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News
Briefs: Salmon Appeal Nears
| Smoking Gun | Undercovered
| Trauma Examined | Holiday
Closure
News:
Unwritten Rules -- Guild, R-G testify before Labor Board.
Happening
People: Ken Kesey.
Salmon
Appeal Nears
Eight environmental and fishing groups
got good news last week when Judge Michael Hogan said they could appeal
his Sept. 10 decision removing federal protections for imperiled Oregon
Coast coho salmon -- and, in turn, the forests that nurture them.
Hogan said the National Marine Fisheries Service could
not justify its decision to list wild coho as threatened under the
Endangered Species Act while leaving genetically identical hatchery
fish off the list. NMFS is reviewing its 1998 listing decision, and
did not appeal the ruling.
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Slant
-- Redistricting of City Council wards goes before
the council Monday evening, and although a public hearing on
redistricting is not on the agenda, any citizen can speak on
any topic during the public comment time on the agenda. Greg
McLauchlan's Viewpoint this week provides an excellent overview
of this complex and highly political process. The Chamber of
Commerce is pushing the "Indigo D" option that would radically
redraw wards 1-4, "coincidentally" the wards held by progressive
councilors. "Violet A" is the more incremental option. It would
keep seated councilors in their wards, but more importantly,
it would maintain the relationship most residents have with
the councilors they elected.
-- We reported last week that a legal battle
is brewing that could delay or even kill PeaceHealth's plans
to build a new hospital in north Springfield. The same could
be said for the West Eugene Parkway, a seriously flawed project
that faces legal quicksand in the swamps out west. But here's
something new to chew on: Rumors are surfacing that McKenzie-Willamette
Hospital might step in to fill the gap if and when Sacred Heart
bails. Comforting thought.
-- The Friday after Thanksgiving is Buy Nothing
Day worldwide, a response to the rampant consumerism that is
supposedly the foundation of our economy. It's a particularly
significant day since George W. is urging us to spend, spend,
spend. We endorse the Buy Nothing Day concept, but we also support
our local business community. The compromise? Responsible consumerism:
Buy useful, sensible products and services that add beauty to
the world, are non-polluting and support sustainable enterprise.
-- Just as Michael Beschloss' new book on LBJ,
Reaching for Glory, underscores the historic importance
of presidential records (LBJ's secretly recorded phone conversations
reveal a "scared to death" president with deep doubts about
our prospects of victory in Vietnam -- even as he escalated
the war), President George W. Bush recently signed an executive
order allowing presidential papers to remain sealed forever.
Could it be that some of Reagan's papers -- due to be released
soon -- might compromise W's daddy, who as Reagan's VP
claimed to be "out of the loop" on Iran Contra?
-- A comprehensive study of the disputed Florida
presidential election ballots is being spun by most media as
old news, inconsequential and even as legitimizing the Bush
administration. The truth is that if all the rejected
ballots in Florida had been recounted, Gore would be our president
today. We'd still face monumental challenges under Gore, but
we'd find some comfort in having leadership with sophistication
and integrity in foreign policy, economics and the environment.
It's painful to watch Bush awkwardly "growing up" in his job
while more mature politicians watch from the sidelines. As Jesse
Jackson quipped when he last visited Eugene stumping for Gore:
"While George W. was caught up in his youthful indiscretions,
we were studying foreign policy." The best damage control we
can do at this time is to demand full accountability from our
government and work for a reckoning in the 2002 and 2004 elections.
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
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Environmental groups, which came late to the process,
argued that the government did not represent their interests -- as
evidenced by the lack of appeal. Hogan on Friday said the groups had
the right to appeal themselves.
Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's
Associations said the groups on Monday asked the Ninth Circuit Court
of Appeals to put the judge's earlier order on hold, reinstating protections
for the coho until the appeal is heard. He said temporary protection
was "highly likely," but wouldn't speculate on the outcome of the
full appeal.
Since Hogan's ruling, dozens of public-lands timber
sales have faced logging that had stopped to protect coho. Shannon
Wilson of the Sierra Club said his documents show 30 affected timber
sales on Bureau of Land Management lands, primarily in the Roseburg
district. Three sales on the Coos Bay BLM district now are being logged
because of Hogan's order.
