Hard bargain.

• Author: Huber, Stephen K.
• Position: Letters

"Withering Rights" (September 2001), by Julie Wakefield, accurately observes that a patients' bill of rights be of little value because the right to sue is subject to waiver and replacement by arbitration--even if the arbitration provision is in small print and not negotiable. But Wakefield errs in stating that unions "mostly keep mandatory arbitration clauses out" of contracts. Rather, virtually every collective bargaining agreement in the United States over the last 50 years has provided for final and binding arbitration of worker grievances. Indeed, the inclusion of such grievance arbitration provisions was a key goal and a major triumph for...