and negotiate a contract. It is that easy when the workers stick together. Union membership is on the rise in my world. Union wages tend to lead the market, and our employers are still profitable. The employers I deal with have little trouble finding qualified applicants, although they may not admit it.

There is a union for every type of work in this state waiting to help employees stand up for themselves. Also, the "right to work" law, which is a union busting tactic, has no effect on workers who want a union.

Why is it that workers in Florida will not demand better working conditions and wages? In my opinion, this is the reason employers don't have applicants they are looking for. Over the past 30 years, workers have lost their "fight." How can an employer who pays $12 an hour expect so much from applicants?

Jon Dehmel, St. Petersburg, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

Policyholders will pay for misdeeds

This lawsuit represents a lot of money. I'll string it out for you: $155,000,000.00. I'm assuming Medco obtains monies for operating and satisfying claims from premiums paid by their policyholders.

If that is the case, then my comment on the subject can be better understood by revealing a confrontation I had with my wife when I worked at one of our service bases many years ago. I was a member of a car pool. Our car pool was under base rules for driving while on the base. One member broke one of the rules and his car was restricted from the base for two months.

I explained to my wife that her use of the family car would have to be restricted for those two months. Being an understanding wife, her only comment was: "Why am I being punished?"

Policyholders are being punished. I assume they will be punished more.

Hartley Steeves, Tampa

Workers' accounts of WSI disputed

I would like to clarify several points in your article on recent issues surrounding projects my company, WSI Group, is working on.

The article gives the grossly incorrect impression that one of our employees, Mr. Josh Kalena, was evacuated by helicopter from our compound in Afghanistan. My company does not own or have access to any helicopters, nor have any helicopters landed at our compound. This is simply not the Hollywood-esque airlift that Mr. Kalena and your newspaper appear to wish it to be. We simply want to set the record straight.

The article also makes mention of the supposed dissatisfaction with WSI of several former employees. While we do not discuss the reasons for former employees' departure from our company, we are disappointed to see that the St. Petersburg Times would print their slanderous allegations. Some of those allegations come from a former employee, Mr. Tim Lynch, who opened his own company in Afghanistan in order to take over our contracts and compete with our business.

We are working diligently to improve WSI's financial situation in order to remain on track with our much-needed projects in developing countries. These projects are more important than ever in order to improve the security, stability and economic viability of some of the world's most war-torn areas.

WSI has an excellent track record of success with projects in some of the most troubled countries. This will continue, regardless of any irresponsible comments of a small number of former employees and their attempts to damage our good reputation to further their own special interests.

Henry Wilkins, Silver Spring, Md., CEO, WSI Group

Editor's response: Joshua Kalena said he was at WSI's job site in Kunduz, Afghanistan, in the spring when he was flown back to Kabul on a helicopter owned by WSI's prime contractor, Dyncorp. The flight was arranged after Kalena received death threats from WSI's unpaid Afghan contractors. Kalena left Afghanistan in late June after continued threats. He said he is waiting for more than $30,000 in back pay from WSI.

Future disasters dictate higher insurance rates

There is no argument that the homeowners insurance market in Florida is broken, but it is important to point out that private insurance companies and elected officials are not the ones who broke it. The market was shattered by eight hurricanes hitting our state in a 16-month period.

Like all Floridians, we are thankful this has been a mild year for hurricane activity. However, one mild hurricane season does not change our belief in the need to be prepared for major natural disasters that will occur in the future. Allstate Floridian sets its home insurance rates based on longer-term trends in claim payments and expenses rather than looking at those trends over brief moments in time.

With more than 400,000 households putting their trust in Allstate Floridian, we must manage our business so that we maintain the financial strength capable of delivering on that trust.

Despite the increase in hurricane activity in recent years, people continue to move to Florida every day. Scientists say we have entered a period of more intense and frequent storms for the Atlantic coast; yet people continue to build bigger, more expensive homes in coastal communities around this state. We cannot continue to tempt fate and heave a sigh of relief when a major hurricane turns north in the Atlantic.

We must be responsible and plan for future natural disasters. That is why Allstate Floridian will continue to champion the need for a national catastrophic fund, improvements to the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, better land use planning and stronger building codes.

At Allstate Floridian, our primary focus remains providing our customers with the security and peace of mind they deserve. We continue to support solutions that improve the property insurance market for all Floridians.

Phil Lawson, St. Petersburg, president, Allstate Floridian Insurance Co.

Homeowners could buy an insurer

From your writing, I gather you aren't too impressed with the charity of the insurance industry toward their consumers. I am also less than impressed with the makeup of the insurance advisory committee empaneled by our state leaders to address the financial meltdown by taxpaying homeowners of our fair state.

I have proposed a novel idea to Jim Davis and Bill Nelson for addressing the insurance crisis. The system, as I see it, is corrupt, with the industry being aided and abetted by the state government and the commercial bankers. I foresee Florida homeowners uniting, pooling their resources and premiums to buy and own an insurer - not of last resort - to provide affordable insurance based on risk/value analysis and, if need be, to sell insurance across the country. I foresee an entity based loosely on the model of the old Federal Land Banks, which are owned in common by the borrowers of the mortgage loans and were set up for the express use of the agricultural community.

