Paga 4 Portland Observar April 23.1981
Police forum
Morgan Dickerson discusses allegations that
the Portland Police Association does not
adequately represent Black officers at community
forum on police-community relations,
(Photo: Richard J. Brown)
Wacker: Asset or Liability?
Partlll
The City of Portland provided ex
tensive economic assistance to
Wacker Siltronic in exchange for an
agreement to hire city trained
C E T A -eligible employees fo r its
Portlland plant.
At issue is whether the selection
and training program excluded per
sons who had lower educational
status but who could have
adequately performed the job.
The C ity agreed to provide
training for eleven jobs:
Silica Grower: seed rod with
crystal o f silica. Seed rod rotates to
crystal cylindrical.
Ingot Processing: Removes
silicon dioxide by dunking in acid
and rinsing. The ends o f the ingot
are cut o ff with a saw.
Ingot Grinder: The outer surface
o f the ingot is ground to give it a
uniform diameter.
Ingot Slicing: The ingot is
fastened to a carrier, then is sliced
into thin wafers.
Slice Cleaning: The adehesive
used in slicing is removed; surface
residue is removed.
Lapping and edge rounding:
Makes the slice its precise flatness,
rounds edges of slice.
Slice Etching: Cleans slice by sub
merging in hot alkaline solution.
One side is polished, the other et
ched.
Inspection: Measures electrical
and dimensional characteristics with
instrument.
Slice M ounting: Places slices in
mountings to take to polishing, held
w ith wax. Wax solution must be
prepared.
Polishing: Polish slice by moving
on rotating cloth that is wet with
caustic solution. Polisher measures
thickness o f slices and determines
how much to be removed.
Cleaning and Inspection: Cleans
slices individually, inspects, places
in trays.
According to some employees,
most o f these jobs are routine and
'equirc little knowledge. An exam
ple o f the most routine type job is
‘ ‘ Slice C leaning.” The operator
turns on the power and checks the
'emperature o f a tank containing
freon. He places trays in a rack,
puts the rack in the tank and sets a
tim er. When the buzzer rings he
removes the trays and puts them in a
dryer. When they are dry, he
removes the trays from the rack and
wraps them. He occasionally cleans
ind refills the tank.
A somewhat more complicated
>b is “ Slice Inspection.” The em-
loyee places a slice in his machine,
ictween two probes He first sets
he machine by measuring the
known thickness o f a slice in order
to adjust the probes. Then he can
measure unknown slices by placing
them in the machine and pushing a
button.
Growers have the most com
plicated jo b , which requires that
they adjust speed and temperature
to make a proper silicon ingot. Two
methods of growing arc used, with
I loat Z one” having the highest
rest.ge. Silicon is “ grow n” in a
K ib lc at high temperature. A
ed” crystal is placed at the end
o f a rod and as the rod is pulled
through the chamber, silicon is
drawn to it, fo rm in g the silicon
ingot. Size, shape and purity o f the
ingot are controlled by regulating
the speed and temperature.
Training for these jobs consisted
o f up to six months o f intensive
schooling by Portland Community
College.
The future workers were trained
with a sta ff o f 12 professional in
structors and 8 technical assistants.
This staff o f 20 was hired by PCC,
with approval o f Wacker, fo r the
duration o f the training period and
were offered permanent positions at
the Wacker plant. Before the
training began, the I2 instructors
were flown to Germany to learn the
crystal making process.
The curriculum was designed by
PCC. The City sent a job analyst to
the Wacker plant in Germany to ob
serve the work. The eleven jobs were
then broken down into their basic
components, i.e., turn the dial, read
the meter, record the reading, etc.
Using this analysis,
PCC
developed the curriculum, aided by
a consultant and two engineers from
the German plant who were located
in Portland.
The average trainee had eight
weeks of academic training that in
cluded mathematics, college level
chemistry, electronics and silicon
theory. So arduous was this training
that 30 percent more trainees were
placed in the program than were ex
pected to complete it.
