Court Ruling Opens Binding Arbitration to OPEU
Brief
Strikers Eligible
for Sick Pay'
*x\
Employers must pay sickness and
accident benefits to workers who
are disabled when their union stages
a strike, even though those em
ployes may be actively supporting
the strike, the U.S. Court of
Appeals lor the Third Circuit has
ruled.
Members of the United Auto
Workers struck at the E. L.
Wiegand Division of Emerson
Electric Company in Pittsburgh,
after Wiegand announced that it
would hah premium payments for
employes’ hospitalization, insur
ance, and major medical if the union
went through with a planned work
stoppage.
The court ruled that because
disability payments are “ accrued
benefits” for past work performed,
like vacation time and seniority
rights, they are due and payable
within the period of the strike for so
long as the employe is disabled.
Thus the employer demonstrated
anti-union intent by committing
unfair labor practices aimed
specifically at employes on
disability insurance, the court said.
A decision by the Oregon
Supreme Court apparently paves
the way for OPEU state employes
to go to binding arbitration if their
contract negotiations with the State
break down.
Possibility of such action came
when the high court decided not to
hear the State’s appeal of a Court
of Appeals ruling upholding a 1979
arbitrator’s award to employes at
the Oregon State Penitentary and
the Oregon Women’s Correction
Center. The Court of Appeals’
unanimous decision said security
guards and all other members of the
same bargaining unit at the prisons
were entitled to the arbitrator’s
award.
The State appealed the lower
court decision on grounds that
Oregon law stipulates that only
security personnel can go to binding
arbitration and that the arbitrator’s
award of uncapped salary increases,
University of Oregon’s Labor
Education and Research Center,
one of the most active and highly
regarded labor education programs
in the country, is facing severe
cutbacks or the possibility of losing
all funding due to State‘budget cuts.
According to director Emory Via,
LERC is receiving a double dose of
r
V O L U M I XXXHI. Mb. •
NOVEMBER 1M 1
A publication ol tbo Oregon Public Employ»« Union, SEIU
cuts—those aimed at the State
System of Higher Education and
those aimed at basic State services.
This combination of budget
cutting measures has been devastat
ing for the University of Oregon,
according to the school’s provost
Richard Hill. Hill said that the
school’s administration was com-
1
USPS: 411-480 ISSN: 0279-9367
POSTMASTER: If undelivered, please send form3579 to OPEU, P.O. Box 12159,
Salem, OR 97309.
HEADQUARTERS O FFIC E
1127-25th S.E.
P.O. Box 12159
Salem, OR 97309-0159
Telephone: 581-1505
Portland members call: 223-1569
Elsewhere: 800-452-2146
(8 a.m. • 5 p.m.)
LABOR PRESSj^
P EN D LETO N O FFIC E
424 S M 6th
P.O. Box 1659
Pendleton, OR 97801-0510
Telephone: 276-4983
(10 a.m. • 2 p.m.)
PO R TLA N D O FFIC E
2154 N.E. Broadway, Suite 204
Portland, OR 97232-1571
Telephone: 249-2981
(8 a.m. - 5 p.m., except
12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.)
SALEM OFFICE
1870 Hawthorn^, N.E.
M EDFO RD O FFIC E
1133 S. Riverside, Suite 7
Medford, OR 97501-0160
Medford members call: 779-4324
Elsewhere: 800-452-7965
(8 a.m. • noon)
Eldred Realty Bldg., Suite 103
Salem, OR 97303-1620
Telephone: 588-9230
(8 a.m. ■ 5 p.m.)
EUGENE O FFIC E
1748 W. 18th Avenue
Eugene, OR 97402-3625
Telephone: 342-1055
(8 a.m. - 5 p.m.)
<
Page 2
mitted to doing everything possible
to keep LERC in tact, but he
offered little guarantee that funding
would be continued.
Instead, he suggested that labor
unions put pressure on the Legisla
ture to maintain the labor education
program.
J
W om en Still Suffer Pay Bias
Despite tremendous changes in
the labor market during the past 20
years, there has been no change in
the relative earning positions of men
and women, according to a report
prepared for the U.S. government.
The Oregon Public Employe is published monthly (except August) by the Oregon
Public Employes Union, a public employe labor organization. Editorial and
advertising offices are located at 1127-25th Street S.E., Salem, Oregon 97301.
Second Class postage paid at Salem, Oregon.
Subscriptions: $5 per year.
based on the Consumer Price
Index, violates Oregon’s constitu
tion.
! n its decision, the Supreme
Court ruled that any union with
security personnel must take all
personnel it represents to binding
arbitration if they wish to take the
negotiating process beyond media
tion. Previously, negotiations for
non-security personnel could only
go to binding arbitration if both
negotiating parties agreed.
The high court also ruled that
uncapped CPIs are constitutional.
A literal interpretation of the
decision means that OPEU state
employes—-which became one bar
gaining unit on Nov. 1 and have
security personnel in their unit—will
be able to demand binding arbitra
tion if contract negotiations break
down, but will not be able to legally
strike.
Labor Center Facing Serious Funding Shortage
H
E OREGON
P U B L IC
EM PLOYE
In commenting on the decision,
Gov. Atiyeh told the Associated
Press that the language about
bargaining units could lead to other
state employes claiming that they
are entitled to binding arbitration “ if
we were to stretch it (the decision)
out to its ridiculousness.”
The case arose during 1979 when
non-security personnel at the peni
tentary and women’s prison struck
for three weeks. The guards, who
could not legally strike, went to
binding arbitration. The court battle
began when Atiyeh refused to
implement the arbitrator’s award
granting uncapped CPIs to security
and non-security personnel.
Following the Court of Appeals
decision, the State agreed to the
pay increase for guards, but did not
grant non-security personnel a pay
increase pending their appeal to the
Supreme Court.
Substantial discrimination in pay
between women and men in
comparable jobs persists in the
U.S., says the National Research
Council. The organization is an arm
of the National Academy of
Sciences, a private research group
chartered by Congress since 1863
to examine questions of public
importance.
After completing its three-year
study, the council found that
women who worked the whole year
at full-time jobs earned less than 60
percent of what men did. This -
condition has not changed since the
early 1960s, according to Ann R.
Miller, professor of sociology at the
University of Pennsylvania and head
of the study committee.
The report cited three points to
back up its finding that women are
“ systematically underpaid:”
• When jobs held mainly be
women are compared with those
held mainly by men, and character
istics such as education, skill and
experience are equal, differences in
average pay persist;
• Past discriminatory practices,
such as paying women and minori
ties less for doing the same job as
white men, have been incorporated
into wage structures and continue
to operate even in the face of
conscious attempts to avoid dis
crimination; and
• Within firms that use job
evaluation as an aid in determining
wages, womens’ jobs are paid less
on the average than mens’ jobs with
the same performance rating.
Although the 126-page report
underlined the problem, little advice
was provided for ending the
discriminatory practices. According
to Miller, “ the social and economic
consequences involved make it an
extremely complex question.”
Nominations Open for College Award
(
relative, another OPEU member or
Applications for OPEU college
scholarships are now available from
local presidents.
Last year, OPEU awarded sixteen
scholarships of $300 each.
Union members may nominate a
themselves. Nominating members
must belong to a local that is
currently contributing to the OPEU
scholarship program.