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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 17, 1983)
D e r r ic k A. E e li U n iv e r s it y o f O re. ta s te h o s i ta g e n ? , O re. 97403 Mary Decker runs to victory Hobo King runs for mayor Southern Blacks run voter drive See Sport Talk, Page 8 See Page 2 See below SPORTWND OBSERVER U^PS 959-680-855 C £n r Volume XIII, Number 44 August 17, 1983 26C Per Copy C o . lor. /M J Hock Shop stirs controversy It ain’t heavy, it’s my tuba. Pater Pritchett, age 14. of the Jazzmin Community Marching Band, draws quits a bit of attention as ha cycles to and from band practice. (Photo: Richard J. Brown) duty like this.** G R A SSR O O TS N E W S . N. W - The Hock Shop's tenure in the A second-hand store located on community has not been without Union Avenue, called The Hock criticism. J. Jay (not his real name) Shop, is currently creating a triangle said he has observed Ford’s treat o f concern from community mem ment o f Black and white customers bers who either want more enforce and has noticed a difference. "W h a t ment or the business ousted from I don't like about The Hock Shop is the community or those who feel the way he treats the brothers and that The Hock Shop provides a sisters. He doesn't give them the service to the area. same respect as he does the white One side is made up of residents customers. Just the other day I saw and homeowners who feel the very him buzz in a white fam ily like they presence o f The Hock Shop in the were long lost friends. Black people neighborhood is fostering crime. that came to the door, he would The other perspective is that o f want to know if they are buying or some policemen who support talk o f selling. He even goes through the a petition to oust the shop from the trouble o f telling them he can't area, while other officers want The watch all of them at one time.** Hock Shop and other second hand Ford responds, "W h a t few whites dealers to fill out l.D . slips on all that we get, come in to shop. Any people and all goods sold in second shopper can come In without wait hand stores. The final members o f ing — both Black and w hite." this triangle o f concern arc other I f customers want to sell items, community residents who believe they must wait until Ford "buzzes’* the proprietor and his business are them in with an electronic lock. providing a service by selling goods " I f I let two people in at the same they could otherwise not afford. time they might steal from me. It is The Hock Shop is the creation of as simple as that. I have observed Echols D . Ford who opened the them and there is nothing I can do shop in M ay. He says he has twenty- two years o f experience in this com - rt about it because I'm here by myself. I also would get ganged up on by munity, either selling insurance or three or four people quoting me d if as prior owner of Hot-n-Tot Tavern, ferent prices. I f I deal with one per located on North Albina and son at a time, I can handle it ." Ford Lombard. says he has also observed people Ford says, “ I opened on Union who would pick up some item from Ave. because there wasn't a second the back o f the store and try to sell it hand store in the area. I guess I had back to him. the guts and nerve to do it first. ” Another criticism Jay has about H e believes his business is be The Hock Shop is that Ford will buy tween a rock and a hard place with broken merchandise and sell it as is. the community believing he is a " H e has collected a lot o f jun k. You fencing operation for the police and can go in there and try out three or the police believing every item he four stereos before you find one buys is " h o t .'’ where both channels w o rk ." “ I am not the police. I'm caught Ford responds by saying, "W e between both sides. One day I had buy nothing intentionally that an off-duty policeman come in and doesn’t work. There has never flash his badge and ask how 1 got Sportswear strike continues by Robert Lothian Suty-cight garment workers at Colum bia Sports wear in St. Johns have been waging a spirited strike since July 23 against management demands for 17-3144 wage reduc tions and other takebacks. " W e ’re trying to get across to the employer that we can’t affo rd to strike, and we can’t affo rd to take a wage cut,” said Pat W illiam s, busi ness agent for Amalgamated C loth ing and Textile Workers Local 128. Management is asking workers to take wage cuts o f from 10C to SI .25/ hr. They are also demanding elim i nation o f the incentive guarantee bonus system and o f the 344 bonus for perfect attendance According to union local presi dent Julia Hicks, Colum bia Sports wear's owner, Oertrude Boyle, "has fought us from day one” The union was voted in a year ago, she said, but employees are still fighting for a contract because o f Boyle’s refusal to budge. "She wants to eli minate all past practices," said Hicks, including the traditional company-sponsored Halloween party and Thanksgiving turkey. Management contends that w ork ers must concede to wage reductions if the company is to remain compe titive, but the union contends that company demands could drive workers onto the welfare rolls. Women make up 9444 o f the work force, and many are self-supporting heads o f households who must pay as much as 130/week for child care, according to the union. "W ages in the clothing industry are based on the incentive to pro duce," said W illiam s. " I t ’s a very low-paid industry." Hicks said that before the strike, it was possible for sewing