Two dozen or more sales in the Umpqua National Forest
also were released for logging because of the decision. That national
forest last week was named one of America's 10 most endangered by
the National Forest Protection Alliance, a coalition that advocates
for ending commercial logging on public lands. The same report listed
the Willamette National Forest as "threatened."
Wilson said the Hogan decision shows just how threatened
the Umpqua is. And Wilson is organizing volunteers to search for sensitive
species that could shut down logging if the coho does not.
"I do care if (Hogan's ruling) is overturned," he
said, "But I'm not going to hold my breath and wait for that to happen."
-- OI
Smoking
Gun
You've read it before in EW,
but now it's even more official: Routinely adding antibiotics to animal
feed leads to resistant bacteria that can harm humans. That news,
accompanied by an editorial urging that such use be banned, appeared
on Oct. 18 in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine
(NEJM)
Chickens, pigs, cows and turkeys often get antibiotics
when they're sick. But at least in large, non-organic commercial facilities,
they also get smaller doses as a regular addition to their feed in
order to help them get more nutrition out of it -- and grow faster.
There are several different estimates of how much
non-therapeutic antibiotics livestock get, because manufacturers don't
have to say how much they make or to whom they sell it. One estimate
is that 50 percent of all antibiotics produced in the U.S. are used
for animals, mostly in their feed. The Union of Concerned Scientists
says animals get 2 million pounds of the drugs for therapy and 24.6
million pounds of the drugs in their feed each year. Humans, by contrast,
use 3 million pounds annually.
The NEJM studies found that bacteria are getting used
to the regular diet of their host critters, which is bad news for
humans who rely on the drugs to keep us healthy.
One study looked at samples of ground pork, beef,
turkey and chicken from supermarkets around Washington, D.C. The investigators
found that 20 percent of the samples were contaminated with salmonella,
and 84 percent of the salmonella was resistant to at least one antibiotic.
Sixteen percent of the bacteria were resistant to the drug of choice
for treating salmonella poisoning in children.
A second study found that chickens from supermarkets
in four states -- including Oregon -- contained bacteria
resistant to an unpronounceable but important antibiotic approved
for use in humans after the study was completed.
The Animal Health Institute, a D.C.-based group that
represents "companies that make medicines" for pets and farm animals,
disputed the findings. According to spokesman Ron Phillips, the NEJM
studies relied on outdated data that don't jibe with large, government
databases. Also, he said, they overlooked "basic common sense" because
"we don't eat raw ground beef."
Dr. Sherwood Gorbach of Tufts University School of
Medicine, who penned the NEJM editorial calling for a halt to antibiotic
use in animal feed, said the problem isn't just with the resistant
bugs now hanging out at a grocery near you. When one bacterium figures
out how to get past an antibiotic, it can transfer that genetic know-how
to other bacteria. It's that ripple effect that's cautionary.
In his editorial, Gorbach said the three studies "along
with the abundant supporting evidence provided by previous studies,
represent the proverbial 'smoking gun.'" He argues that livestock
growers should use antibiotics only for sick critters and shouldn't
use drugs that are important for humans. -- OI
Undercovered
-- Nov. 12: A U.S. smart bomb destroyed
the Kabul office of Al-Jazeera television, criticized by the U.S.
for opposing U.S. bombing and airing Osama Ben Laden's speeches. Al-Jazeera
called the bombing deliberate (Guardian).
-- Nov. 14: Winter snows are falling in the remote
central highlands, where 40 percent of food needed for winter has
been delivered and some people have been eating grass. (London Independent).
The U.N. confirmed that Northern Alliance soldiers had killed at least
100 Taliban fighters, many of them foreigners, who were hiding in
a school in Mazar-i-Sharif (Pakistan Daily Jang). A Northern
Alliance spokesman said international peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan
are unnecessary because the Northern Alliance will cover security
(Guardian). Afghan women in exile warned, "So many of those now involved
in ... the Northern Alliance have the blood of our beloved people
on their hands... From 1992 to 1996 in particular, these forces waged
a brutal war against women, using rape, torture, abduction, and forced
marriage as their weapons..." (Tahmeena Faryal, Institute for Public
Accuracy). "We... emphatically ask the U.N. to send its effective
peace-keeping force into the country before the Northern Alliance
can repeat the unforgettable crimes they committed [before]" (R.A.W.A.).
