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iPORTWND OBSERVER
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« E«r/>i<Nu*miCo.. / *
Volune XIII, Number 41
July 27, 1983
25C Per Copy
Two Sections
/W»
Black convention urges
unity and dedication
G R A S S R O O T N E W S , N . W. —
Tills weekend Portland, Ore. hosted
the Fourth Annual Convention o f
the National Black United Front.
Afro-Am ericans
from
Chicago,
Houston, New Y o rk , Washington
D .C ., St. Louis and Seattle grappled
with issues and formulated solutions
to solve some o f the problems facing
people o f African descent here in
America.
The delegation heard keynote ad
dresses from the national chairper
son o f N B U F , Rev. Herbert Daugh
try, Dean Derrick Bell from the U n i
versity o f Oregon Law School, and
cultural disseminators Sonia San
chez and D r. M aulana Karenga.
In a prepared text, D r. Bell up
dated the national delegation on the
situation o f Afro-Am ericans in the
State o f Oregon. "Please, do not al
low these individual appointments
in the State to obscure the Black un
employment rate o f twenty percent
as compared to less than ten percent
overall. You might see a few Blacks
on the streets o f Portland and virtu
ally none outside the city. But the
cellblocks o f the State prison con
tain the highest percentage o f Blacks
as compared to the state population
o f any state in the nation save our
sister state o f W ashington."
Bell says he believes the Supreme
Court's desegregation decision has
affected only a small percentage o f
the nation's A fro-A m erican popula
tion. " N o one here could have pre
dicted that its impact on Blacks
would have meant so much for a
few and so little for so m any----- I
suggest to you that there are few
Black families today who do not
have blood relatives dead too soon,
locked away in prison too long, or
seeking with suicidal fury an escape
through drugs or drink from a life
o f subordination and poverty which
in its own way is more devastatingly
destructive than the existence when
the law for Blacks was taught at the
end o f a w h ip ."
Bell also believes that the industri
alization o f the last twenty years has
helped to sap the strength o f the
Black fam ily. “ As large numbers of
Blacks migrated to the cities from
rural areas. Black males were unable
to Find work. As a result 48 percent
o f (he Black families with children
under 18 are headed by single parent
females. These households are not
less appropriate for the care and
raising o f children. But the 1979
median income for Black female
headed households was $6,610 as
compared with $20,000 for all fam
ilies.”
Bell concluded by saying, “ We
must speak out for justice in a cli
mate where the laws take bread
from the needy so the rich may eat
cake. We must seek justice as we
patiently point out the obvious: that
generations o f overt discrimination
have rendered half our people un
able to take opportunities, and with
out the type o f remediation we be
stow on the worst forms of Right
W in * governments « b o n d , and on
every billion-dollar corporation that
has bungled its way to the brink o f
bankruptcy at home.**
The National Black United Front
started as the dream o f a small
group in New York. The chairper
son o f the National BU F, Rev. H e r
bert Daughtry, said that in the be
ginning many doubted the resiliency
and strength o f the concept o f an o r
ganization formulated to voice the
concerns o f the conservative, mod
erate, reform, radical, nationalist
and revolutionary constituencies in
the Black community. “ In 1979,
there were many who thought we
would not last the year. But we have
survived and prospered.
“ When we study the political
scene it is significant (hat where po
litical gains have been made you will
find a Black United Front chapter
playing a key role.“
The growth o f NB UF has been re
markable and testifies to the w illing
ness o f Afro-Americans to now set
its own course to direct their future
and control the present. Daughtry
says, “ W e started with an organiza-
tion o f five local chapters to twenty
chapters and a presence in forty cit
ies. So, you can tell the detractors
that N B U F is here to stay."
W ith Unity the theme for this
year’s convention. Rev. Daughtry
concluded his remarks w ith, “ For
ward Together, Backwards N ever!"
(See related stories on pages 2 and 5)
Loophole may threaten
Federal minority contractors
by Charles Goodmacher
The U .S . Department o f Trans
portation published a Final regula
tion in the July 21 Federal Register
which creates a loophole by which
m inority business participation in
the department’s Financial assis
tance programs for highway and
mass transit may be avoided by local
agencies. The regulation is a Reagan
Administration interpretation o f
section 105(f) o f the Surface Trans
portation Assistance Act o f 1982 as
passed by Congress.
The new rule requires state high
way agencies and transit authorities
to have a plan to include disadvan
taged businesses in their D O T -
assisted programs in a manner
assisted programs in a manner sim
ilar to the current D O T -M in o rity
Business Enterprise
regulations.
Each agency or authority must sub
mit an annual overall goal for the
participation it hopes to achieve that
year. The rule does not require
proof o f actually having signed con
tracts with minority businesses.
I f (he Department does not ap
prove the goal the recipient has re
quested, the Department, after con
sulting with the recipient, may es
tablish an adjusted overall goal that
represents " a reasonable expecta
tio n " for disadvantaged business
participation in the recipient's pro
grams. Thus, even in cases where
the Department is not presented
with proof that a lower goal is nec-
essary a ten percent goal may still
not be required.
A recipient would be in noncom
pliance with the new rule only if it
did not have an approved program
or an overall goal or, having been
unable to justify its failure to meet
its goal, failed to take “ appropri
a te " remedial steps to correct the
situation.
The regulation provides that in
ability to meet an overall goal will
not, in itself, result in loss o f federal
funds. Neither will the State or City
be disqualified from receiving fu
ture Federal Financial assistance of
any type. The Reagan Adm inistra
tion apparently believes that merely
being required to do some paper
work is punishment enough.
