Image provided by: SEIU Local 503; Salem, OR
About The Oregon public employe. (Salem, Oregon) 1981-???? | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1981)
In Brief Auchter Orders Safety Booklets Destroyed Where to Call with Insurance Questions OPEU members with questions concerning insurance may call the BUBB board o r the insurance company directly, according to Cindy parrish, BUBB Insurance Adm inistrator. BUBB 9 CNA 800-452-1633 223-4012 (Portland) H M O , Inc. 800-452-7278 243-7585 (Portland) 370-8856 (Salem) Kaiser Foundation , Klamath Medical Service Bureau 224-3400 (Portland) 371-3400 (Salem) 884-7756 Oregon Dental Service 228-6554 (Portland) Physicians Assoc, of Clackamas County SelectCare 659-4212 485-1850 (Eugene) Members with questions concerning Great-West Life and Disability o r Oregon Prepaid Legal Insurance should call 800-452-2146. Charging that the cover photo was slanted against employers, Assistant Labor Secretary Thorne G. Auchter has ordered the recall and destruction of over 100,000 booklets on health hazards associa ted with cotton dust. The photo, shown above, is of Louis Harrell, a cotton worker for 44 years who died of "brown lung," a disease which results from breathing cotton dust. Auchter has also ordered O SHA to withhold distribution of agency films and slide shows about worker’s health and safety rights, c o tto n d u st an d acrylonitrile (a vinyl compound) all on the grounds that they are pro-labor. VOLUME XXIII, NO. « MAY 1981 E OREGON P U B L IC EM PLOYE A pybhcatton ot Oogon Public Employ— Unt< The Oregon Public Employe is published monthly (except August) by the Oregon Public Employes Union, a public em ploye labor organisation ■ Editorial and advertising offices are located at 11X7 XSth Street SE, Salem, Oregon 97501. Second class postage paid at Salem. Subscriptions: $5 pec year. USPS 411*480 POSTMASTER: i f undelivered, please send form 5579 to OPEU, P.O. Box 1X159, Salem, Oregon 97509- OREGON PUBLIC EMPLOYES UNION P.O. Box 1X159 Salem, Oregon 97509 Telephone: 581-1505 Portland members call: XX5-1509 Elsewhere: SOO-45X-X140 SALEM BRANCH OFFICE PORTLAND BRANCH OFFICE 1870 Hawthorne, NE X5OO SW Sixth Avenue Eldred Realty Bldg., Suite 105 Portland, Oregon 97X01 Salem, Oregon 97503 Telephone: XX4-1S70 Téléphoné: 5SS-9X50 EUGENE BRANCH OFFICE 1748 W. 18th Avenue Eugene, Oregon 974OX Telephone: 34X-XO55 MEDFORD BRANCH OFFICE PENDLETON BRANCH OFFICE 4X4 SW Oth 1135 S. Riverside, Suite 7 P.O. Box 1059 Medford, Oregon 97501 Pendleton, Oregon 97801 Medford members call: Telephone: >78*4985 779-45X4 Elsewhere: M9-45X-79S5 Page 2 928-1682 (Albany) 364-4868 (Salem) Capitol Health Care “Union Busting” Activity Felt in Public Sector Increased incidence of “ union busting" activity is not limited to the private sector. The Public Employes Department of the AFL-C IO reports the following instances of public revenues being used in anti-union activity: In Washington State, the chief of the state patrol has issued guidelines directing supervisory personnel to lead opposition in union election campaigns. School boards in Jacksonville and Pasco County, Florida, have spent an estimated $1-million during the past four years to defeat unions. Both school boards have been found guilty of violating the state public employe bargaining law, but no penalties have been imposed. In Maryland, a county executive has been found guilty of violating labor laws by reneging on a contract, V u f » b e in g allowed to continue to fight the case with tax dollars. 800-452-7813 373-1174 (Salem) I'"’ ...................... .............................. . ............................................................................................................................... - J - Childbearing on the Decline? The steady decline in the rate of first births among American women during the past two decades, has been popularly explained away as women just delaying childbearing until later in life. But a professor at Carriegie- Mellion University has predicted that there will be a dramatic increase in the proportion of American women who will never bear children. David Bloom, of the university’s sc h o o l of u rb a n a n d public affairs, projects that 30 percent of the white women and 20 percent of the m inority women who were about 24 years old in 1978 will never have children. Through most of this century this figure has been about 10 percent in the United States, according to Bloom. based on the number o f first births between 1950 and 1978. That number dropped steadily from 966 per 1,000 women aged 24 in 1950 to 712 per 1,000 women in 1978. Bloom says his projections are Proposed Rules Called Setback for Civil Rights State Bargaining Statutes Upheld Over Local Laws Adoption o f guidelines in President Reagan’s transition team report on the Equal Employment O pportunity Commission (EEOC) “ would prob ably set the civil rights movement back 25 o r 30 years,” said Daniel Leach, vice chairman o f EEOC. The report recommends recon sidering the entire “ affirmative action” approach to fighting discrimination, which has forced employers to remedy past discrimination by agreeing to goals o r quotas for hiring o r prom oting women o r minorities. A t the center of the recommended changes is that, in the future, those pressing charges against employers would have to prove intent to discriminate. The report portrays, affirmative action as a form of racism, o r reverse discrimination, because it looks at jo b applicants or workers as members of groups rather than as individuals. Leach says the report is filled with inaccuracies and displays a high level of ignorance of case law developed over the years in the area of discrimination. The state Employment Relations Board (ERB) can review local collective bargaining ordinances for compliance with state statutes in deciding unfair labor practice complaints, the Oregon C ourt of Appeals ruled on March 30. The decision upheld ERB’s ruling that the city of La Grande committed an unfair labor practice by refusing to bargain with the International Association of Fire fighters. The C ity sought to negotiate under its ordinances rather than under different provisions in the State’s public employe bargaining law. The C ity argued that ERB has no power to review local ordinances fo r compliance w ith the state law, but the court disagreed. The Appeals Court said ERB can base its decisions on a review of local ordinances, because courts have ruled that local governments can’t operate under bargaining provisions that conflict with state law.
