Cowpunching
Cowpoke
Gets Boot
When a cowpuncher becomes a
cow-puncher it may be grounds for
dismissal.
In a report appearing in the Wall
Street Journal, an arbitrator ruled
that a dairy worker was properly
discharged for beating a cow. The
arbitrator said that since it was the
second charge of cow-punching
brought against the cowpoke, he
had little recourse.
Besides, the arbitrator added that
such attacks reduce milk produc
tion and make cows cower from
human contact,
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Comparable Worth
As the idea of comparable worth
has gained growing recognition in
the past two years, many of the
nation’s corporate giants have come
out opposing the concept.
Thé Equal Employment Advisory
Council (EEAC), a group funded by
the Business Roundtable, has become
more public in its opposition to com
parable worth over the past year. The
Roundtable is an organization made
up of officers of such corporate heavy
weights as Exxon, Général Motors,
Sears, General Electric and
Prudential Insurance.
EEAC’s recent activities have
focused on writing amicus briefs,
responding to government regula
tions and legislation and sponsoring
symposiums where the value of
comparable worth is questioned.
In a recent transaction between
Attacked
State Alleges
Wildcat Strike
the EEAC and the Business Round
table, the Roundtable put up over
$130,000 for publication of an EEAC
book attacking comparable worth.
The book claims that comparable
worth is ill-defined and dangerous. It
says that the concept has little to
do with discrimination and instead
argues for job mobility for women,
rather than for pay equity.
Business Week magazine states
that the book’s arguments are
based largely on fear of success by
those who support comparable
worth. The magazine continued to
state, “EEAC’s decision to move
into the limelight is understandable.
Comparable worth may be the civil
rights issue of the 1980’s, and it
could cost employers billions in
payroll dollars.”
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The State is alleging that the
failure of “some 26 teachers and
several other employes” to report to
work at MacLaren School on May
19 was a “wildcat strike."
Approximately 30 employes called
in sick prior to work on May 19.
John Demusiak, Labor Relations
Division administrator, has ordered
that sick leave be denied for May 19
to any MacLaren employe. In
addition, he levied a one-month,
one-step salary reduction as
disciplinary action for “misconduct
and malfeasance.”
MacLaren employes contacted by
Thé Oregon Public Employe said
that they were indeed sick and that
they had doctors excuses to prove
it. They added that as far as they
know, all employes who reported-in
sick were indeed sick.
'■■>»'
Males Bring Higher Pay to Secretarial Positions
“It is so ingrained in their minds
that a secretary has to be a female,”
he said. “When a woman officer
answers the phone, they assume
she’s a secretary.
“In contrast, men always are
telling me ‘their girl’ will get back to
me, meaning their secretary. I’m so
glad my boss doesn’t tell his clients
that ‘his boy’ will get back to them.”
Bill Streepy, a legal secretary,
says he doesn’t have to worry about
job security as a man because, as a
woman does in a mate-dominated
field, he finds there are plenty of job
openings.
However, he said he also finds
plenty of doors shut by bosses who
haven’t changed their stereotype of
the secretary. “One man fold me he
wanted a woman around the office,”
Streepy said;
Two male secretaries and the
office manager of a temporary
employment agency told United
Press International that more men
in secretarial jobs has meant higher
salaries, but some confusion due to
the stereotyped role of secretaries.
“Sad as it is to say, the salary for
secretaries is increasing as more
men get into the field,” said Kathy
Moeller, office manager for a
temporary employment agency.
“The economic situation has hit a
lot of people and more men are
realizing they can make a good
living working as a secretary.”
Tom O ’Brien who now makes
more as a secretary for a bank than
h e did a s a n English te a c h e r, said
that he has experienced “outright
hostility” from some employers who
thought a woman would do a better
job as a secretary.
