|
News
Briefs: Uncompetitive | Scoping
Swaps | Gravel Voicing | Spectrum of
Issues | Culture Jammin'
News: Strike
Zone -- LCC faculty and staff contemplate walk-out.
Happening
People: Autumn DePoe, Siletz Tribe
Uncompetitive
Corporation boosters like to argue that you need weak,
pro-industry laws to compete for jobs in the global economy. The truth may be just
the opposite.
"Hynix decided to close its Oregon facility, which will temporarily
lay off 600 workers, because U.S. labor laws are more flexible than in South Korea,"
the London Financial Times says.
Slant
Trail of Blunders
-- The Gang of 9 held a press conference two hours after we went to press last
week and invited everyone but EW. What are they afraid of? Hard questions?
Not from us, we just want their prepared statements. We're happy to see them stumbling
out of the closet and posing for an awkward photo in the R-G. We hope some
of the less strident Gang members are embarrassed by the nastiness and inaccuracies
of the cartoons, and their association with John Musumeci and Liz Cawood -- who are
on the record lying to Karen McGowan at the R-G about their involvement in
the Gang. Who came up with that strategy?
A California paper's perspective on Musumeci and Arlie Land and Cattle can be found
at www.metroactive.com/
metro/public-eye-0130.html It confirms cartoonist Steven
DeCinzo's connection to Musumeci, the SLAPP suit, attorney Micheal Kearney's involvement
in Arlie and other tidbits we've published in recent weeks. Something we haven't
covered popped up: The columnist says Musumeci is "looking to hire a good investigative
reporter to dig up dirt on the City Council in Eugene." Maybe the Gang has run
out of cartoon ideas. Some of the recent 'toons were indecipherable, perhaps rejects
that ended up in the wrong pile?
-- The PeaceHealth Board of Directors has decided to no longer pursue a downtown
site for its new hospital, but Citizens for a Hospital in the Heart of Eugene are
still fighting. They suggest we call board members with our concerns, and/or write
to the board at 770 E. 11th Ave., Eugene 97401. Here are some phone numbers and e-mail
addresses: Loren Barlow, MD, 334-3399; Ruby Brockett, 485-1400, ruby@prudential-eugene.com; Carolyn Chambers,
485-5611; John Dickinson, MD, 687-1336; Nicholas Gideonse, MD, 942-5505; James Knackstedt,
MD, 687-6031; Sr. Sheila Lemieux, 687-6000; Terry McDonald, 687-5820; Jan Oliver,
346-2820, joliver@oregon.uoregon.edu; Gretchen Pierce, 686-8282, hultinvest@aol.com; Roger Saydack, 484-0188; James
Walker, MD, 485-6478; Alan Yordy, 687-6000.
Slant includes short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes compiled
by the EW staff. Heard any good rumors lately? Contact Ted Taylor at 484-0519, editor@eugeneweekly.com |
In Korea, labor laws make layoffs "virtually impossible,"
the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea complains in a recent position paper. "The
general rule is that no employee may be terminated absent 'just cause' as defined
by the courts. In practice, 'just cause' has come to include only two circumstances:
(i) where the employee has committed a felony or other grave misconduct against the
employer, or (ii) where the employer faces imminent bankruptcy unless employees are
terminated. In practice, this excludes all cases where the employee becomes redundant,
or simply does not perform to expectations. In such cases, a significant financial
settlement is required to 'buy out' the unwanted employee's contract."
Compare that strong protection of workers to U.S. law and it makes
keeping plants open here uncompetitive. Under the U.S. Worker Adjustment and Retraining
Notification (WARN) Act, employers are free to conduct "mass layoffs" whenever
they want. The employers must provide 60 days notice to workers of such layoffs,
if they will last more than six months (Hynix claims the Eugene layoff will be six
months.).
Penalties under the act can include the requirement to pay workers
60 days of wages and benefits. But the federal government does not enforce the law.
Workers must find private lawyers and sue in court.
The WARN Act also includes plenty of loopholes that make it difficult
to enforce, the Wall Street Journal recently reported. For example, companies
affected by unforeseen circumstances or actively seeking new funding may be able
to dodge the law.