Six to eight weeks o f “ hands on”
training on old Wacker equipment
installed in the PCC fa c ility
followed. Then, when the plant was
ready, trainees trained for another
30 to 60 days in the Wacker plant.
A ll o f the trainees contacted by
the Observer felt the training was
unnecessarily intensive and served
to exclude many who could have
handled the job. Most feel the jobs
are routine and could have been
learned in a few days through on the
job training - that, in fact, they are
training new employees who have
not had the PCC training.
The math, chem istry and elec
tronics is o f no use on most jobs,
they say, but math has some utility
for growers and slicers. They state
that what they learned has long
since been forgotten since it was
never used.
Trainees received $3.10 per hour
while in tra in in g , w ith a to ta l o f
$1.5 m illion spent for this purpose.
The C ity paid PCC $297,000 fo r
training. Support services included
medical exams, dental work, safety
shoes, transportation, etc. Joe Gon
zales. director o f Employment and
Training for the C ity, said he does
not know the cost for support ser
vices since this was paid for aoul of
a Department o f Labor grant that
was not earmarked for specific ex
penditures. “ we just spent until it
was gone,” he said.
Gonzales also said there was 10,
30, 60, and 90 days fo llo w -u p
with the trainees, but had no
records available. He was under the
impression that people over 40,
women and young Blacks were the
most reliable workers,
Allhotigh G onzales has no
knowledge o f the numbers who
enrolled and failed in the training
program, Don Uppendahl o f PCC
said 740 people entered PCC
training and 60 percent completed
the program.
The PCC tra in in g program ran
from February I, 1979 to July 1980
and resulted in the hiring o f 422
trainees and 20 instructors by
Wacker. The training program was
then terminated.
Ron H am ilton, o f the personnel
department o f Wacker, said Wacker
hired the 422 persons referred by the
C ity as having passed the final
examination with a score o f 70 per
cent or better He said the company
received no additional inform ation
on the trainees, no applications and
no medical information.
He said there had been no follow
up by the C ity, to his knowledge,
and that the C ity is not continuing
to train. The company requests em
ployees from the C ity and hires
when they are supplied. They also
hire “ o ff the street."
H a m ilton said the tra in in g
provided - math, chem istry, elec
tronics - were necessary. He said
since the C ity is not supplying
trained employees, the company is
hiring and (hen providing classes in
math and chem istry. He said the
trainees were very well trained by
PCC.
One employee who did not go
through CETA training disagreed.
“ I knocked on the door and asked
for a jo b ,” he said. He was trained
on the job and has had no academic
tra in in g - neither has he felt the
need.
Although the C ity/W acker con
tract required the C ity to train and
provide CETA - eligible persons for
replacements and fo r the first ex
pansion, the training program has
been dismantled.
H am ilton considers a reinstate
ment o f C ity training fo r the first
expansion to be impossible since the
equipment has been moved from
PCC to the Wacker plant.
In effect, the “ firs t source”
agreement has come to an end.
Those trainees contacted by the
Observer - both current and former
employees - were nearly unanimous
in their belief that most o f the
training was unnecessary, that most
of those selected are not “ hard core
unem ployed,” that the intensive
academic training caused many to
drop from the program; that far too
much money was spent on their
training. “ It was interesting. I en
joyed the classes, but it was un
necessary,” was the summation o f
one man. “ I like the jo b , but i t ’ s
routine. I’dd call it a manual labor
type jo b .”
(To be continued)
Interested in current books
about Civil Rights? Visit:
JOHN REED BOOKSTORE
In the Dekum Building
519 S .W 3rd Avenue
Sixth Floor
(Continued from page 1 col. 6)
not effective i f it does not address
the jo b . He explained that police
bureaus have never adequately
defined the police role, but the City-
County consolidation study has the
best d e fin itio n he has seen -
“ preservation o f human life” .
