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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 1993)
EDITORIAL Workers shouldn’t be giving up rights To sue or not to sue. That’s not even a question any more for several laid-off Trojan nuclear plant workers. Portland General Electric, which owns the defunct Trojan, is requiring workers to sign away their rights to sue the company in exchange for receiving their sever ance pay. PGE says it's acting to "protect the utility" from greedy employees. The company says it has gone to great lengths 10 provide sup port and retraining for workers who will be laid off because of the plant's closure, and it doesn't want them com ing back for more. Workers are asked to sign a contract waiving their rights to sue under 10 state and federal laws, including the Civ il Rights Act of 1991. the Americans with History has demonstrated the importance of protecting workers* rights, and those protections were hard-fought for and long in coming Disabilities Act. tho fair Labor atanaaras aci ana mo Older Workers Benefit Protection Act, to name a few. In return for signing, workers will receive pay for four weeks, plus another four weeks for every year at PGE. The issue begs the question — if PGE has done noth ing wrong, what is it afraid off Certainly, tho utility has an interest in protecting itself from groundless lawsuits, especially in today's litigation-happy society. But is it necessary to require workers to give up their rights without cause? Probably not. Should workers dis cover. some years down the road, that they had been made ill by radiation exposure, or were the victims of unfair labor practices, they would have no recourse — regardless of the justification of their claim. Whether the release is legally binding is unclear. More than likely, il is intended to dupe workers into believing they have no right to suu. thereby lessoning tho number of potential lawsuits. The contract urges workers to seek the advice of a lawyer before signing, gives them 45 days to consider the offer and allows them to change their mind within sev en days of signing. It is difficult to suggest a worker forego receiving sev erance pay to protect some right that may or may not ever be invoked, particularly when that worker is now unemployed and may lie supporting a family. That lump sum of cash is going to look awfully appealing when compared with some abstract legal mumbo jumbo. But that abstract legal mumbo jumbo is there for a rea son. History has demonstrated the importance of pro tecting workers' rights, anti thoso protections wore hard fought for and long in coming. Are they worth severance pay to give up? That's a question each individual will have to answer himself or herself. Should PGE be asking its workers to make that choice? If it wore truly devoted to the rights and well being of its employees, the answer would be "no." Oregon Daily Emerald t or.i »*i am con i The Oregon Ow, EmeiakJ * published darfy Mona*, though Fnday durvig the school y*a< and Tuesday and Tuesday during the lumiw by the Oregon Oaity Emereio Pubk stung Co Inc , at the Urvversdy of Oregon Eugene. Oegon The Emereld operates indepenOen»y of the University with office* a( Suae XXI of the t ft! Mtomona) Un*on and e a member of the Aaaoc-afed Pres* The Emereid a private property The unlawful removal o> use of papers a prosecutable by taw Editor Pat Matacn New* Editor Jake Berg Freelance Editor Hope Nealson Editorial Editor Martin E*her Editorial Editor River* Jansaen Graphics Editor Jeff Paaiay Sport* Editor Dave Charbonneau Entertainment Editor fteyaHorn Supplement* £<*tor Cadey Anderson Might Editor: Jake Berg Associate Editor*: Tammy Batey SluOtm Gotrernmenf Acfn.tiea. Daraiyn tappe Communay Colleen Ponbg. f-agher Education Admnatrabon Newt Staff Scoff An»*. Cheater Allen Matt Bender JuMm Brown. Sarah Clark. Dylan Conner Meg Oedckpn Amy Davenport Amanda f errne. Teresa Muntsmger. lisa Kneelei l*d Maun Dem.an Mclean. Rebecca Me".tt, Steve M>m». T.ttm. Mueller. Tnsta Noel Mathew Schuller f »en Shaw Mchaea ShmdMr. Erick Studerudka Marion Sudor kfcchele Thonipaon Aguiar. Amy Van Tuyt. Todd Wdkams general Man agar Judy Her* Production Manager Mchee Rosk Advert I ting Tom leech. Stuvon Vat. Saws Manager* Shawn Server Oder Manager Jme Iroia. Teresa l*abe»>e Ptwp Johnson U. Chns Kanott. Jeremy Mason. Van V OByran II Oiiuei Oh Bachaei Tru«. Ang# lAntdevn Brian Wtndhevn Claeaifled. Peggy McEWvv Manager Barry Logan Sharon Sauve Oiatnbution: Rebecca Brook* Knelt Van Goroer Anthony TNynn Businas* kathy Carbone Supervisor AxJy Connolly Production logo White Prockarnon Cocmnakx Kostina Qiangei Dee McCoOC Stacy latched Jennifer Boland. Jerwter South. Anna Stephenson Newsroom .. >40-4511 Display Advertising--MO-J7I2 Business OftKs . >*0-5512 Cleaalfled Adverb slog.t**-W3 rtlOtftCL Gwomw PVyOCHTOf WK H£fi. 2%°£$%£Sf OH (U. k«<jW> Such 0*&*K»SK>«£Nr Wit 'ii.VUvAL If ’ t+jMt IMWVKOMyM'E, Mkvt gEOO^U&GCSItD V\^t' V* Htl MT1CI CAN8CST B€ StRvfP BY Swift wfucaIgn or twe AiBcvf *4 *1 fi? UMt ' *> HIT Co LETTERS Mistreatment The Oregon Citizens Alliance develops clever arguments to justify its agenda against homo sexual citizens. Voters may again l*e forced to put aside oth er pressing matters to evaluate arguments that keep our state's people divided and its resources drained. One CX:A