News guild approves new R-G contract
The five-year contract brings
relief for some despite
reservations
Jennifer Bear
Campus/City Culture Reporter
The Eugene Newspaper Guild
voted Tuesday to accept a five-year
contract proposal extended by The
Register-Guard management by a
vote of 60 percent to 40 percent,
guild President Adele Berlinski
said. The new contract will be in
place by Friday.
The last contract expired at mid
night April 30,1999, and guild mem
bers have been working without a
contract for more than three years,
according to the guild’s Web site.
“I thought it would be an over
whelming ‘yes’ vote,” said Berlinski,
who leads a guild of approximately
150 members representing advertis
ing, circulation, technical, news
room and office workers. “It was a
lot closer than I thought.”
Register-Guard spokeswoman Cyn
thia Walden refused repeated requests
by the Emerald for an interview.
Berlinski said she had reserva
.. I'm glad this is over
after three and a half
years"
Adele Berlinski
guild president
tions with several aspects of the new
contract, including a new policy that
prohibits the union from using the
company’s e-mail system, one pro
hibiting workers from wearing union
insignia when dealing with the pub
lic and the installationof a drug-test
ing procedure.
With the new e-mail policy, mem
bers of the guild will have to use per
sonal e-mail, office bulletin boards or
newsletters to communicate with
each other.
“There are some things that real
ly bother me about (the contract),
but I’m glad this is over after three
and a half years,” Berlinski said.
One feature of the new contract
that helped it to pass was newspaper
management’s removal of a bargain
ing waiver, Berlinski said. Former
proposals contained a provision that
would have restricted the union’s
right to bargain mid-contract.
Berlinski added that the new con
tract contains provisions for a sign
ing bonus of $1,000 per union mem
ber and yearly raises for most
workers between 2 percent and 2.5
percent during the next five years.*
Berlinski blamed the three-year
negotiations on Attorney L. Michael
Zinser, whom she called out-of-state
and anti-union. She added that guild
members were so incensed by the
stymied bargaining process that the
union filed nine unfair labor practice
charges against the newspaper.
Prodding from the National Labor
Relations Board prompted newspa
per management to back off several
demands and present the guild with
an acceptable contract proposal,
Berlinski said.
Berlinski also credited the com
munity in helping the guild during
the past three years.
“The community has been phe
nomenal,” she said. “They have
been very supportive.”
Contact the reporter at
jenniferbear@dailyemerald.com.
Emerald
Newspaper Guild employees, seen here at a May rally outside The Register-Guard,
approved a five-year contract Tuesday after working without a contract for three years.
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A UO CAMPUS ALTERNATIVE
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Campaign offers help
for same-sex violence
Groups focus on spreading
awareness of domestic violence
in the gay community
Danielle Gillespie
Safety/Crime/Transportation Reporter
When most people think of domes
tic violence, they think of women as
victims and men as abusers. But that
is not always the case; abuse also hap
pens in same-sex relationships.
YWCA financial advisor Kirista
Trask said many people do not
think of domestic violence as a
same-sex issue, but it does occur in
the gay community.
Trask said the YWCA is working
on a poster campaign for Domestic
Violence Awareness Month, and
the group will be focusing on in
forming students about same-sex
domestic violence.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans
gender Educational and Support
Services Director Ghicora Martin
said gay men who are suffering from
domestic violence do not really have
a safe place to go in Eugene.
Trask agreed and said that
although gay men can go to Women
space, a local domestic violence serv
ice, most do not feel comfortable going.
“Gay men have little resources,
and there is very little written litera
ture about same-sex domestic vio
Same sex battering stats
• 50,000-100,000 lesbian
women are battered by
partners every year
• 500,000 gay men are
' battered by partners every
year
• 25-33 percent of same-sex
relationships inlvove domestic
violence
■ Seven states define domestic
violence in a way that excludes
same-sex victims
■ 21 states have laws that
require same-sex victims to
confess to a crime in order to
prove they are in a domestic
relationship
SOURCE: www.aardvarc.org
lence,” she said.
Martin said gay men do not gen
erally come forward when they are
being abused because they must
admit first that they are gay and
second that they are being bat
tered. She said this can be difficult
for gay men because society does
not typically accept them or be
lieve that a man can be abused by
a partner, whether it is physical or
mental abuse.
“There is not a lot of statistics about
gay men who are abused by their part
ners,” she said. “They do not have a
lot of resources available for them to
report domestic violence.”
Martin said gay men will most
likely not call the police, and if they
do, authorities do not always report
the situation as domestic violence.
“A fight between two men won’t
be seen as partnership violence, but
as two male roommates duking it
out,” she said.
There are gay men on this campus
who have been in violent relation
ships, and most say they left the re
lationship because of friends or be
cause they decided to move out or
leave town, Martin said.
She said she has heard of gay men
on campus being stalked by partners,
but the men have had difficulty ob
taining a restraining order because au
thorities did not believe them.
Womenspace has gay and lesbian
advocates as a support group for peo
ple dealing with same-sex violence.
Womenspace community out
reach director Margo Schaefer said
Turn to Violence, page 10
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