Immigration laws used unfairly
by Robert Lothian
Refugees from political violence
in El Salvador and Guatemala are
migrating north in large numbers,
yet U .S . immigration policies recog
nize them as fugitives from poverty
only, and so they are detained and
deported when caught as illegal ali
ens.
An estimated 500,000 Salvador
ans aer in the U .S. now, nearly 10%
o f that country's population. A c
cording to the Congressional testi
mony o f Sen. Edward Kennedy, as
many as 1,000 per month are being
deported. M any are tortured and
killed upon their arrival at San Sal
vador airport, according to Amnes
ty International.
U .S . immigration policies allow
fugitives from left-wing regimes —
Cubans, Vietnamese, Poles — to en-
ter the country with relative ease.
They are even offered millions o f
dollars in special programs at U.S.
taxpayers' expense. Yet desperate
peasants fleeing from right-wing
dictatorships supported by the U.S.
government are driven to enter the
“ land o f the free and the home of
the brave” illegally.
“ Basically there’s no way they
can get here legally unless they've
got money, relatives or connec
tions," according to Terry Rogers,
coordinator o f C A M IN O , the Cen
tral Americans in Oregon Refugee
Support Committee. C A M IN O is
lobbying for liberalized immigration
policies that will allow refugees to
stay in this country legally, and
against the efforts o f conservative
congressmen to make it even harder
for the regufees to be here.
j '
According to Robert Krueger,
district director o f the U .S. Im m i
gration and Naturalization Service
in Portland, legal immigration from
most countries is limited to 20,000
per year. There are long waiting
lists, he said, and each year about
half o f the two million persons who
apply are turned away.
Once refugees enter the U .S. ille
gally and get picked up by immigra
tion authorities, they have three op
tions: voluntary departure, ex
tended voluntary departure or polit
ical asylum.
Those applying for asylum must
qualify as someone who is “ perse
cuted, or has a reasonable fear of
persecution on the basis of race, re
ligion, nationality, membership in a
particular social group, or political
(Continued on Page 4, Colum n 4)
Having a broken lag In tha summartima mutt ba
hard on a guy Ilka Tarranca Young, almoat 3. but
tha lova of a friand Ilka Tiffany Robinson, age 3.
aura makaa It sasiar to baar.
(Photo: Richard J. Brown)
OPEU nears strike vote
by Robert Lothian
A strike by Oregon public em
ployees could come as soon as mid-
August if progress is not made in
contract talks, according to a busi
ness agent for the Oregon Public
Employees Union.
Management's attitude has been
“ stall, stall, stall,” said Gail Wash
ington. “ We don't have a contract
and we have no reasonable offer
from the state," she said.
Washington said that the 17,000
state employees represented by the
union have been without a contract
since June 30th. Talks have pro
gressed through mediation and fact
finding, which means that rejection
o f management's last offer opens
the way to a strike vote. Notice o f a
strike vote must be filed before a 30-
day "cooling o ff period" ends A u
gust 11, she said.
Public employees' wages and ben
efits are paid out o f state tax reve
nues, and so with hard times and
lower tax revenues they are caught
in a bind, said Washington.
Union members have done their
part to help the state through the re
cession, she said, by going along
with layoffs and a wage freeze. The
O P E U has already agreed to a wage
freeze for the First year o f the new
contract, according to Washington,
tied to a “ reopener'" should state
revenues increase,
" W e took a pay freeze and we
have been in that position for a
year,” she said. Also, she said, a un-
cluded workshops on preventive
health care which helped out med
ical insurance claims. “ We are the
only union that has initiated these
kinds o f program s," said Washing
ton.
"T h e main thing I want to stress
is that money is not the issue.” The
real negotiating issues as far as the
union is concerned, said Washing
ton, are fairness, job security and
“ takebacks."
Public
employees
wonder at the fairness o f having to
accept a wage freeze while the gov
ernor’s office is basking in a 16%
increase, for instance, she said, and
the fairness o f management contin
uing full insurance coverage for it
self while not offering the same to
workers.
“ Contracting o u t” o f some jobs
which might ordinarily be done by
state employees is a technique the
state is turning to ostensibly to save
money, but it takes jobs away from
union members, said Washington.
T o ease effects on public employees,
the union is asking the state to enter
into negotiations with the union
when it lets out contracts, but the
state is stalling on the issue, she
said.
State employee job security is also
threatened, according to Washing
ton, by management pushing to be
able to interrupt work for up to two
15-day periods within each quarter.
Touted as another budget-saving
tactic, such interruptions could not
only turn employees' lives upside
down, they could also cause prob-
ion cost containment program in
terns with eligibility for unemploy
ment, she said. Employees could be
laid o ff for two weeks, called back
for two days, then laid o ff again for
two weeks. “ We feel this is an ero
sion o f their current rights." said
Washington.
Management also seeks to take
back hard-won health benefits by
demanding that employees must
work 80 hours each month in order
to qualify instead of the current 32,
she said.
W ith the economy improving,
said
Washington,
management
might view the negotiations as a last
chance to erode the achievements
won by the union in the past.
“ These are real takebacks," she
said. " W e ’ve already paid, we've
paid with layoffs, we paid with a
pay freeze. Being a state employee
does not make your expenses any
less, and we feel that we should not
have to bear the brunt.
"H yster was a good exam ple" of
a complete takeback, she said.
"State employees are being treated
like all employees right now in terms
o f takebacks.
“ I think a strike would mean pub
lic employees will not be treated d if
ferently than other employees They
want to be treated fairly.
" A strike is not the ultimate goal,
a fair agreement is the ultimate
goal," she said. “ W e want a signed
agreement that our members feel is
fair and that they can live with. We
will settle for fairness, that's a ll."