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
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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.”