u
HONDA, IT STATED, paid a$6
million ettlement in 1988 after
being charged by the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Commi -
sion wi th discrimination against
African Americans and women.
While African Americ n
employment at Honda has increased
since then, the union said, the levels
do not reflect the population.
It was impossible to reach Honda
spokespersons by the time of this
deadline.
The union quoted a midwestern
state official who helped recruit
Japanese plants in the early 1980s
ying, "many Japan e companie
It the time specifically asked to stay
away form areas with high minority
populations. "
UA W quoted a report by Univer
sity of Michigan professors Robert
Cole and Donald Deskins, "Racial
Factors and Japanese Auto Firms"
saying that both domestic and
foreign companies tend to put new
factories in areas of low mlnority
population, but the Japanese record
of minority hiring is much worse,
THE RESEARCHERS stated
that the employment record at
Japanese auto and parts transplants
ranged from 3:6 to 14.9 per cent
lower than surrounding Black
populations, while dome tic
companies' employment averaged
8� higher.
The researchers suggest that
Jap nese bu iness assumes that
Black workers are a "problem," but
they note this is a "clear violation of
� spirit of the Civil Rights Act of
1964."
UA W accused Nissan in its
Smyrna, Tennessee office of:
- Running compulsory anti
union meetings on company time
- Firing. workers who were
union activists.
- Interrogating employees con
cerning their union membership and
other activities in order to screen ap
pUcants and refuse employment to
time who may support a union.
- Denying a job to a woman
because she filed a union grievance
at a Whirlpool Plant where she used
to work.
"THE TRANSPLANTS
(Japanese firms in the U.S.) don't
want to pay union wages and
beneflts," UA W spokespersons aid.
"they resist U.S.-style protection of
employee rights and ... (are) also
concerned about loss of (manage
ment) control."
It was impossible to reach Nlssan
officials at the time of lhis deadline.
UAW, emphasized that Asian
countries are also victimized by such
practices, charging a key electronics
company from Japan moved produc-
I I tion to South Korea for cheaper labor
.r I • co t8 Ind fired all the Korean
). � , orkers after they organized a trike.
"Building worldwide olidarity
; ... between workers in the U.S., Japan,
:.: Korea, and el ewhere remains the
t·: key to overcoming the investment
�.: and employment policies of trallSll4-
: _ tional companies, whether they're
ba ed in Tokyo, Seoul" or New
• York," the UAW said.
,: The UA W did note, however, that
�.: In ome Japanese companies,
: : : employees have organized ualoos,
': .. such as Mazda in Michigan,
,-: NUMMI (a Toyota-GM venture) in
: California, and Dfamond-Star (a
� : Mitaubishl-Chry ler plant) in 11-
: .Unol. These plants have unions '
:. contract providing greater job
:.:security, higher wages, and more
':. worker Input th n non-anton
t. • "transplan . "
.'
of party leaders d th electorate,
but the problem i I 0 omen
tbem.selv , who are afraid to run
for fear oflo ing."
ADD G political in-
volvement requires perseverance
and patience, Scott aid that her
career in poll tics w " natural
progression. "
" After orking for Councilman
Ravitz, I first ran for City Council
in 1985," he said. "I wanted to be
on the Council because I thought I
could do good job," she dded,
emphasizing that two uasucce sful
runs for a aty Council eat did not
deter her from work in politics.
"I wa a ed to run for the
Wayne State Board of Governors,
and I was surprised because I didn't
think anybody paid ttention to
what I was doing. But people were
watching, and in the end I was the
only non-incumbent Democrat to
win." Scott said.
"You run (for office) whenever
you see fit," she added. "Don't sit
back and wait for permission. We as
women cannot be afraid of rejec-
•
tion.
political force.
"We ve to mo e into th 'old
boy networ ' in wh tever way we
can," Gire 'd. "It' clo ed ys
tem, and we ve to open it in any
w ywecan.
"One of the toughest things to
deal with are the tereotypes. Men
(in legi 1 ture) when criticizing
policy get out on the floor and yell
nd swear and tomp out of th
room, and till get resul for th re
constituents. If a woman doe that,
he's called a nag or worse, and it's
over for her and her constituents.
tio ."