-- Nov. 15: The first barge of U.N. wheat crossed from
Uzbekistan and was trucked to a refugee camp on the road to Mazar-i-Sharif.
UNICEF suspended aid convoys, fearing that two of its drivers had
been killed in Mazar-i-Sharif. Four other drivers and two UNICEF staff
people were missing. Heavy U.S. bombing in Kandahar killed eight civilians
and wounded 22, according to Afghan Islamic Press (Pakistan Daily
Jang). As the Taliban retreated, various Pashtun warlords laid
claim to cities and regions of southern Afghanistan. In Kabul, rival
militia groups set up roadblocks, splitting the city along ethnic
lines. "We are back to the civil war problem," said one source. "You
drop hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bombs to bring about
the re-emergence of warlordism." A Taliban official in Pakistan claimed
that the Taliban had left the city "'to save the lives of the citizens
of Kabul," retreating so U.S. bombing would cease.
-- Nov. 16: Ramadan began. A U.S. bomb hit a Kandahar
mosque; 11 people were killed (Pakistan Daily Jang). Another
mosque in the town of Khowst was hit by a stray 500-pound bomb (BBC).
The U.N. World Food Program met its monthly target for the first time,
carrying 52,000 tons of food into Afghanistan from Iran, Pakistan,
Tadjikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan (U.N. World Food Program.)
-- Nov. 17: Northern Alliance killed fighters they
believed were linked to the Taliban. Refugees returning home to Kabul
jumped out of trucks and buses to stone the bodies. Many Taliban dead
were foreigners, Arabs and Pakistanis, whom Afghans regard as invaders
(London Observer). From 2,000 to 20,000 Taliban fighters were
besieged in Kunduz, with nowhere to escape. They were preventing residents
from leaving, using them as human shields (Ima Iranian News Agency.)
-- Nov. 18: Six warlords vied for control of Jalalabad,
including one commander who fought for the Taliban until last week.
A spice merchant in the bazaar said, "I am sick when I see what is
happening... There is no army, no government. Everyone has a Kalashnikov."
"Afghanistan has run out of everything except suffering," said Amin
Gul, whose son is being treated for blast wounds in the city hospital
(London Observer). -- Kate Rogers Gessert
Trauma
Examined
A free public forum on the response
to the terrorist acts of Sept. 11 will be held in Eugene at 7 pm Tuesday,
Nov. 27 at the First United Methodist Church, 15th and Olive.
Speaking on "The Trauma in New York" will be Dr. Carl
Peterson, a Eugene psychologist who recently returned from counseling
workers at Ground Zero.
Speaking on "The Trauma in Afghanistan" will be Zaher
Wahab, professor of education at Lewis & Clark College. Wahab,
a native of Afghanistan, will address the U.S. role in Afghanistan
and possible resolutions to the crisis there. Wahab lost a brother
under the Soviet occupation in 1979.
Other topics include "A Critique of the U.S. Response
to Sept. 11" with Martin Hart-Landsberg, director of the Political
Economy Program at Lewis & Clark. Hart-Landsberg, a frequent public
commentator, will analyze the Bush Administration approach and what
it will take to achieve international stability, justice and security.
Discussion and suggested action steps will follow
the presentations. The event is sponsored by Community Alliance of
Lane County (CALC) and endorsed by the Middle East Peace Group and
Lane County Democratic Party. For more information, call 485-1755.
Holiday
Closure
EW's offices will be closed
both Thursday and Friday for the long Thanksgiving weekend. We will
reopen Monday morning. Today (Wednesday) is the early deadline for
Calendar and advertising for our Nov. 29 issue. Questions? Call 484-0519.
Back to Top
Unwritten
Rules
Guild,
R-G testify before Labor Board.
By
Orna Izakson
The Register-Guard and the Eugene Newspaper
Guild took pieces of their ongoing battle to court last week, asking
a judge to determine if the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
was right in saying the R-G management violated the rights of the
union.
