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.