Teol unter taught in the
Detroi t Public Schoo and ran a
day care center prior to her political
involvement. She said that ber mis
take taught her the mo t bout.
politics.
"I tarted out not politically
n ive, but politically tupid," he
aid. ItI thought tbatjustbecause my ,
friends and family knew me and
upported m , that all of Detroit
would' wh n I ran for office. I did
not know that I would have to get
endorsements. I did not know that
you had to knock on doors and .
m e phone call . I w dev tate<!
when I had to get up in front of '
people and spe
"What I've learned through all
that, " he concluded, "is that you '
don't give credibility to anything
negative. You learn all you can, and .
continue to think po itively. After .
you have been elected to office, .
don't be afraid to get into leadership
positions. Don't settle. When you
have reached a goal, set another .
one."
Wayne State University Board
of Governors member Brend
Scott, along ith tate Repre-
entativ TeolaHunter(D-Detroit)
and Sharon Gire (D-Mt. Cleme )
took part in a panel discussion held
January 24 at the International In-
titute of Metropolitan Detroit. The
meeting was ponsored by the
Detroit Women' Forum.
The women bared the platform
in a dis ion of the barriers to
effective political action that
women face and the strategies
necessary to overcome them.
Scott, who wor ed for Con
gressman John Conyers and Deiroi t
City Councilman Mel Ravitz before
being elected to the WSU Board of
Governors, said that women have to
overcome the conditioned fear of
rejection that keeps them from
seeking public office.
"The majority of Americans are
women," he said, "but women hold
less than 8 percent of elected pos
tions. "One reason is the resistance
Snow torie ... or
who had it the wor t?
By NATHANIEL SCOTT
",,, Writ.,.
HIGHlAND PARK-Call it what
you will: El Nino, a Northern Clipper
or just plain old cold, some
Michiganders have een it a bit
worse,
Titus McClary, for instance. Yes,
you know him. He is a member of the
Highland Park Board of Education
and a former police-oops !---6afety
officer of this city.
He was also a mayoral candidate
in Highland Park's recent primaries,
Believe you me, McClary is dedi
cated to the betterment of Highland
Park.
When he first became a police
oops!--safety officer, w,ay back in
February of 1965, McClary said his
beat was walking the streets and
there was so much snow he had to
walk in the tire tracks of cars.
Wow!
"I BELIEVE THERE was 15 or
16 inches of snow," he said, eyes
twinkling as he added: "It was a
whole lot of snow."
However, Greg Byndrian, public
information officer witJt the school
dis trict of Highland Park, remembers
an incident that makes McClary' 15
or 16 inches seem as light as the dust
on biscuits.
As Byndrian remembers it, the
year was 1962 and he had motored to
Benton Harbor to ee a high chool
basketball game.
However, to appreciate
Byndrian' recollected tale, you
need to know he is a law abiding
citizen.
Therefore, he said, when he
pulled into downtown Benton Har
bor, he had to climb up a snow bank
and bend over to put money into the
parking meter.
Because of the blizzard and the,
drift, he said, "The snow was in the
double digits."
,Take heart, Readers because
Byndrian said, "I have never seen
snow that high since."
THEN THERE IS 86-year-old
Clarence H. Johnson's snow story.
Mr. Johnson doesn't remember
the year but he is sure it was at least
25 years ago when he got caught in
Highland Park during one of those
See WINTER, A-10
o , who
Macomb County Commi loner
before becoming t te repre
entative, id that women needed
to believe in themselve and each
oth r.
"There have been many b rrie
to women in politics," be aid,
" nd one of them, clearly, is
women. We need to h Ip them un
derstand that we can make a dif
ference. We have to ell our sisters
on giving ( upport to female
politicians). In my career, men
helped me learn, because I had a
tough time getting women to help
me."
Gire also expressed her belief
that men in the political arena are
still not sufficiently supportive of
female politicians, which makes it
necessary for women to become a
"NEVERTHEI.ES , as ertive
behavior i es ential," sbe added. "It
won't guarantee everything, but
without it I guarantee you will get
nothing."
