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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 17, 1978)
Carter calls labor bill ‘of crucial importance’ Hatfield, Packwood won’t support act 12 Exposure COLOR PRINT FILM DEVELOPING & PRINTING By KEVIN HACKETT Of the Emerald With issues like the Panama Canal and the Mid dle East jet sales out of the way, the Senate debates today on one of the most controversial pieces of domestic legislation presented before it this session — SB 2467, the Labor Law Reform Act. The battle lines have already been drawn. Pres. Carter has called the bill “of crucial importance,” and the White House has been conducting a massive lobbying effort in behalf of the bill’s passage. Carter has attacked the Chamber of Commerce of the U nited States and other groups for "grossly distorting'' the bill’s potential effects. The business groups have charged that the bill will amount to “push-button” unionism by forcing workers to join unions. Richard Lesher, president of the Chamber of Commerce, charges the bill would give already too powerful union leaders even more power. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, plans to conduct a filibuster to inhibit the bill's passage. Essentially, the Labor Law Reform Act would put more teeth into the National Labor Relations Act. Labor forces contend the bill is needed to impose stiffer sanctions on violations of the National Labor Relations Act and to provide for swifter procedures for dealing with these violators. Andrew Hare, vice-resident of the National Right to Work Committee, says the bill would create injus tice rather than justice. “The law would permit employees to be fired for not joining a union,” Hare says. “It's just as wrong for a person to be fired for not joining a union as it is for trying to organize a union. "The bill is so bad it would be outrageous to inflict it upon the American people.” The House passed a tougher version of the bill last October by a surprising 257-163 margin, with Jim Weaver, fourth District Congressman, voting in favor. There is little chance the version that hits the Senate floor today will be passed unscathed. Included in the bill are these major provisions: • Expand the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from five to seven members to better handle complaints. • When the NLRB determines an employee is discriminatorily discharged during an organizing ef fort or prior to completion of the first collective bar gaining agreement, the board shall seek a prelimi nary injunction requiring the employee to be reins tated immediately and be paid one-and-a-half times the wages lost during the dismissal. • If an employer unlawfully refuses to bargain, the employees will be compensated for their lost bargaining rights through a formula providing for a percentage increase in wages equal to the average increases achieved by other labor unions of more than 5,000 members during that time. • Equal access for organizers. If an employer used company time to convince employees to op pose collective bargaining, the union organizers should receive an equal amount of time to convince workers to vote for union representation. • Lessen the time gap between the time when the petition for union representation is filed and when the workers vote on it. • Violations of the board’s orders could subject the employer to a three-year debarment from gov ernment contracts. R.G. ‘ Bob’’ Kennedy, president of the Oregon AFL-CIO, says the bill “isn’t perfect as far as labor is concerned,” but says the bill is needed to strengthen the enforcement of the labor laws already on the books. He points out that only two bills considered by the 1977 session of the Oregon state Legislature dealt with organized labor. He’s cautious in predict ing what the final form of the bill will be. “It’s hard to say what will happen. No doubt there will be many attempts to amend it. I just hope they don’t undermine its intent." Aides for Oregon Senators Mark Hatfield and Bob Packwood say the senators won’t support the bill in its present form. Jeff Boothe, a legislative aide to Hatfield, says his boss has reservations on several provisions of the bill, including debarment, equal access and the elections timetable. He says the senator will vote for cloiture, however, rather than support the filibuster effort. Packwood Aide Alan Holmer says Packwood also objects to the election timetable and the equal access provision. In addition, Packwood opposes the percentage wage increase for employees of em ployers who refuse to bargain. Holmer says Packwood also wouldn’t play a part in the filibuster. Actually, the biggest boost for “labor’’ could come from the debate itself. Boothe says he believes that upwards of 400 different amendments might be introduced. Coupled with the possiblity of a filibuster, the senators might wish they were out working with the rank-and-file by the time the voting ends. (Contined from Page 1A) CSPA Downes thinks that as the economic constraints are tight ened around the University, stu dents will be increasingly involved in processes like peer advising. He says there have been “sub stancial” reductions in classified staff and some reduction in fa culty. “At present, there are no funds to support ad junct instructors — that's a real loss," he notes. "We are also less able to support as many GTFs. We’ve had eight to ten GTFs. We ll be lucky to sup port three or four next year.” Downes says getting into the CSPA program will require more rigorous preparation than it has in the past. He says students will be expected to be well grounded in social science theory and be ready to apply it to solving social problems. Downes says the reorganiza tion within the school will enable it to handle the same number of students with a smaller faculty core by drawing upon other re sources in the University. The school presently has 400 students, 100 of whom are graduate students. Downes says the smaller budget means the school will have to maintain that level of enrollment. “We have an excellent track re cord in placing our students in jobs,” he says. “We have a very well-developed field program, and that’s one of the reasons why CSPA students get jobs.” Downes says students may notice several new faces on next year’s faculty, and adds that the faculty will be doing more re search than it has in the past, but it will be mainly in applied research. Join our ODE All 24 Emerald editorial staff positions are up for grabs for this summer and next year We need editors for news, graphics, entertain ment, sports and more. Applications are avail able at the Emerald offices. Room 300. EMU. and must be returned by 5 pm. May 19. Posi tions are paid — work study is available. Women,- minorities and the handicapped are encouraged to apply COLOR REPRINTS From your favorite color negative Reg. .25 >11 5” x7 COLOR ENLARGEMENTS . From your favorite color negative or slide (without frame) MOVIE OR SLIDE PROCESSING Super 8 Movie films 126 20 10 20 Slide films 135 20 Reg. 2.09