Hynix may be seeking new funding, according to reports in Korean
newspapers and the semiconductor trade press. As memory chip prices have plummeted,
the corporation lost $1.7 billion last year and is expected to lose almost $2 billion
this year. Hynix is already $4.3 billion in debt, with $2.1 billion of those loans
coming due this year, reports the Korean press.
In April, state-controlled Korean banks moved in with a $2.3 billion
bailout of Hynix. The Korean government has now begun to urge its banks to provide
another bailout. But the banks are reportedly reluctant and the Korean government
is under pressure from economic reformers to stop propping up favored corporations.
A Financial Times editorial last week criticized the Korean
government's "disturbing" and "incestuous" relationship with
big corporations.
"If the Korean government really wants to send a signal to
the world that its corporate landscape has changed, it should stand aside and allow
some big bankruptcies," the Financial Times writes. "Hynix Semiconductor
-- certainly should not receive any indirect loans from the state should its financial
position deteriorate further." -- AP
Scoping
Swaps
Should public and private land be traded in the Coast Range
forests of the Umpqua River watershed? Much of the area's 675,000 acres is in a checkerboard
of ownership between timber companies including Seneca Jones Timber Co. and the U.S.
Bureau of Land Management. Industry and the BLM, spurred by Congress last fall, want
public comments on such consolidation by Aug. 8.
The problem is, there's not much to comment on. Usually, the early,
"scoping" phase of such a project involves a specific document outlining
the proposed action. Here, however, there's only a congressional mandate to carry
out whatever BLM and industry finally come up with, and several million dollars of
taxpayer money invested in a computer model that's supposed to make sure the public
gets a square deal in the process.
"What we're interested in is what issues are important to
(the public) as we consider whether or not to do this," says Patrick Geehan,
the Umpqua Land Exchange Project manager for the BLM. "We don't have a spatially
explicit, a firm place, a specific exchange proposal in hand. What we have is a land-ownership
pattern and interested people, and so we're at the stage where we want to know what's
important to people."
Environmentalists are concerned that the computer program and its
assumptions have not had a favorable peer review and are not available to the public
for review. The BLM and environmentalists note that the software's assumptions may
favor industry concerns over water and wildlife.
"It's timber-industry giant Aaron Jones (of Seneca) who started
(the land-exchange process)-- and the computer model is constrained to only give
results that maintain or increase logging levels," says Francis Eatherington,
of the environmental group Umpqua Watersheds. "And we are supposed to believe
that this is good for wildlife?"
Agency documents indicate that the feds aren't convinced about
the benefits of trading. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service memo notes that consolidating
land ownership might not help spotted owls, which have adjusted to the current checkerboard
pattern and already "are as packed (into the available habitat) as they can
get." A BLM report stated that the trade could trigger substantial changes in
the Northwest Forest Plan, ultimately requiring "a very complex and time-consuming
process" to work through.
"I believe that scoping means people can say anything they
want to," Eatherington says. "The only hard information that we have in
hand is the appropriations bill from 2000" that authorized the still-unspecified
land trade. "We were never asked our opinion when Congress passed that bill,
so now is a good time to express it."
Mail comments by Aug. 8 to: ULEP, c/o BLM, P.O. Box 2965, Portland,
OR 97208 or e-mail to ULEP@or.blm.gov. -- OI
Gravel
Voicing
Lane County commissioners are expecting to hear from hundreds
of people next week when the group holds what may be the final hearings on Eugene
Sand & Gravel's (ES&G) proposed gravel pits out on River Road. The commission
has scheduled upwards of five hours for hearings each day on Aug. 7, 8 and 9; opponents
of the proposal say as many as 600 folks may show up to testify.
Dan Stotter is a Eugene attorney representing Thistledown Farm,
one of the proposed pits' organic neighbors. He says that after one hour presentations
each from proponents, opponents and government agencies, citizens will each get three
minutes to make their points to the three commissioners planning to attend (commissioners
Bobby Green and Cindy Weeldreyer will watch the hearings on MetroVision).
ES&G is expected to testify about the community's needs for
high-quality gravel, and ES&G's plans to mitigate problems with dust, noise,
truck traffic and groundwater. The crux of the issue for environmentalists is how
the proposal will affect neighboring farms such as Thistledown and Lone Pine.
"The most important criteria here is, are they going to cause
a significant increase in agricultural costs or are they going to force a significant
change in agricultural practices," explained Stotter. "That's the legal
standard. And if the answer to that is yes, they will cause that, then (the project)
must be denied."