The two main issues were the company's rules about
dress and communications. The Guild argued that unwritten dress rules
were being used unfairly -- and illegally -- to target union
employees who wore union insignia at work. The Guild also argued that
company rules against using e-mail for non-work purposes were being
used unfairly against the union employees.
Most of the drama came on Friday, the third day of
the hearing.
Michael Zinser -- a Nashville lawyer who hawks
his services to newspapers with pesky unions around the country --
spent most of the morning questioning Cynthia Walden, the R-G's
human resources director. Her testimony may have been most helpful
to the Guild side.
Walden acknowledged that although the 1996 communications
policy banned all use of company equipment -- including computers
and e-mail -- for non-work purposes, that didn't mean people
couldn't receive calls from their children or send out e-mails about
"activities around an employee's life" such as births, weddings and
deaths. She also said that employees historically have been allowed
to incur long-distance telephone charges on company phones for personal
calls as long as they reimburse the company.
Similarly, Walden acknowledged that the paper had
no written rules prohibiting employees from wearing buttons or other
insignia -- even though one employee was disciplined for wearing
a union armband. She said the issue was essentially one of dress code,
a matter enforced by individual managers to meet the needs of their
departments. She said that employees had been asked to remove buttons
about weight-loss programs or ones that read "ask me about being a
grandma," but also said that a union tie-tack probably would not violate
the policy.
After Walden's testimony, she, Zinser and R-G attorney
Linda Kessel left the room to get the next witness. A few minutes
later, the same three returned. After Kessel introduced herself to
the judge, she called Zinser to testify.
In a scene reminiscent of TV courtroom drama, NLRB
attorney Andrew Lang and Guild attorney Jill Wrigley objected. At
the hearing's outset, the sides had agreed that none of the witnesses
would be allowed to listen to any of the others, and Zinser, as lead
attorney during the course of the proceedings, had obviously heard
everything.
Zinser argued that he had the right to speak as long
as his client was aware that he was testifying and had representation
through Kessel, who attended the hearings for the first time on that
last day. He said he wanted to dispel some earlier characterizations
of things he had said during bargaining.
Also like TV dramas, the judge declared "this is highly
unusual." He left the room for a few minutes to research the legality
of the request, came back in a short temper and allowed Zinser to
testify.
The issue to which Zinser spoke turned on testimony
earlier in the week by Lance Robertson, the Guild's former lead bargainer.
Robertson, who left the paper over the summer, testified that Zinser
had commented during bargaining that employees could use company e-mail
if they wanted to communicate about eliminating the union. As Kessel
read from a typed list of questions, Zinser carefully denied Robertson's
testimony, saying those were not his exact words.
Guild President Suzi Prozanski said she thought the hearing went
well for the union.
"Our lawyers think that our testimony has clearly
shown that there was discrimination against union officers and employee
communications on union matters," she said Friday afternoon.
The Guild presented "an avalanche of evidence" of
non-work-related e-mails, she said, none of which drew sanctions under
the company policy. The only e-mails that did draw the company's ire
were four that were related to the union.
"Managers are sending out personal e-mail and have
never been disciplined," she explained. "The company policy says they
don't allow personal use, but they allowed it until they disagreed
with what was said."
On the insignia issue, Prozanski said employees wear
company logos all the time -- for instance, Nike clothing or
team logos in the sports department, which could be seen to prejudice
stories.
"There's insignia being worn throughout the building
that's not being corrected," she said. "The insignia policy is not
written, they just enforce it as they see it, like a dress code. If
they don't like it, they say something, as Cynthia said."
Zinser did not return a call for comment.
Final arguments are due to the judge on Dec. 21, and
a decision is expected in late February. Whatever the judge determines,
an appeal is likely from the losing side.
In the nearly three years that the union has been
attempting to bargain a new contract with the R-G, Guild members
have filed nine complaints of unfair labor practices against the company.
In eight of the nine cases, the NLRB has agreed with the Guild; in
the remaining case, the Guild withdrew the complaint.
This week, the Guild filed three new complaints against
the company, alleging that it made promises and subsequently took
them off the bargaining table, and that in two cases it made changes
to advertising employees' compensation without negotiating the changes
with the union.
Back to Top
 Ken
Kesey
-- Photo by Paul Neevel
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