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Volume XXXVI, Number 31
TIWeek ¡n
The Review
Castro Turns Over Power
Fidel Castro, who has wielded
absolute power in Cuba for nearly
half a century, turned overpow er
to his brother Raul on Monday
after undergoing intestinal sur
gery. The surprise announcement
stunned Cubans on the island
and in exile, and marked the first
time that Castro had relinquished
power in 47 years of rule.
Fighting Deep into Lebanon
Israel launched a major attack deep
into L ebanon T u esd ay , and
Hezbollah said its guerrillas were
fighting Israeli commandos on the
ground nearSyria. Hezbollah fired
just 10 rockets across the border
Tuesday, well below an average
of about lOOaday since the fight
ing began 21 days ago.
Voting Rights Extended
Civil rights leaders said President
Bush’s signature to extend the
1960s civil rights law against rac
ist voting practices will be just a
footnote in history if the govern
ment fails toenforce it. See story,
page B2.
Gibson Sorry for Words
A cto r and
conservative
activist Mel
Gibson said
Tuesday that
he is not a
b ig o t and
that heapolo
gizes to “ev
eryone in the Jewish community
for the vitriolic and harmful
words” he used when he was ar
rested for drunken driving. “Ha
tred of any kind goes against my
faith,” he said in a statement is
sued through his publicist.
‘Tar Baby’ Remark Stings
Gov. Mitt Romney, a potential
candidate for President, referred
to the troubled Big Dig construc
tion project in his home state of
Massachusetts as a ‘tar baby’
Saturday and then apologized,
saying he didn’t know anyone
would be offended by the term
some consider a racial epithet.
White House spokesman Tony
Snow sparked similar criticism in
May when he used the term.
Heat Wave Moves East
The same heat wave that was
blamed for as many as 164 deaths
in C alifornia brought a fifth
stra ig h t day o f o p p re ssiv e
weather to Chicago Tuesday and
promised at least three days of
brow-mopping temperatures in
the New York metropolitan area.
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Committed to Cultural Diversity
Wednesday • August 2. 2006
TV Hiring
Falls Short
Diversity lags on
local airwaves
by S arah B lount
T he P ortland O bserver
When it comes to diversity in the Portland media, television
stations have a long way to go with their minority representa
tion.
KGW, KOIN, KATU and Fox - for example, with respective
teams of anchors and general reporters, feature only two or three
minorities. Only eight out of a total of 101 faces or names found
on TV promotions and websites are non-white.
This doesn’t mirror Portland's population, which is just shy
of 20 percent minority. According to the U.S. 2000 census,
whites make up 77.9 percent of the population, blacks account
for 6.6 percent, Hispanic and Latinos 6.8 percent, Asians 6.3
percent, Native Americans 1.1 percent. Pacific Islanders 0.4
percent and other races account 3.5 percent.
Management at KATU, Fox and KGW could not be reached
for comment, but Jeff Allen, general manager at KOIN Channel
6, said the station is going through a set of personnel changes,
since new management took over in January. Allen declined to
comment on the nature of the changes.
With such a small minority representation, who’s to say
Portland is doing enough to broadly recruit African American,
Asian, Latino and Hispanic talent?
Lewis Pulley of the Equal Employment Opportunity division
of the Federal Communications Commission said the agency
can’t question who each station recruits, but can only ensure
they’ve recruited adequately.
To ensure the measures, each year the FCC audits just five
photo by
M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
Ken Boddie has 20 years of experience as a TV anchor and reporter at KOIN-TV Channel 6. He is one of
the few persons of color on Portland's airwaves.
percent o f stations nationwide, requiring them to account
for positions filled, job announcements, recruitment initia
tives and any pending or resolved complaints alleging
discri mi ■ration.
“ In oür recruitm ent rule we require that they recruit
within a broad cross-section o f the com m unity, but we
can’t require quotas or anything along those lines,”
Pulley said.
He said actual evidence of discrimination would be
another issue.
continued
on page A9
‘Zero Tolerance’ Harassment
Policy Adopted at Franz Bakery
Rights Group
Faults Katrina
Response
Court sanctions
terms after a
decade of failure
Says poor, blacks in
disaster neglected
The U.S. Equal EmploymentOpportunity
Commission has settled a sexual and racial
harassment lawsuit against U.S. Bakery,
Inc, the parent of Franz Bakery, after a fed
eral judge ruied that the company was re
sponsible for sexual and racial harassment.