Ross Penhallegon, OSU extension agent for Lane County, says research
from around the world shows that disturbing soil leads to the spread of dust, and
that the spread of dust encourages pests. For instance, tree fruit like peaches collects
dust on its leaves. That layer of dust provides a habitat in which red spider mites
-- a pest on such fruit -- thrive. Combating the mites means more time looking for
them and more time controlling them (organically or otherwise).
Other crops can be washed, but handling and washing soften fruit
and vegetables, ultimately reducing their shelf lives and costing farms that may
already be marginally economical. Extra irrigation can help keep the dust down, but
Penhallegon says that can lead to increased disease and more time and expense controlling
disease.
All those factors could raise the cost of River Road produce from
5 to 30 percent, he said.
Another concern is airborne chemicals released either from the
proposed asphalt plant at the gravel-pit site or from disturbed, non-organic soils
there. If those chemicals settle onto nearby organic farms, the farmers can lose
their certification and therefore their market, Penhallegon said.
All three hearings are at Sheldon High School, and anyone who wants
to speak must sign up on Aug. 7. The hearings run 5-10 pm on Aug 7; 3-10 p.m. on
Aug. 8; and from 5 p.m. on Aug. 9.-- OI
Spectrum
of Issues
A joint office for 1000 Friends of Oregon, Landwatch Lane
County and Friends of Eugene (FoE) is now open at 120 W. Broadway in Eugene. Lauri
Segel is the staff person and the phone number is 431-7059.
"We are glad to establish a permanent presence in Lane County,
because this county is grappling with the whole spectrum of growth and development
issues, from downtown revitalization and bypasses to coastal sprawl and the loss
of farmland," says Robert Liberty of Portland, executive director of 1000 Friends.
Liberty joined Deborah Noble of FoE, Robert Emmons of Landwatch
and dozens of progressive activists and elected officials at a crowded champagne
celebration July 18.
Emmons welcomed the "professional help we need to turn back
the tide or rural sprawl" that threatens Lane County's forests and farmlands.
Noble says the new office will "increase both the impact and the visibility
of great work our volunteers have been doing to improve our community's quality of
life."
In addition to its headquarters in Portland, 1000 Friends also
has offices in Medford and Salem. Each office is supported by local donations of
time and money. -- TJT
Culture
Jammin'
The Culture Jam folks are back at it again this summer
with a Culture Camp for teens 14-18 on the grounds of the Oregon Country Fair in
Elmira. The three-day, two-night event is Aug. 10-12. For registration information,
call Michael Glownia at 431-0633 or Leslie Scott at 344-8795.
Back to Top
Strike
Zone
LCC faculty and staff
contemplate walk-out.
By Cheri
Brooks
Students attending Lane Community College may return to empty classrooms
if ongoing labor disputes with faculty and staff remain unresolved. "At this
point, I'd say there's a 50-50 shot that you're going to see both unions on strike
during fall term," says Bob Baldwin, a procurement specialist and a member of
the classified employee's bargaining team, represented by the LCC Employee Federation.
Classified employees are fighting for an adequate cost-of-living
raise and coverage of rising health care costs. The economic portion of their contract
expired on July 1. The faculty, represented by the LCC Education Association, are
struggling with similar issues -- such as bringing salaries up to the level of other
urban community colleges in Oregon -- and trying to obtain step increases, which
they say management promised but never delivered.
However, Dennis Gilbert, a physics teacher and the LCCEA's bargaining
chair, says faculty mostly are concerned about a lack of transparency in LCC's budgeting
process, and the role of employees in college decision-making. "The bigger issue
is that the faculty and staff want to fully participate in the life of the college,"
he says.
Negotiations with the unions made little progress over the past
year; and representatives are frustrated by the actions of a labor relations consultant,
Larry Salmony, whom they say has acted in ways that are "manipulative"
and "disingenuous" and has perpetrated unfair labor practices (a charge
the LCCEA recently brought before an administrative law judge).
Salmony, an attorney hired by the LCC administration to bargain
with the union, reportedly has no prior experience negotiating labor contracts. Salmony
was not available this week for comment.