“This action by the Labor
Relations Division is nothing more
than harrassment of state employes
who have a legitimate claim to sick
leave," said OPEU Executive
Director Thomas Gallagher. “We
will stand 100 percent behind our
members at MacLaren arid fight any
disciplinary action thé State may
levy against thèse employes."
State Employes
at Commerce
Seek Union
Employes at the State Commerce
Department have petitioned the
Employment Relations Board (ERB)
seeking union representation.
Over 40 percent of the eligible
employes at Commerce sighed
cards indicating they would support
a representation election with
OPEU on the ballot. Thirty percent
of the eligible employes of a unit
must sign petition cards in order for
an election to be held.
The exact make-up of the
proposed bargaining unit still has to
be worked out between OPEU and
the State. Once agreement is
reached an election date will be set.
OPEU is the only union to have
expressed a desire to represent
state employes at Commerce.
Larry Oglesby, OPEU business
agent responsible for Commerce,
said that work area meetings
concerning the representation
election will begin this month.
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State ULP
Dismissed
Just one week after the State
filed an unfair labor practice (ULP)
against OPEU, the Employment
Relations Board (ERB) dismissed it.
It found all allegations to be
unwarranted.
“We knew that there was no legal
or factual basis for the State’s
ULP,” said Alice Dale, Bargaining
’81 spokesperson. “All we could
conclude was that it was an attempt
to save face after their refusal to
meet with the mediator was
followed by a 180-degree turn the
next day when they returned to the
table with the mediator.”
In ERB’s written dismissal of the
ULP, the first three allegations were
found to have no basis in Oregon
law or in court rulings.
bi responding to the State’s final
charge—that OPEU was bargaining
in bad faith—ERB said, “Even if all
the facts alleged were found to be
true, this Board could not find
OPEU guilty of bad faith bargaining.
Even taken in combination, the nine
charges (of this section) do not
constitute conduct sufficient to
frustrate the collective bargaining
process or to evidence a refusal to
bargain in good faith.”
The ULP followed OPEU’s
request for a mediator to help
facilitate bargaining.
________________
Sheriffs Vote
torOPEU
Curry County Sheriffs have voted
overwhelmingly for OPEU to
represent them in Contract negotia
tions with county management.
The announcement was made
May 14 by the Employment
Relations Board following a vote in
which OPEU received 22 votes and
no representation received none.
Richard Wright, newly-named
president of, the group,'says the
sheriffs will begin to negotiate a new
contract with the county irru.
mediately,
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Voters Reject
Contracting Out
An initiative petition which curbs
the authority of the Gaston School
Board to contract out district
services without voter approval, was
passed by better than a 2-to-l
margin, by Gastón voters.
However, the Gaston School
District has gone to court in an
effort to block implementation of
the initiative., The school district
does not dispute the right of district
voters to file and pass initiative ,
petitions, but district officials are
asking the court to rule on the
limits, if any, of the subject matter
which may be included in petitions.
■
Parking Lot Electioneering Disallowed
A Teamsters Union representa
tion victory has been disallowed by
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Fifth Circuit, because of electioneer
ing by the union in the parking lot
next to the polling place.
On the day of the election, two
former company employes stationed
themselves in the parking lot near
the line of voters. The former
employes wore “Vote Teamsters”
signs on their hats and repeatedly
gestured to the “Yes” box on
enlarged reproductions of the
ballots that were pinned to their
Office Hours
for OPEU
Branch Offices
shirts.
When alerted to thé electioneer
ing, a polling official’ said she could
only control conduct within the
polling place.
However, the court said that
once the polls are open, employes
waiting in line to vote become part
of the polling place and are entitled
to safeguards against interference.
The decision was not altered by the
Teamsters’ contention that the two
former employes were not agents of
the-union.
Office hours for OPEU’s five
branch offices are as follows for
Monday through Friday:
I
Eugene—9 a.m . to 1 p.m.
Medford—9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Pendleton—9 a.m. to 1 p.m,.
Portland—8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (except
12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.)
Salem—8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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