Image provided by: SEIU Local 503; Salem, OR
About The Oregon state employee. (Salem, Oregon.) 1944-195? | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1951)
9 no different than employees of pri vate enterprise, pinched by the same increasing cost of living, and with the Same need for security. Public em ployees should not be expected to con tent themselves with labor policies and treatment twenty years behind the standards and practices established by law for private industry. Present Laws Favor Private Employment It is a matter of record, open to any one who wants to take the time and effort for study that labor laws, both on the federal and state levels, are more favorable to employees in private agencies than those in the pub lic agencies. Some of the Oregon institutions are finding it difficult and in some cases impossible to recruit desirable person nel because of long hours of work, wage rates and working conditions that would not be tolerated by privatë in dustry. Furthermore, private industry could not function by pursuing the same business practices as those .of some public agencies. In many cases, labor and industry have worked together to accomplish labor and business reforms profitable to both. In all cases it has been through organization that labor has brought about labor reforms that have lifted the working man up to his rightful position, made him a better citizen arid a greater consumer of agricultural and manufactured products. A Strong Public Employee Organization Is Needed The public employee or the “ white collar” worker has been reluctant to organize, either bècause of pride or some imagined fear. These same people will be disposed to suffêr the safne low salaries and unfavorable working conditions so long as they fail to recog nize the need for organization. Organi sation in their field must be as com plete as that in private industry. There is no more room for the hanger-on or chiseler in an association of public em ployees than there is in any labor union. Labor unions have their own methods for getting members. Associations and independent organizations must, if they are to survive, devise some means to accomplish this same end. While it may not be practicable nor advisable to force public employees to belong to workers organization, neither is, it advisable nor practicable to beg or to bribe public workers to seek meriibership iri their own association by poiriting out to non-participants the fact that salaries have been increased or vacation allowances improved. A strong productive organization cannot be built upon such a jelly-like foundation. Membership must be built upon a basis of need, with an eye to the future. The. past is only a memory. The future is a vision—a challenge to workers of ambition and fortitude. State Travel Mileage Raised State employes driving privately- owned automobiles on state business will receive seven cents per mile for the first 1,000 miles per month, against the present overall allowance of six cents, State Finance Department Di rector Harry Dorman announced. . After the first 1,000 miles per month the payment will drop to six cents a mile. Dorman said the increased mileage rate was approved following several months investigation and study. This new rate became effective October 1. Building Committee The O SEA building committee, com prised of Don Parker, chairman, Ed Zahara, Wayne Straw, Floyd Query and Virgil O ’Neil have held two meet ings during the summer and are still working on the factors involved in in vestigating the possibility of having our own building for a State-wide head quarters, office space and general council meeting place. Considerable work has been done studying locations, costs, designs, legal aspects, et cetera; and the committee plans to have at least one more meet ing prior to general council time, and a full report to give the members then.
