Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 23, 1978)
Grateful for the Dead Fans brand lints and freezing ranis Sunday Jor a chance inside a steaming McArthur Court. There is nothing like a Grateful Dead concert. This entrepreneur joined the crowd early Sunday to sell his 40 handmade bumper stickers. ‘‘Dead heads’’ began hovering outside the arena early in the morning await ing the band's first appearance in Eugene in nearly six years. Some tried to make their vigil as mentally and physically comfortable as possible, while others com bined business with pleasure. See story on Page 4. Photo by Becky Young Vol. 79, No. 84 Eugene, Oregon 97403 Monday, January 23, 1978 Workers claim J.P. Stevens labor practices unfair, illegal The Christman season wasn't very festive for Willie Brice of Teachey, (NIC) After 24 years of work for J.P. Stevens and Co.. Brice was left with a monthly pension of $14.56, which comes to roughly $3.64 a week. For 37 years of work Thomas Malone of Roanoke Rapids, (N.C.), By KEVIN HARDEN Of the Emerald earned a total of $1,360 in an 'emp loyees' profit sharing plan" recently instituted by the J.P. Stevens com pany. Brice and Malone are just two ex amples, says Harry Wittschen of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU), of the reason for the boycott of products manufactured by J.P.Stevens and Co. ‘Those examples are very com mon,” Wittschen says. “The amounts differ, but they're all so small that it's pathetic.” The boycott, which has continued for the past few years, was initiated by the ACTWU to bring to light some of the illegal labor practices of J.P.Stevens and Co., Roger Yoceky of the Portland ACTSU office says. The boycott was originated in the South, where nearly 44,000 J.P.Stevens' employees work in more than 50 textile plants, and has since spread nationwide. According to Yoceky, the inade quate pensions is just one of the reasons behind the boycott. "This is a nation-wide struggle of workers in the South for both economic and social justice,” he explains. "The low pen sions is one of the main concerns of the union, but we re more concerned with the labor law violations by J.P. Stevens and Co. The second largest textile man ufacturer in the nation, J.P. Stevens and Co. has been found guilty of more labor law violations than any other company in American history, Yoceky says. Not only is the company a low wage employer, but it has also been found guilty of labor law violations such as discrimination in hiring prac tices, firing employees for participat ing in union activities, wire-tapping, threatening plant closures and other economic reprisals and illegal benefit offerings, Yoceky says. These labor law violations, he says, will cost the J.P. Stevens com pany $100,000 each, plus $5,000 a day if they continue, according to a ruling handed down last August by the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Ap peals in New York. The fines, while the stiffest ever against the company, may not be as effective as the nationwide boycott, Yoceky says. “It’s cheaper for them to pay the legal fees and the fines than to let the workers organize with the union But the whole goal of the boycott is to awaken the company to the fact that they can't do these things and get away with them.” The boycott of all J.P. Stevens products, which range from bed sheets and pillowcases, towels, car pets and table cloths to draperies, has been fairly successful as a public relations tool for the workers' plight, but it has yet to make a difference in the company's 14-year history of blocking union organizing efforts by its employees, Yoceky says. ‘‘The company is just not bargain ing in good faith,” he says. "We're (the ACTWU) negotiating in good faith. I just don’t know why they aren't. I can’t say what their motive is.” Boycotting J.P. Stevens and Co. products hasn't been easy, however. While the nationwide effort has spread to Eugene, pinpointing pro ducts made by the company and the stores that sell them hasn't been a simple task, Yoceky says. Nearly 48 percent of J.P Stevens products are in the ‘ unfinished state, he says, and are sold to man ufacturers who finish them and add their own labels. Consumers buying linen products, carpets, hosiery or draperies often den t know if they are getting J.P. Stevens or another name brand, Yoceky says. (Continued on Page 6) Independent students are ‘letting go’ “Some people are just afraid of letting go,'' he sighs. But “letting go" is just what David Brown and a handful of others did. By relinquishing the so-called anonymity and security of standard patterns, students joined the Independent Study Program (ISP) at the University and designed their own undergraduate degrees. ISP students are exempt from all academic requirements of courses, credits and grades. They design their own programs and define what and how they want to learn. Yet the original proposal made in 1969 by Prof. Francis Dart of the Honors College contains one guideline:that the spirit of a broadly based liberal education be maintained A committee of three faculty members works closely with the ISP scholar as both teachers and advisers. Once a term the chairer gives a written evaluation of the student's prog ress toward his or her goals. Upon completing 12 terms of study either before or after admittance to the program, the student receives a Bachelor of Arts Degree degree—Honors. The student must present a thesis or creative project and undergo an oral examina tion. Since its introduction, the program has never reached its enrollment limit of 20 students. Currently 12 scholars are in the program, and five others are applying. Admittance to the program is based solely on evidence of a student's ability to work independently toward a creative or scholarly goal. Few enter the program before their junior year, but freshman and sophomore students are encour aged to enter. Larry Owens, program supervisor and Honors College director, says in accepting a student for the program he asks, what part of the program has an element of liberating breadth? ‘The most exciting things I've seen students do since I ve been here have been in Independent Study," he says. One of the most memorable projects, Owens says, was Jon Sutton s who wrote poems, set them to music and acrylic paintings. His final project coordinated all three areas in a production called "Seasons," which played at Beall Concert Hall. To most, being Independent Scholars seemed to have fulfilled a need to assert themselves and make the bureaucracy deal with them as mdividuals. With little hesitation, Owens genralizes about the ISP student. Persons who do well "are fairly sure of where they want to go and what they want to do. He adds that potential employers and graduate schools are often very impressed with the program's graduates, since these students "demonstrated a personal quality of maturity of judgment and of sheer competence.