Bob Ackerman, chair of the LCC board, a state representative for
north Eugene and a friend of Salmony's, says the administration wanted to bring "clarity"
to the bargaining process and felt an attorney with a Ph.D. in education would be
suitable. Salmony signed a contract with the college immediately after the resignation
last October of the former labor relations consultant, Barry Hebert.
Ackerman says during previous bargaining sessions with Hebert,
the faculty union "kicked the negotiator around," resulting in a contract
that was "extremely vague." He adds, "We all should have done a better
job of bargaining that last contract. In this bargaining mode, we intend to produce
a better product."
But representatives of both LCCEA and LCCEF say Salmony's style
and inexperience have hindered negotiations and led to bitterness. "There's
been an 180-degree turn in collective bargaining," says Dennis Gilbert, a physics
teacher and the LCCEA's bargaining chair. "It's been a wasted year."
Gilbert says previous contract negotiations were conducted in a
more collaborative atmosphere and resulted in win-win solutions. "The fact is,
[the college] gained a whole lot, we gained a whole lot, and the community gained,"
he says. "Now they've reversed it, and they're losing, we're losing, and the
community's losing."
Unique Skills and Knowledge
Some employees question the appropriateness of hiring a close friend of the board
chair as a consultant, especially when the position never was opened to competitive
bidding as required by college rules. Purchasing documents state that Salmony's personal
services contract was exempted from the bidding process because "Mr. Salmony
has unique skills and knowledge developed from prior service to Lane Community College."
However, it's difficult for union representatives to fathom what
those unique skills and knowledge might be. "If I were looking for expertise,
I would be looking for someone who had done the job at least once," Baldwin
says. He notes that the college has paid Salmony more than $75,000 for his services
thus far.
Baldwin, an accountant, says classified staff, which include clerical
and maintenance workers, deserve a raise. He says 65 percent of staff members (employed
at least half-time) would qualify for food stamps if their income had to support
a family of four, and more than half of the full-time staff would qualify. Baldwin
adds that out of 440 staff positions, only 51 employees earn a "living wage"
salary ($17.95 per hour, or $37,000 per year).
"You cannot work at LCC and expect to feed a family,"
he says.
The LCCEF is asking for a 6.75 percent cost of living adjustment
(COLA) for each of the next two years (with slightly more for longer-term employees).
The administration is offering 2.5 percent for next year and 2 percent for 2003.
Baldwin says the administration's COLA would not cover inflation
or rising insurance rates, resulting in an effective pay cut.
Ackerman says negotiations have been stalled because the incoming
president, Mary Spilde, has been off for the summer. He adds that raises are difficult
to grant at LCC because for every dollar increase, there's another 45 cents that
go to benefits such as insurance, pensions, and vacation time.
He says, "Do the classified employees and faculty deserve
what they're asking for? Probably. Can we afford it? We're not sure yet."
"Our primary focus is on better organizing ourselves,"
says Gilbert. "We expect to develop the capacity to strike if necessary."
Back to Top
Getting
it Off
Torrey says Cascadia
Alive! goes beyond free speech.
By Orna
Izakson
Cascadia Alive! (CA!), the five-year-old activist
cable-access television program, began as usual at 9 pm on Wednesday, July 4. But
a segment in the first 10 minutes of the show vaulted the program to national attention,
brought federal agents to the producers' doors and led to calls by Mayor Jim Torrey
to get the show off the air.
The show's production collective aired a special featuring extensive
amounts of historical footage as well as shots of recent events: riots, police brutality,
Ku Klux Klansmen, Nazis, Black Panthers taking over the halls of government, falling
bombs and fireworks.
The segment starts with gun shots punctuating the soundtrack as
the screen shows a grainy, black and white protest poster of George W. Bush. The
camera slides back to reveal a gun pointing at the president's temple. A hand-lettered
sign reads "a good start."
The music switches to a rap song, and further footage clarifies
a theme of presidential assassinations. The song, by a rapper named Paris whose work
is redolent with Black Panther themes, is called "Bush Killa," referring
to the current president's father.
"So don't be tellin' me to get the nonviolent spirit,"
the 1992 song says. "'Cause when I'm violent is the only time the devils hear
it." On Channel 97 on Independence Day, those words were backed by images of
police beating protesters. The show aired again a week later.