Gire said that involving youth is
important, and encouraged those in
education to give students, espe
cially female ome hands-on in
volvement in politics. She also said
that the current anti-incumbent sen
timent among voters is "giving
women an edge in breaking into
some of the major political posi-
. ,
,
GOD'S CREATURE - The accumulation of now and the peralst nt cold fore d this pigeon to:
abandon flight and huddle on the ground. (Photo by N. Scott)
"The second week, we were
building new skills. We had a
workshop on risk management,
which was especially important.
One thing that came through very
clearly was that you cannot do your
job (with nontraditional adoptions)
and avoid risk."
Blac explained that advocacy
"THE TIME ,WE spent in
Washington, D.C. we got a lot of
hands-on experience in lobbying,"
she added. "The second wee
helped me get an idea of what the
. adoption field will need to be in (he
year 2000, so in Washington, we
were exposed to bow the legislative
process works and we learned how
to communicate with legislators,"
Black said.
McKenzie says that he hopes
to expand tbe efforts of the ALI
program.
-"Wbat we're trying to achieve i
a multi-cultural environment," sbe
said. "We want to get away from a
white-dominated system. We want
to encourage a dialogue about
diversity and find out bow we can
best serve various communi tie .
"One of our disappointments
was that originally we were to do
two three-week training programs
with a total of 50 participants, but
with the recent budget cuts, mucb
of our funding went to the agency'
urvival, and we ended up doing
only one program with 25 people,"
said McKenzie.
ALI continue
By LEAH SAMUEL
Staff W,.".,
TWQ year ago, Michigan'
Spaulding for Children, an adop
tion agency specifically designed
for hard-to-place children, began
the Adoption Leadership Institute
(AU).
The goal of ALI was to train
adoption pecialists from agencies
across the U.S., particularly
people of color and those serving
minority population areas, in
adoption management The goal
of ALI is to make easier the adop- ,
tion of hard-to-place children,
children of color, older children
and handicapped children.
The implementation of thi
program was to take place nation
ally over a three-year period en
ding in early 1993.
"The b ic structure of the pro
gram w for participants to pend
a total of three weeks in training,"
• explained Judi th McKenzie,
Spaulding eBCUtivc director. "The
first eek's on too p� in
Michigan, ith a week-long
sion in San Francisco ix 'ee
later, and the la t se sion in
Washington D.C.
ea
"WE' BAD A multicultural
team as core faculty for the In
stitute, mainly people who are na
tionally known for work in child
welfare. Each participant also had a
faculty advisor to assist with in
dividual concerns," McKenzie
said.
Sbarri Black, adoption program
manager for Spaulding, par
ticipated in AU training.
"The first week, we were im
mersed in some basic concepts, like
family dynamia: she said. "It
really a review, or kill renewal, but
it was from the perspective of
leaders in the field (of adoption),
Black tated.
ing minority adoption
in pecial-needs adoption w also
part of the training, and participants
were taught how to lobby for chan
ges in policy. Black believes that,
more children of color become
part of the doption and foster care
sy tem, be and other adoption
workeIS will need to become advo
cates well.
SPAULDI G I currently
"We want to. get away
from a white-dominated
(adoption) system ... II
- Judith McKenzie
de igning a propo al to develop an
urban model of ALI for use locally.
"We'd like to be able to work
with other programs in Michigan
and maybe later take the program to
other urban areas," McKenzie said.
"We are also working with the
federal government, through the
Adoption 'Opportunity Act to in-
titutionalize minority leadership
training in adoption. Government
Has an obligation to develop
minority leadership in this area, so
that we're not ripping off African
American, Hispanic and Native
American children and not giving
them support "
Black feel that although the
need for specialists in the doption
of children of color is not being
addressed fully, Spaulding's Adop
tion Leadership Institute is at the
forefront.
"What ALI did was empower
o that we could make change
w here change could be made," she
aid. "A lot of minorities leave this .
field because they feel so d.isem-,
powered by the powe -that-be in
adoption, but we've learned that in
this eld, e have to be proactive
instead of reactive."
I
I,
I