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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 13, 1997)
AV X3&; *• 5*>,< I 1* • f I P age A2 13.. 1997 • T he P ortland O bserver Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily Reflect Or Represent The Views O f (The |LIortIanb © hsrruer y Attention Readers! e Please take a minute to send us your comments. We’re always trying to give you a better paper and we can’t do it without your help. Tell us what you like and what needs improvement... any suggestions are welcomed and appre ciated. We take criticism weli! Get your powerful pens out NOW and address your letters to: Editor. Reader Re sponse, P.O. Box 3137. Portland. OR 97208. < iiu ' ^ lo r t la n h (© b se r u e r - in I’ koe ; i M< K im i a Bi ki Charles W ashington Publisher A Editor Mark Washington Distsribution Manager Gary Ann Taylor Business M anager Larry J. Jackson, Sr. Director o f Operation Yvonne Lerch Account Executives Mike Leighton Copy Editor Contributing Writers: Professor M cKinley Burt, Lee Perlman, t is interesting that the ¡ p r e s e n t ationwide strike by the Teamsters Union against the United Parcel Service has re vealed among our younger gen eration such a lack of knowledge about American labor history, labor law and many key issues con cerning the work force and their place in it (AFL origin, National Labor Relations Board, CIO birth. Tafi-Hartley). It is not possible, o f course, to impro ve this situation in sucha short space as feiven here, but we can do Neil Heilpem 4747 NE M artin L uther K ing, Jr. Blvd., P ortlan d, O regon 97211 503-288-0033 • Fax 503-288-0015 Em ail: P dxob serv@ aol.com It Deadline for all submitted materials: A d s : M o n d a y, 1 2 :0 0 p m gi n. let us expand some of POS I M A STE R : Send A dd ress C han ges To: P ortland O bserver, P.O . Box 3137, P ortlan d, O R 97208. Periodicals postage p a id at Portland, Oregon. Subscriptions. $30.00 p e r year The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. M anu scripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned if accompanied by a self addressed envelope. All created design display ads become the sole property o f the newspaper and cannot be used in other publications or personal usage without the written consent o f the geneial manager, unless the client has purchased the composition o f such ad. © 1996 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, REPRODUCTION IN W HOLE OR IN PART W ITH OUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. The Portland O b serv er-O reg o n ’s Oldest Multicultural Publica- tio n -is a member o f the National Newspaper A ssociation-Founded in 1885, and The National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc, New York, NY, and The W est Coast Black Publishers Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver. S ubscribe io (E itr¡ jtío r tia n ó c& b se ru e r I he Portland Observer can be sent directly to your home for only $30.00 per year Please fill out, enclose check or money order, and mail to: S ubscriptions T he P ortland O bserver ; PO B ox 3137 P ortland , O regon 97208 Name. Address:______ City, State: Zip-Code: 111 tlfe h fs tdrical workplace concerns I have introduced in my 'book re- vicw” selection for this week’s ‘G ood S u m m er R ea d in g ’, “Black Jacks: African Am erican Seam en In The A ge of S ail” (on another page). Their early successes and later trials and tribulations parallel the experiences of white labor - but Q tT tt'/ii’n we eat that w onderful /J Ü iis u m m e r tim e fr u it know n as strawberries, we don ’to fte n th in k o f those whose hard work m akes our enjoym ent possible. But the re ality is that thousands of workers must do the backbreaking work to harvest the fragile crop. They work in difficult conditions, for low wages and are now experi encing a crisis which needs public support. As public demand for strawberries has increased in the last three decades, strawberry production has increased sixfold. Today it is a billion-dollar industry. About 80pcrcent of the nation's straw- bernes are grown in California and nearly half of them in one region in that state. Almost all of the pickers are p e c only for a time. Be sure to read this review and then get the book. Since some will find it difficult to believe the advanced, modern con cepts of working conditions and ben efits that were in circulation before and immediately after the Civil War, I have relied upon citation s from that b a sic so u rc e a cc e p te d by A m erican C ourts and a d m in istra tiv e a g e n c ie s : “ D o c u m e n ts o f A m erican H istory,” Ed by Henry Steele C om m ager. At other times here I have given accounts of the initial cooperation and ease o f association between workingmen and women o f all races after the Ci vii War. See Commager's Document No. 298. ‘Preamble o f Constitution o f the Knights o f L a bor". Jan. I, ¡878. “ B eginning as a society o f garm ent cutters in P hila delphia in 1869, it grew in pow er and strength until by 1886 it num bered an [incredible] th ree-q u ar ters o f a m illion m em bers. Its m em bership included m en and w om en, w hite and N egro, sk illed and un sk illed.” Among other things, the Knights of Labor demanded "weekly pay fo r la b o r p e r fo r m e d the p r e v io u s week...laws giving mechanics and laborers a first lien on their work fo r fu ll wages...setting up a process o f Civil Rights Journal t r / e arbitration' in labor disputes... the prohibition o f the em ploym ent of children in w orkshops, m ines and factories before their fourteenth year...equal pay for both sexes...the reduction o f hours o f labor to eight per day so that ‘laborers m ay have m ore tim e for social enjoym ent and intellectual im p rovem en t’... Stop the railroads from seizing excess land/tim ber.” Can you even imagine the fear that