18
some sort of. rabble-rousing tactics.
Apparently they overlook the pertin
ent fact that State employees are a
rather intelligent class of people, who
can read well, and that honest; ap
proaches to them, with articles based
on truth will get better results; al
though I would guess that the result^
of such an approach would be of real
assistance to our own OSEA, for our
record is clean!
It must be admitted in all honesty
and fairness that some parts of their
articles are well-founded. For instance,
they admit that their S C & M E dues
are much higher than those of the
Oregon State Employees Association
(about 500% higher), but point out
that there are over 200,000 members
affiliated with them— the strength in
numbers, etc. One naturgM wondgrs
why, with H H | $400,000 monthly in
come, they should feel obliged to
abuse our little self-governing, dem
ocratic Association. One might well
ask, for whom is, this tremendous sum
of money raised, foi- whose strength,
at whose expense and for whose bene--
HH
Who HAS Helped the
State Employees?
The Oregon State Employees Asso
ciation was^yreated in 194^xby a small
group of State employees who had
previously been affiliated with the
A F of L, and who took themselves,
out of it because they were not treated
'with the respect that had been prom
ised them, neither did they receive
any of the help that was promised.
This small number of disillusioned
employees formed the present OSEA,
which has always undertaken to do
for the State employees, thru employee,
actions, those beneficial things which
;other groupsj promise, but seldom de
liver. It is not ¿necessary to list here
the improved conditions under which
all State employees now work, as com
pared with 1943 and earlier. Any em
ployee who has been ip the service
for two or more years knows what has
been done for all of us. There is no
one who can deny that your OSEA hgts
been in the forefront of what has
been Accomplished, and is largelyiXre-;
sponsible for it. Ask any administra
tor! We have always conducted our
selves in a creditable manner, we have
not resorted to threats, intimidations,
false accusations, name-calling/’ ' or
other questionable methods of getting
results. We, the « OSEA, enjoy a repu
tation for honest and fair dealing, pre
senting our cases . on their m eriSandg^
dealing with intelligent people on
intelligent basis. Our methods succeed!
The OSEA exerts no dictation on any
of its members, and exerts no coercion
on any employee to join its ranks. You
do. not have to be a member, of the
OSEA to hold your job! Thé-'OSE A
could not and as a matter , of principle
would not, if it could, threaten any
one wifÊ a walk-ôut, sit-down, slow
down or other such practice to obtain
any of its-' objectives! What intelligent
employee in State service would; like
to change jobs with the coal miners,
for instance?
We Are N ot Mad A t Anybody
There are people who love to feel
that somebody is mad at them! Of such
are our martyrs, and self-pitying peo
ple with large inferiority complexes!
Probably it makes: them feel BIG
think that someone is mad at th em ^ P
Well, disappointing though it may be,
The Oregon State EmpJpjB M Associa-
tion “ain’t mad at nobody’^as the say
ing goes. Why should we be? Nobody
is hurting us, we -liatfe/; received fair
attention to our presentation of em
ployees’ problems, we are respected.
We have no c a f ^ f o r anger, although
there have been times when our pa-
;||ence has been sorely tried. The writer
has no quarrel , with, labor uniqnj?; the
S C & M E, the members affiliated
with them, or even with their Organ
ization Committee who prepared the
two articles we have discussocl here.
Some of us are of a forgiving nature,
and I do not believe that that Organ-.
ization Committee was- very well in
formed of the fac||p| and therefore had
to fill in space with- the help of some-
oneOimagination; possibly patterning^Wy
the language on other such periodicals
readily at hand.
I owe- you readers^an^apology Tor
having taken so much of your time,
if you HAVE readfhis far. When the
subject is fully analyzed, there wasn’t
really much to get excited about, was
there?.. I