The case involved four women - three
white and one African American - who
worked at the Portland bakery located at
Northeast 12th and Flanders Street. The
women resolved their individual claims
through separate, confidential agreements.
As terms of the settlement, Franz has
agreed to make sweeping changes in man
agement practices and adopt a “zero toler
ance” policy against harassment and dis
crimination. A consent decree also gives the
EEOC monitoring power over the employer
for three years and court enforcement if
necessary.
Franz Bakery is the largest family-owned
bakery west of the Mississippi River and
serves grocery, restaurant, food service and
institutional customers in
O reg o n ,
W ash in g to n ,
V
N orthern C alifornia and
parts o f Idaho, Montana
and Alaska. Three of the
women who were sexually
harrassed worked on the
production floor of the bak
ery while the fourth worked
in the office.
“This was an egregious
case o f a foreman sexually
and racially harassing em
ployees for many years with
impunity and represents an employer's ab
ject failure to take its responsibilities seri
ously under the law," said EEOC San Fran
cisco Regional Attorney Bill Tamayo, de
scribing how a former foreman at the bakery
photo by
M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
Franz Bakery has settled a sexual and racial harassment lawsuit, stemming from
complaints at its Northeast 12th and Flanders Street plant, agreeing to make
sweeping changes in management practices.
engaged in extremely offensive harassment
that was open and notorious for many years
and was known to managers and supervi
sors.
The foreman admitted to making hun
dreds, if not thousands, of sexual and racial
plained to another supervisor or foreman
about the conduct, he never reported it to his
superiors or to the company human re
sources manager.
In addition, for most o f the harasser’s
eight year employment at the bakery, the
company had an inadequate
sexual harassment policy that
failed to provide a complaint
p ro c e d u re o r assu ra n c e s
against retaliation for report
ing harassment or discrimina
tion. the EEOC said.
The company also never
provided non-supervisory
employees with employment
discrimination or harassment
training until after the harasser
This was an egregious case o f a
foreman sexually and racially
harassing employees fo r many years
with impunity and represents an
employer's abject failure to take its
responsibilities seriously under the law.
c o'
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I
Established in 1970
- EEOC San Francisco Regional Attorney Bill Tamayo
comments, including in the presence of su
pervisors and managers. He also admitted to
bringing in pornography and showing it to
employees and supervisors.
Although each o f the four women com
X
was finally fired.
Tam ayo noted that in Au
gust 2004, the EEOC won a summary judg
ment from U.S. D istrict C ourt for the D is
trict o f Oregon, finding U.S. Bakery liable
continued
Z3
■
on page A 9
(AP) - The United States must better
protect poor people and African-Ameri
cans in natural disasters to avoid prob
lems like those after Hurricane Katrina,
according to a new report by a U.N.
human rights panel.
The U.N. Human Rights Committee
said poor and black Americans were
"disadvantaged" after Katrina, and the
U.S. should work harder to ensure that
their rights "are fully taken into consid
eration in the reconstruction plans with
regard to access to housing, education
an<l health care."
Tile United Slates said federal and
Louisiana state authorities were examin
ing many of the issues raised by the
committee.
In New Orleans, activists praised the
U.N. report at a news conference Friday
in the predominantly black Gert Town
neighborhood, which remains heavily
damaged by the hurricane.
Monique Harden, co-director of Ad
vocates for Environm ental Human
Rights, urged the U.N. to examine the
treatment of black and poor Gulf Coast
residents, and said the committee's find
ings were important to recovery efforts
in the region.
"It's a wake-up call, and it's also a call
for change in the way the United States
government has been handling this re
covery," Harden said.
She and other advocates said former
residents continue to fight for a chance
to return to the city, where housing
shortages have kept away many lower-
income people.
"The United States has to do some
thing more than just show itself once
and while," said Ronald Chisom of the
People’s Institute for Survival and Be
yond.
Harden said that, although the com-
continued
on page A9
>