As I've said before, home insurance is not for the benefit of the homeowner but to protect the mortgage holder.

George R. Sweat, Dover

Beholden politicians in no position to solve problem

Reading your article on the insurance crisis leads me to believe that the Property and Casualty Insurance Reform Committee is more of the same political nonsense to appease an outraged electorate in an election year. The politicians have sat on their hands since Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and done very little to ameliorate the insurance problem in this state. They are only concerned now because there is a significant hue and cry from the public, and that can translate into votes. In the end, what will they accomplish?

How can people with ties to the insurance industry make unbiased decisions when they have been co-opted by their affiliations?

I was particularly amused by the suggestion that people need to retrofit their homes to protect them against storms. I have spent $25,000 to have storm shutters installed on my home, and when I queried my insurance agent about a discount on my policy, he informed me that I would need an engineers report for the company that would cost me $900. He then advised me that I would probably save only $70 on my premium. When they insured my house, they sent their representative to the house to evaluate the replacement cost to protect their interests, but now I have to hire the engineer.

I was told larger deductibles would help, so I took a $40,000, all-perils deductible, and my insurance still costs me $6,000 - without the flood policy, which I canceled. Without the deductible, the cost is outrageous.

The real answer to the problem lay with the people of Florida. If the bureaucrats are incapable of finding solutions, then it is time to vote them out! If a candidate can offer no more than the usual rhetoric, don't elect him. We should try to put people in office who are critical thinkers, not hacks who follow the party line.

Voters must insist that any politician taking campaign funds from the insurance industry is not representing their interest and not deserving of their office. As a lifelong Republican, I am dismayed by Gov. Jeb Bush and his answers to the problem. My wife and I wrote to him relative to this crisis and received some of the same nonsense that this committee is pushing. That is not acceptable. I will not vote the party on this issue.

This is where the St. Petersburg Times can serve the people. Publish a list of every politician in Tallahassee who has any affiliation with an insurance lobbyist or who has accepted campaign funds from the insurance industry or the trial lawyers in this state, so people can make an informed choice. I added the lawyers because, in my opinion, they are synonymous with the sinkhole problem in Pasco County.

Francis P. Bunting, New Port Richey

Can't force insurers to stay, lose money

Needless to say, it is not an easy problem and doesn't have an easy solution. The facts are, however, that the losses over the last several years have been horrible and insurance companies have lost their shirts. Unlike much of what is written in the papers of Florida, insurers are not reaping obscene profits. In fact, most can't wait to leave because they perceive a situation where they can't get the rate increases to justify the risk. The regulatory climate is confrontational at best.

The wind risk in Florida has bordered on uninsurable in the past few years. If it were to continue, no one will be able to insure the damages as they have in the past two years.

As we all know, cycles do happen, and we may be in a zero-loss situation for a while. But the free market will usually help work these cycles out. Unfortunately, the lack of understanding of this has meant that 23 companies left Florida last year because of bad results.

If I were a property owner in Florida, I'd have to deal with the fact that it may be a more dangerous place to live than Tennessee or Iowa or South Dakota. As a result, wind insurance will cost more. Would I deal with that or not?

I would do all in my power not to chase insurers away by forcing them to "subsidize" Florida losses with their profits or net worth. The only way the situation gets a lot better is by the supply-and-demand cycle. If there are no losses in the next two years, you will see greed take over where fear exists.

Until then, I would take a hard look at my home insurance and make some serious changes. I would take much higher deductibles. I would delete nonessential coverage on the policy. I would reduce the value of the structure to the least necessary to fulfill my obligations to the bank, etc. (I did this with a neighbor's homeowners policy in Naples and it went from $13,000 to $7,500.) I would make my house a fortress against wind damage.

I would resist the temptation to expand Citizens Property Insurance. That is a dead end that ends with the state in a business where it will fail miserably.

The fact is that Florida is a tough risk. If these kinds of losses happened every year, insurance cannot solve the problem. Give the carriers the rates that they need and let them compete. I have watched this industry for 35 years. If there is money to be made, insurers will eventually cut each other's throats to get to it.

This loss situation will pass and rates will come down eventually. If the storms continue at this rate, no one will be able to afford to live there. I am betting that won't happen.

Loren Coppock, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, principal, TrueNorth Cos.

News on Odyssey is always welcome

Thanks for the great piece on the new wreck and Odyssey. There are a lot of shareholders of this company in the Tampa Bay area, and we all hunger for any news about this rather closed-mouth corporation. I have seen many links to your story on different forums and discussion boards, so I know that your audience on this topic is far wider than Pinellas and Hillsborough.

Please keep dogging them, and keep us apprised through the Times of any developments you can uncover.

Marty Richardson, Safety Harbor

[Last modified October 28, 2006, 20:28:51]