swept the ranks of the new capitalists and empire-builders who had envi sioned a vast supply of cheap, unor ganized labor — hundreds of thou sands of illiterate immigrants arriv ing yearly and millions of exslaves helpless as the “Reconstruction Acts” failed miserably to provide them the promised land and other means. The N ew C a p ita list’ rushed to su p port the Ku Klux K ian. S ee D ocu m ent 2 7 1 ,1 8 6 8 . As the 'Knights of Labor’declined under the pressures we have de scribed, a new force became eminent in the union movement. See “Docu ment 473, constitution of the Ameri can Federation of Labor 1932” This certainly differs from original docu ments I have seen (dated prior to 1900) where all activities and mem bership were restricted to the trades and were fo r "white males o n ly”. ers are just d iscovering that many European w orkers get five weeks vacation each year- regardless o f yea rs worked. O thers have le a rn e d th a t the K ello g C om pany (c o rn fla k e s) had a 30 hou r w eek f r o m 1933 to 1985. The U.S. S e n a te p a sse d a 30 hour work week b ill in 1933, but it d ie d in th e H ou se. More Signs of Hope n the midst of all the depress ing news about violence an^». environmental racism and bud- ;et cuts and racial injustice and eco- lomic injustice there are always won- lertul signs ot hope. One of them is in my hometown, Washington, D.C. It is a sign that communities given up on by outsiders can flourish, if only given half a chance. Right after graduating from col lege, I returned to Washington to teach. My teaching career was short, but it was spent in one of the Nation’s C a p ita l’s poorest com m unities, Anaeostia, which was located in the southeast section of the city. In the post Civil W ar days of the city, I A n a e o stia , lo c a te d a c ro ss the Anaeostia River from the rest of the city, was seen as an expansion of the city's boundaries and a pathway to economic expansion as well. Indeed, Frederick Douglass chose to live in a large house on a hill in Anaeostia, overlooking the city’s expanse. But as often happens in cities where a river divides one community from another, Anaeostia remained an isolated step-child and even today feels farremoved from the W ashing ton we all think of. During recent decades, Anaeostia found itself the site of illegal and toxic dumping, deteriorated public housing, rising crime and little economic develop ment. But all of that is changing. A recent videotape, Across the River, narrated by journalist Hedrick Smith, tells the stories of people in the Anaeostia community who were determined to turn their community around. Instead o f abandoning Anaeostia, they chose to stay and fight for the life of this community in which many o f them had grown up. Take the story of the Alliance of Concerned Men. a small group of African American men who had gone to high school together, but who had drifted apart in adulthood. Propelled to do something about the alarming rise of young black men with no positive role models in the home, these men decided they could do something about it themselves. They have established relationships with children and young men; providing affection, good advice, prayer and tough love. Or take the story of the Public Ser vice Academy, aschool within aschool at Anaeostia High School. It has a 94% graduation rate and represents a chance for its students, many of whom come from troubled homes. An inte gral part of the program of this small school is the public service which the students are required to do and which often leads to summer or after-school paid jobs for them These are inspiring people who have something to teach us all. What can we do to reclaim ourchildren and our communities? Civil Rights Journal Workers’ Rights And Strawberries Mexican or Mexican American. The strawberry industry is different from most other farm industries. Cali fornia growers in one region number some 270 and range from very large farms to those which are thousands of acres in size. Every grower operates under an exclusive contract with one of eight shippers or “coolers,” who form the economic core of the straw berry industry. Growers work under contract to these coolers, who set quality guide lines and production timeliness and set standards for such things as crop care and pesticide use. Smaller farms are particularly vulnerable and techni cally each farm is an independent busi ness. These factors have made it diffi cult for straw berry w orkers to or- ganize for better w orking condi tions and pay. A decade ago the average hourly wage for straw berry w orkers was $9.10 in current dol la rs, b u t now the a v erag e has dropped to $6. 1 1,Straw berry w ork ers report that they were paid the same w age, $5.75 per hou r, for seven years in a row. But the actual wages paid to an individual worker can very dramatically when hourly rates are combined with rates pertray harvested. In some years, growers have prom ised higher wages to workers who returned the next year, only to have their incentives for higher production cut. Working conditions for the straw berry workers are difficult at best. On hot days the company may provide ice in the drinking water for the pickers, This W ay For Black Em pow erm ent but then charge them for the ice. With the work requiring them to constantly bend over, pickers are required to fill three trays an hour, but they are some times pushed to produce six to eight trays. In some cases toilets are not readily available and women com plain of sexual harassment and abuse. hen there is the question o f e xposure to pesticides. T The pesticides used on straw ber ries often cause headaches, vom it ing and rashes in w orkers, but they receive little or no information about which pesticide is being used. Work ers who become ill from the pesticides are sometimes accused of drinking loo much the