Regarding recent disclosure o f
police crim e, McCabe said you
“ never know what people are doing
when they are out o f sight.”
On hiring o f Black police officers,
Peters said a poll showed that 90 per
cent o f the officers do not oppose
meeting a "quota” o f 50 to 60 Black
o ffice rs. His union opposed the
tw o-list a ffirm a tive action hiring
system proposed by Commissioner
Jordan and adopted by the C iv il
Service Board. The union won a suit
against the system, which is being
appealed.
The complaint process and Inter
nal A ffa irs were discussed, w ith
many citizens com plaining about
lack o f response to com plaints.
Peters said officers do not trust In
ternal A ffa irs and cannot believe
that citizen complaints are not in
vestigated.
Bob Lamb noted that while
citizens talk about redress, police
talk about discipline. Frank W ilson
noted that the police want to be
judged by their own standards o f
conduct while they should be judged
by community standards.
Regarding the union's efforts on
behalf o f the two officers fired over
the “ possum incident” , Peters said
he believed the discipline was ex
cessive based on past practices o f
the Bureau.
A d d itio n a l problems discussed
included harassment, hiring policy,
m inority recruitment, opportunity
for citizen input, harassment o f ex
offenders and parolees, and police
standards.
A second forum w ill be held on
May 2nd, 9:30 a.m ., at Bourbon
Street (Northeast W eidler and
G rand) to discuss com plaint
procedures and the function o f the
Internal Affairs department that in
vestigates citizen complaints against
police officers.
O f th e
22 m illio n A m e ric a n s w ho
ab ro ad in 1 9 7 9 , over ten million visited
T h e n e x t m ost p o p u la r c o u n try was
w ith a b o u t fo u r m illio n U .S . v is ito rs
E
■'
X
O
D
U
S
aru/ rfts ¡/men/ fâeft/et
1639 N.E. Alberta
PORTLAND. OREGÙN 9721 1
284 7997
From the Front Door
By Tom Boothe
From the front door of the House of Exodus, let me share some vital infor
mation with you. For those who would like to help our young citizens to
become more responsible Please Read Carefully.
YOU SHOULD HELP NOW BECAUSE...
In our community, it is our Responsibility to see to it that our young citizens
become Responsible, Respectful and Constructively Productive citizens. If
we fail to teach and direct them who will?
HERE IS WHY YOU SHOULD HELP NOW
Most youth crimes are Alcohol or Drug related. Prior to a youth Alcohol or
Drug related theft, Burglary or Assault. It cost only about $11.00 per hour,
for Preventive Format Educational Counseling per youth at Exodus as com
pared to between $30.00 and $40.00 per hour for Treatment Format Correc
tional Counseling per youth at Exodus. This $30.00 to $40.00 per hour per
youth does not include the cost of pain, damage and loss inflicted upon the
victims. Nor, does it include the cost of the Criminal Record that these
children will carry with them for the rest of their lives, both costs exceed a
simple dollar value.
It only makes good social and economic sense to contribute to the ounce of
prevention; rather than wait to contribute to the pound of cure.
HERE IS HOW YOU CAN HELP NOW
Join with the Exodus Youth Mental Health Offensive. Eleven dollars ($11 00)
will buy one hour of time that will be spent toward getting a youth on the
right track toward handling responsibility and becoming a productive re
spectful citizen.
All contributions are tax deductable. Make checks payable to: House of
Exodus, 1639 N.E. Alberta, Portland, Oregon 97211. You can't spend your
time or money for a better purpose; Join with the Exodus Youth Mental
Health Offensive, building our community into a better and safer place to live
and raise our children.
Major supporters of the Exodus Youth Program are: The City of Portland
CETA; The Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) and The North/North-
east Mental Health Center.
Or call 227 2902
Brought to you as a public service by House ot Exodus
<
tra v e le d
C anada.
M e x ic o ,
in 1 9 7 9 .