One viewer called the Secret Service to warn of a threat to kill
the president -- a federal offense punishable by a maximum fine of $5,000 and up
to six years in prison. The Secret Service in turn called Community Television after
the July 11 airing, and C-TV officials informed the producers of CA!.
The Secret Service came to Eugene to investigate. They phoned members
of the production collective, and visited homes of some members, writing down license
plate numbers of the cars outside. In one case, people in a house under surveillance
took video cameras outside to tape the federal agents, who fled. Agents subsequently
issued at least one grand jury subpoena to a member of the collective.
The CA! crew did not speak with the media last week, but
issued a press release stating that they "never caused or threatened violence
upon the President of the United States and never intended to do so."
KEZI picked up the story on Friday, showing the gun pointed at
Bush from CA! and airing a piece in which Torrey watched the offending segment
and offered his view that it was clearly a threat against the president. "To
me, that goes beyond what free speech ought to be," the mayor said. At Monday's
City Council work session, Torrey again raised the issue. "With regard to the
cable television showing on July 4th, I tell you, I am personally offended that we
are using taxpayer money to do that," he said. He also asked the city attorney
to find out "what can the city do to ensure that people do not produce or show
programs that violate state or federal laws."
Torrey, who did not return a call from EW, told The
Register-Guard on Tuesday that he didn't want to cut funding for C-TV,
but rather to sanction CA!, possibly through a six-month suspension of the
show.
Eugene helps fund two of three public cable stations (a third is
operated jointly by UO and LCC). The city pays $77,087 for channel 11, which airs
public meetings, and up to $7,500 in dollar-for-dollar matching funds to C-TV.
Tom Cleveland, president of C-TV's board of directors, said, "Community
Television of Lane County does not exercise editorial control over the programming
on the channel."
On Monday, the Secret Service met with members of the collective
and their attorney, Lauren Regan. "We're very hopeful that they're not going
to pursue this matter further," she said.
Successful prosecutions under the federal law have mostly been
in cases where mentally ill people sent direct threats, sometimes in the form of
letters containing live bullets, Regan said. "In this context we're talking
about a 7-minute video compilation that is more like a music video than an actual
threat against the president. This would definitely fall more in the category of
artistic expression than threat."
Special Agent John Kirkwood of the Secret Service declined to comment
on the ongoing investigation.
In a Tuesday interview, Randy Shadowalker, Robin Terranova and
Charles Overbeck of the CA! collective declined to say whether they produced
or simply aired the "Bush Killa" segment. When asked "did you make
it?" Shadowalker responded, "We played it."
Instead, they focused on Torrey's statements against CA!
and funding for C-TV (no city money goes directly to the program itself.) They noted
that Torrey has proposed significant sanctions against the program and C-TV, even
though the Secret Service itself has so far taken no action.
Shadowalker said the issue is larger than the fate of one local
show.
"I've always seen freedom of speech as a two-way thing, not
just the freedom to say something, but the freedom to also take in information from
as many different sources as possible to make the wisest decisions you can,"
he said. "So I don't think this is just an attack on CA!, I think it's
more an attack on the community at large, to narrow their viewpoints down to the
mainstream media perspective."
Cascadia
Media Collective Website
Back to Top
 Autumn
DePoe
"Chief De Poe was my great-uncle -- he just passed
away in his late '90s," says native Eugenean and Siletz Tribe member Autumn
De Poe, great-great-granddaughter of the founder of Depoe Bay. "I saw him at
pow-wows every year." When she was a student at Briggs Middle School, De Poe
and teacher Dwight Souers started a Native American club. "He brought in people
to teach us to drum, dance and sing," she relates. "We also looked into
Native American issues -- that's where my activism started." Now 25 years old
and a term away from graduation at the UO, De Poe is the youngest member of the Lane
County Human Rights Advisory Committee. She was arrested last year during the Workers'
Rights Consortium protests on campus and sentenced to community service. An avid
singer, De Poe has performed in at least 10 musicals since age 13 at the Actors'
Cabaret. During the past school year, she served as volunteer programming director
at campus radio station KWVA. "Autumn kept the station going," says KWVA
DJ Doctor Funk. "She was on call 24-7 and filled shows at a minute's notice
for free!"
-- Paul Neevel
Happenin' People Archives
Nominate A Happenin' Person
Table
of Contents
| News | Views | Arts & Entertainment
Classifieds | Personals
| EW
Archive
|