night before or are told they are suffering from food poisoning. Legal and health care advice regard ing these issues often are unavailable or limited to English only. Housing conditions for strawberry workers are often substandard. Some live in camps, where there are low wooden and concrete buildings in the middle of the fields. Each building includes four apartment, which are rented out by bedrooms. Small chil dren living in the camps are exposed to the pesticides sprayed in the nearby fields. Over the past fe w years the United Farm Workers have attempted to or ganize the strawberry workers, as they had the grape pickers in the past. Strawberry workers, who work fo r an eight-month season, are not protected by the National Labor Relations Act and are thus at the mercy o f the grow ers and the coolers. Those workers who have been seen as union support ers or organizers often ju st have nt been rehired. Moreover, where unio elections were won, growers simpl plowed under the crops, terminatei workers or selectively shut down op erations rather than negotiate a U F\ contract. We who enjoy the fruit can not jus take tor granted the food that we picl up in our supermarket. We must raisi questions about rights of the straw berry workers to have safe workinj and living conditions and adequate pay for a difficult job. (W rite to Driscall Strawberry As sociates (the largest U.S. cooler) al P.O. Box 50045, W atsonville, CA 95077-5045 and ask what are they doing to ensure that w orkers are not harassed for union activity and what they are doing about growers WHY WELFARE-TO-WORK ISN'T W O R K IN G B y I) r . L enora F ui . ani ince President C linton's sign ing of the welfare reform act - - Ihe one his policy advisors told him to veto while his “score-points-at- all-costs" political advisors told him to sign -- moving welfare recipients from public assistance to jobs has become a government focus. In his State of the Union address in Febru ary. Clinton called on corporate America to join in creating newpart- nci mips with go.crnm ent to evolve welfare-lo-work programs. Things d o n 't appear to be going so well. Recently, a front page Wall Street Journal article reported on what it S called the "mixed results" of one such program undertaken by Sprint and AT&T in Kansas City. Missouri. These efforts — loudly trumpeted by the White House at the beginning -- have succeeded in placing a total of seven workers at Sprint, one of whom was let go after the first week. AT&T hired one person whom they fired in two weeks. These statistics do not bode well. And as you might expect, various explanations have begun surfacing. One corporate insider stated that the programs were ineffective because corporate America w asn't “ready." I s This document simply mentions that the AFL was organized first in 1881, and reorganized as a national federa tion in 1886 - and describes struc ture. For a fuller and more comprehen sive perspective one should see ma jor works on “Trade Unionism or Labor/Unions” as a section in eco nomic books. Particularly, you will find that in 1936 the AFL split in two, the new entity being the “CIO ” (Con gress of Industrial Relations). This group was more industry- general oriented than trade-specific, and was not nearly as racist as the AFL. The two groups reunited in 1955, principal unions being the Teamsters, The United Auto Work ers and the United Mine Workers. Today the trauma in the work place centers around the daily in creasing number of part-time work ers (nearly 20 million), pensions and benefits. Some A m erican work J y B ernice P owell J ackson Voi F or R eading T he P ortland O bserver Bv B ernice P owell J ackson s Much Labor, Much Pain, a Modest Gain (USPS 959-680) Established in 1970 A r tic le s :F r id a y , 5 : 0 0 p m r A supervisor at Sprint said, “There are welfare recipients who choose to succeed and those who choose not to Can the same be said of presi dents? With the success rate so low, a debate has arisen as to which is the best method to effect welfare-to- work. Once camp argues that you must train people before placing them in private sector jobs. The other pre sents the "job first” argument, where welfare recipients receive aone week crash course oriented toward em ployment basics, like getting to work on time, and not on job skills. This is the approach that is gaining popular ity with policy makers because it is cheaper and because “quick fix" sta tistics can be used to demonstrate how effectively the program is work ing. However, there is no quick fix here. The U.S. economy has been structured over the long haul to be an economy without full employment. While the range of unemployment fluctuates between 3% and 7% de pending on various factors, there has always been - by design - a sector of Americans relegated to being unem ployed. This economic phenomenon has historically helped, among other things, to keep wages down and, thereby, profits up. The welfare and unemployment programs adopted during and after the Great Depression which institu tionalized unemployment were based on policy makers' acceptance of this macro-economic feature o f the U.S. economy. Not surprisingly an entire culture of being both unemployed and unem ployable has evolved. Schools educate -- but not everyone - because unemployability is desir able. Welfare must discourage self- reliance so that the demand for jobs and job training from within the per manent underclass will be muted. This institutionalized culture cannot and will not be overcome by “job- first or even by “training-first” ap proaches. You cannot take a society -- busi ness and the poor alike - socialized over lifetimes for intractable unem ployment and then, because the po litical climate now opposes Big gov ernment spending create a few pro grams that will suddenly transform the long-term unemployed into reli able workers.
