Image provided by: SEIU Local 503; Salem, OR
About The Oregon public employe. (Salem, Oregon) 1981-???? | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1981)
In Brief NLRB Rules Against Threats An employer’s statement that the names of employes who sign union authorization cards are not confiden tial, constitutes an unlawful threat to potential union employes, according to the National Labor Relations Board. “It is difficult to imagine what other purposes (than reprisal) an employer might have in informing its employes s that it can discover the names of card signers,” the board said. The threat was part of a series of anti-union speeches giVen to em ployes of an Orlando, Fla., tech nology plant after the International Union of Electrical Workers began an organizing campaign. One speech included the statement that, “If the union gets enough cards, it will try to show them to the company to say that they have a majority of the employes signed up. If company management should look at them, we wiH well know who signed the cards and who did not.” The speech also stated that re placements would be hired if the 'workers went out on strike. The board said the remark constituted an imperntissible threat to the right of employes tó engage in protected organizing activity. Budget Cuts May Double the Price of School Lunches Despite Reagan administration claims that its proposed $1.6-biliion cut in the $3.9 billion child nutrition budget will not effect children of “truly needy” families, mounting evi dence shows that this will not be the case in actual practice. In addition, many experts concede the price of school lunches will double under the proposed rules. Because approximately six million middle-class students—those whose family of four earns more than $15,630 a year—will be forced out of the program under Reagan’s pro posals, many schools will be unable to finance the programs or will be unwilling to continue the programs. Marshall Matz, past counsel to two congressional committees on nutri tion, attributes this inability to prob lems schools would have administer- ing the program to a minority of students while trying to comply with other federal standards for then- lunch programs as a whole. Under current law, the general subsidy for each lunch served in the 1981-82 school year (fiscal 1982) will be 39.5 cents per student per meal in cash and commodities. Under the administration’s proposal, both cash and commodities assistance will be eliminated. As a result, Matz and others predict that the cost of school lunches will at least double. The child nutrition program began in 1969 under the Nixon administra tion and, according to Matz, “has been an unsung bipartisan success story that has dramatically reduced malnutrition and increased human productivity.” f Salem School District photo - — _____ ________ ------ .. . Clerical Recruiting Aide Developed “Get Behind the President” Cookbook Profits to Provide Gifts A recruiting aide aimed at clerical work units has been put together by OPEU’s Clerical Committee. The 15 to 20 minute slide show depicts the tribulations of a clerical employe for a public agency and how she finds she needs the union to help her. A carousel slide projector is the only piece of equipment needed. OPEU will send the slides and a carousel. A light wall is adequate for showing the slides if a screen is not handy. For more information, or to borrow a projector in the Salem area, call Eleanor Meyers at 581-1505 or 1-800- 452-2146. Editor: 1 read your article in The Oregon Public Employe titled “Combating Reagan’s budget cuts.” This country has been living far beyond its ^jrieans for a long time, and its about time we got a President with some balls. Someone has to run this country and get us back on our feet so we’re not working until May of each year for the government. All these give-away programs have to stop. Instead of writing those kinds of articles, you aught to find Mr. A Christmas charity fund-raising drive by AFS employes, that ran into problems meeting costs for the 1980 Yule season, is well on its way of meeting its goal to provide food baskets during the 1981 holiday season. Employes at the Astoria AFS office compiled a 135-page cookbook in the fall of 1980. But due to a number of delays, the book wasn’t returned from the printer until November. Not until February were enough books sold to cover printing costs. The book, which contains ap proximately 350 recipes, is a project of AFS employes’ Volunteer Services. Copies can be obtained by mailing $5 to P.O. Box 88, Astoria, Oregon 97103. VOLUME XXIV, No. 3 APRIL 1981 H E OREQOM Donahue (AFL-CIO Secretary- Treasurer) a job. Instead of bucking the President, we should try to understand what he is saying—that we have to start somewhere. We aught to get behind him and get it started. Edward Franzese Ontario Police A pubUcnlloo ol Ih» O fflo n Public Employ»« Union The Oregon Public Employe Is published monthly (except August) by the Oregon Public Employes Union, a public em ploye labor organization. Editorial and advertising offices are located at 11X7 15th Street SE, Salem, Oregon 97301- Second class postage paid at Salem. Subscriptions: $5 per year. USPS 411-48® POSTMASTER: If undelivered, please send form 3579 to OPEU, P.O. Box 11159, Salem, Oregon 97309- OREGON PUBLIC EMPLOYES UNION P.O. Box 1X159 Salem, Oregon 97309 Telephone: 501*1505 Portland members call: 1X3-1569 Elsewhere: SOO-45X-X140 SALEM BRANCH OFFICE PORTLAND BRANCH OFFICE 1870 Hawthorne, NE X3OO SW Sixth Avenue Eldred Realty Bldg., Suite 103 Portland, Oregon 97X01 Salem, Oregon 97303 Telephone: XX4;1870 Telephone: 588-9130 EUGENE BRANCH OFFICE 1748 W. 18th Avenue Eugene, Oregon 9740X Telephone: 348*1055 MEDFORD BRANCH OFFICE PENDLETON BRANCH OFFICE 4X4 SW 6th 1133 S. Riverside, Suite 7 P.O. Box 1059 Medford, Oregon 97501 Pendleton, Oregon 97801 Medford members call: Telephone: 176-4983 779*43X4 E lsew h ere: 800-451*7965 Page 2 Editor’s note: Our article focusing on the President’s planned.budget cuts was written to make three points: We agree that inflation must be reduced and that federal programs must be made more effective and efficient; That pall mall cuts in many vital social programs is not the best way to achieve these goals; and That should these drastic reduc tions in social programs take place, union membership will become in creasingly desirable. “Patient Abuse” Study Praised Editor: I read with interest of your survey. of “patient abuse” at Eastern Oregon State Hospital. It would appear that your survey results pinpointed prob lems that generally are found in all state psychiatric facilities. It seems easy to blame the employes and the public usually accepts this without hearing the other side. Ray Hourihan Chief Safety Officer - Elmira Psychiatric Center Elmira, NY Some Positions Characterized as “Job Ghettos” Most of the nation’s 42-miUion working women are in low-status “job ghettos,” says Joyce Miller, a mem ber of the AFL-CIO executive board. “Eighty percent of working women are in female job ghettos, marked by low pay, discrimination, little chance for advancement and poor benefits,” she said at a February meeting of the Coalition of Labor Women. Miller said that secretaries, clerks and such service workers as hotel maids, most of whom are non-union, generally face the poorest conditions. She said that improvements in job conditions and pay can be won through unions. “Of the total female work force, only about 6.5-million are union members . . . (eventhough) union women earn about 30 percent more than their non-union counter parts. “The only answer for office work ers is a union. And I think that within five years you will see a great influx into unions.”