machine operators to make a guaranteed base rate o f 3 5 .2 5 /h r., and incentive pay for production over and above the quota could push wages up to 1 8 .0 0 /hr. The plant average was 1 6 .2 3 /h r.. she said, but if manage ment succeeds, she said, workers w ill have to put out at the same rate for only 1 4 .50/h r. " T h a t’s incredible," said Hicks. " I f you knew what it ’s like to try and sit down and make that wage, you'd know how hard it is trying to make a living at this kind o f w o rk ." Even under normal conditions, operating a sewing machine is “ very hard w o rk,” she said. " Y o u ’ ve got tc deal with the pressures of putting out so much and trying to make some money at the same time, and then you've got to deal with the pressures o f the machine breaking d o w n ." Hicks said she sometimes had to wait 45 minutes with no work and loss o f incentive pay because there was no mechanic to fix her machine. " A n d you just don't get raises," she said, adding that the only time she can remember management offering raises was to bribe some workers during the early stages o f negotiations. Indicative o f management's un fair labor practices at Colum bia (Continued on Page 3, Column I ) reductlona. ellmlnetlon of worfc Incenth/ee. and other takebecke In clude (L-R) Lucilie Elwood. Marlene Roee. Red Byers, Todd Hlcka. (Photo: Richard J. Brown) M AN OF CONTROVERSY - Echoie D. Ford, owner of The Hock S hop on N.E. Union Ave. Doee the second-hend ahop footer crime, or provide a service to the neighborhood? (Photo: Richard J. Brown) been a person trading out o f here who couldn’ t bring it back or trade it for something else." Jay also has a problem with the way Ford operates his business. " H e doesn't run it as a business. He doesn't take the time to check l.D . and he buys from anyone. There shoula be a lim it on who you buy fro m .” Ford rebuffs this notion and adds, “ We are not a pawn shop. W e are not state run. W e are under the city ordinance and I comply. There is no law that says a person has to be a certain age to buy from . I buy very few things from kids. I don't buy bi cycles without parental consent. We try to keep young kids out o f here because I can't handle them ." Detective Roger Biisch from the pawn shop detail o f the Police Bureau says, "T h e fact that he is not a pawn shop and calls himself a hock shop has been brought to the attention o f the State. They have been out to talk to him about the name he is using. However, he does follow the second-hand ordinance and our position is that if he follows the ordinance and conforms to the rules established by the City, we have no objection to his business. '* Det. Busch says it is normal pro cedure for a second-hand store to (Continued on Page 10, Column I ) Blacks prepare for voter registration A voter registration drive in progress in eleven southern states, the "Southern Crusade," hopes to register 1.5 to 2 million new Black voters. Those sûtes now have 4.6 m illion Blacks and 13.8 million whites who are not registered. The main goal o f the operation is to put Ronald Reagan out o f office, but adding millions o f Black voters would have broad repurcussions in local and sute elections where Blacks still hold only 1 percent of the elective offices. I f Black voter participation in creased by 23 percent, campaign or ganizers say, Reagan could lose eight southern sûtes he won in 1980, even if he lost none o f his white support. In Mississippi, an estimated 40,000 new voters have been regis tered since M ay. Voter registration is also going forward in other areas o f the country. The N A A C P , which plans to register 2 million voters in 1983, launched its "Overground R ailro ad" from Kentucky to De troit. InNew Y o rk, registrars hope to reach the 900,000 unregistered Blacks who could have denied victory to Reagan in that sute. (There are more than five times more unregis tered Black adults than Reagan's 1980 vote margin.) Black voter participation has a l ready increased. During the 1942 elections, 43 percent o f the regis tered Blacks voted, only 7 percent less than the white turnout. The victory o f H arold W ashing ton in Chicago showed Blacks that voting, especially in coalition with other progressive groups, can bring political power. Closely tied to the voter registra tion drives is Jesse Jackson's poten tial campaign for the Democratic Party nomination for the presiden cy. Black leaders are still divided about the advisability o f such a campaign, but the predictions are that Jackson will run and recent history has shown that the best way to interest Blacks in voting is to have Blacks on the ballot. The “ Coalition for 1984 Election Strategy" n e t in Washington early in 1983 and again in A tla n u to decide whether to field a candidate, but turned to writing a "people's platform ” and to voter registration. In June, the group endorsed the option o f fielding a Black candi date, but did not choose the person. Among the opposition were C o re tu Scott King, Joseph Lowery of SC LC , Andrew Young, Benjamin Hooks, and most o f the Congres sional Black Caucus. They fear a Black candidate will u k e votes from a liberal white candidate and help elect a conservative. Among Jackson's supporters are M ayor Richard Hatcher, Bishop H .H . Brookins, and M ayor M sion Barry o f Washington, D .C . I f he runs, his real support will come from the grassroots voters. And if the voter registration campaign sue ceeds, it will be due to Jackson’s leadership, time and energy he is devoting to that cause.