rationalization is that homosexuals should never gain protected class status because the choice of sexual behavior is not legitimate grounds for minority classifica tion Fortunately, it's not that simple. People who consider them selves Christian engage in Chris tian behavior. People are some times discriminated against and forced to hide — or are even killed for Christian behavior. Such persecution is wrong Our country has laws to pro tect personal religious affiliation choices and prohibits persecu tion of anyone based on reli gious preferences People are not born Christian It appears Christians may not meet the tXIA definition of a "legitimate minority.” Homosexuals may or may not have homosexual relationships, but criinu statistics show they are persecuted and sometimes killed for being homosexual. Whether you think sexual orien tation is a choice or not is irrele vant It is fair und right to address, in law. such blatant persecution against a category of people. Women can hardly be consid ered a minority in terms of pop ulation numbers. Yet so far the OCA hasn't said that women should not be protected from unfair treatment because they may not be a "legitimate minor ity.” We should all be able to agree that persecution is wrong and must be prohibited — however a group of law-abiding citizens subjected to mistreatment is defined Ron Schlittter Journalism Pedestrian nuts Warning to fellow bike riders: You probably already know this, but if you don't, i heed you warning — pedestrians who saunter in and about 13th Avenue between Kincaid and University streets are nuts. They apparently enjoy the sound of skidding bikes bearing down on them and bikers narrowly miss ing or directly smacking them (resulting usually in obscenities, embarrassment, broken bones or bikes, etc.). Sometimes the foolish pedes trians think it is the sole respon sibility of the bikers fb avoid collisions. Granted, it is kind of fun to weave in and out of pedestrians who flinch after you've passed them, but nobody likes aixidents. I think the University should provide walking students with well-worked crosswalks and enforce their use. Please, they've got sidewalks, and now the fruitcakes want the streets. Keep the campus friendly and ovoid the bloodshed Reagan White Asian Studies No stickers The EMU needs your help. This past week, the building has been covered with stickers that stridently support the rights of gay, lesbian and bisexual indi viduals Individually and profession ally. I aspire to have the entire EMU accepted as a safe zone for celebrating diversity. Asa facil ity serving the entire University community — supporting many different organizations and employing hundreds of individ uals — it may be unrealistic to expect that my aspiration will be universally accepted. The process of changing indi vidual attitudes of intolerance must not stop. It will always lw a struggle of Finding the correct methods of addressing acts of hatred with opportunities to change both behavior and the attitudes that allow the behavior to occur. The covering of windows, doors, walls and floor of the EMU with adhesive stickers is not the best way to change atti tudes. As 1 walked through the EMU removing the stickers, I heard more comments focusing on the methodology of placing the stickers than on the stickers' message. Clearly the stickers did not change the attitudes My request is a simple one. To all individuals who feel that diversity and inclusiveness must be actively supported, who feel acts of intolerance must be challenged, please understand that the method of advancing those beliefs should not include defacing public property. It is rny hope that your energy be directed at creating an envi ronment of positive change and that you perceive the EMU as supporting those positive efforts. Dusty Miller EMU Director No expulsion I was extremely angered by the article regarding Steven I-al ibertv's alleged assault by the accused Todd Pendexter (ODE, Feb. 11). ! was especially piqued by Sarah Ross' demand that Pen dexter lie expelled from the Uni versity because of his alleged assault, saying that his actions will not he tolerated "by the University, nor by the larger community.” A student should not be expelled for an alleged assault to a non-University student. If the issue angers Ross and others, why not suggest an awareness raising workshop that Pendexter could attend and learn from? Because I know of no student who's been expelled for reasons other than poor academic status, does this mean that rape and other more violent and serious crimes (i.e. breaking the win dows at the Federal Building) are tolerated by the University and the Eugene community? However, it doesn't seem that it's the University's position or decision of whether to expel a student. Expulsion sends the message to Pendexter (and oth ers) that there is no hope for education to prevent such assaults from occurring again, Sections 19A and 19B of the student conduct code specifical ly say the harassment be "on University property or at Uni versity-sponsored or supervised activities." The "assault” occurred at 13th Avenue and Mill Street, considerably off campus. The University cannot sanction off-campus harass ment. Yes. I think what happened was wrong. But expulsion isn't the answer. Two wrongs never make a right. Jennifer Horton Journalism