kpge 4--Thursday, October 12, 1978-The Michigan Daily
. ,
t
E
Eighty-Nine Years of Editorial Freedom
Boom in low-skilled jobs
undermining U.S. education
Vol. LIX, No.,31
News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
MSA and the new president
N DECEMBER, University Presi-
I dent Robben Fleming will retire,
and sometime in the next year a
-replacement will be named. The
.Regents, as they have always done,
Qwill choose that successor. They will
;.,listen to the : recommendations of
.faculty and alumni groups, verbally
.""pat them on the head, and then select
-,whomever they prefer anyway. The
Regents would like to appease the
"students in the same manner they will
appease the faculty and alumni, but
Monday night the Michigan Student
Assembly made it clear it won't be
pacified and ignored.
MSA voted to participate in the
presidential selection process only
upon written assurance from the
Regents of the following:
" a consolidated committee
representing all three interested
parties - students, faculty, and
alumni - or formal collaboration
amongst these groups;
" access to resumes and
biographical material of all potential
candidates including those on the
Regents' private lists;
" personal access to all potential
candidates.
This plan would be minimally
sufficient
to warrant
student
participation. Anything less would
make a mockery of the concept of
student input in choosing the new
president. After faculty members,
students will be most affected by the
new chief administrator, but under the
Regents plan, students' input could
easily be ignored. It comes down to the
simple question of who is this
University for, and we agree
wholeheartedly with MSA that it is for
the students. That is why we must play
more than a cosmetic role in
determining the new president, and
thereby the future of the University.
The only fault with the MSA proposal
is that it doesn't go far enough; it still
permits the Regents to throw
everyone's work out the window at the
last minute, and make an independent
choice. Student and faculty interests
cannot be fully met unless the Regents
are bound to select the new president
from a list jointly compiled by
students; faculty and Regents. It is
unlikely the Regents would accept
such a plan, but it is difficult to
understand how they can refuse the
milder MSA proposal. Should the
Regents fail to comply, MSA would be
duty-bound to boycott the process.
Ron Checchi is part of a
national dilemma.
A 34-year-old butcher at a large
Safeway supermarket in San
Francisco, Checchi learned his
trade, after years of studious
apprenticeship to his father,
Hugo. Today, Ron Checchi runs
pre-cut portions of beef through a
saw and reflects on all the
intricate butchers' skills he
knows and never uses.
"We were once judged by
skills, but skills don't matter
anymore," he says. "Anybody
can be trained in seven or eight
months to run meat through the
saw."
Across town, Hugo Checchi, 61,
still works behind the meat
counter for a small independent
grocer. And he still carves by
hand with almost surgical
precision the huge carcasses of
beed that hang in the meat
locker. Hugo says he's more than
a butcher; he's also the "public
relations man" who sells the
meat to his customers.
"Less skills are required in a
chain outfit," says Hugo. "They
get equal pay, but they know
less."
YET MOST butchers, these
days; are hired bytchain stores,
not the small independents. And
butchers are not an isolated
breed in the labor market.
Throughout America, the need
for skilled workers is on the
decline as jobs requiring little or
no skills are on the rise. It is a
result of radical and immutable
changes occuring in the U.S.
economy-changes which some
economists and educators predict
could lead to massive
dissatisfaction and social
upheaval across the board of the
U.S. labor force.
As American industry
continues to automate and export
both skilled and unskilled
manufacturing jobs, service
sector jobs continue to expand
and fill the gap. The
congressional Joint Economic
Committee predicted earlier this
year that by 1985, up to 80 per
cent of the U.S. workforce would
be employed in the service
sector, where skill requirements
are at a minimum and there are
fewer labor unions to protect
wages.
The Bureau of Labor
Statistics predicts that the fastest
growing job slots for the years
ahead will be for dental
hygienists, flight attendants,
computer programmers,
teacher's aides and realtors -
none of which requires a college
education. Labor unions point to
the increasing demand for
secretaries and clerks "where
paperwork is shuffled."
By Al Goodman
WHILE NOT all service sector
employment is unrewarding or
underpaid, the statistics show
that in general these jobs are
characterized by low wages, little
or no security or benefits, and
little room for career
advancement.
And, says Patrick Mason,
research director of the
California Labor Federation,
"There is no incentive to stay on
the job." The poor pay and lack of
security or incentive has
contributed to growing legions of
migratory farm workers, drifting
from one poor job to another,
unable to put down roots or
provide for a family, say
economic observers.
Columbia University
economist Eli Ginzberg notes
that although national weekly
earnings averaged $176 in 1976,
the average pay in service jobs
was just $146 and the retail
_what has happened, adds
Pipho,- is that America has
"created a lower level of jobs
where no reading or writing skills
are needed."
The growth of this "lower level
caste," in turn, is a contributing
factor to the failure of schools to
upgrade, or even maintain,
educational achievement, some
educators believe.
"In the past, it paid to do well in
school to get a better job," said
Henry Levin, Stanford University
education professor. "Today,
there's the feeling that better
jobs represent so few, you can't
get them anyway."
"I think (students) are aware
that college won't do what it used
to," said Rozanne Weissman, a
spokesman for the National
Education Association, the
nation's second largest union.
"Teachers have been telling us
about less motivated kids."
Federal projections indicate a surplus
of some 950,000 college graduates in
relation to the market for graduates during
the current period of 1974-85.
SOME EDUCATORS are
convinced that the trend in the
job market away from jobs
requiringkskills and education
has indirectly helped to lower
overall educational standards by
easing the pressure on the
schools and on the government to
improve those standards. In
other words, if industry doesn't
need skilled workers, why bother
to produce skilled students?
"There's a total lack of
coordination between schools and
the job sector," said the NEA's
Weissman. "It's appalling.
Weissman's observation
applies as well to the other end o
the educational spectrum, those
college graduates who have
acquired high skills in order t
find satisfying, good paying jobs.
Federal projections indicate a
surplus of some 950,000 college
graduates in relation to the
market for graduates during the
current period of 1974-85. - Th
Joint Economic Committee labor
sudy this year predicts that thi
"clot" of highly educated
graduates "will mean relatively
few opportunities for new
graduates through the year
2000.
OF COURSE, what is
happening is that these educated,
skilled graduates are accepting
jobs well below their skill levels
as salesmen, secretaries and
restaurant workers, creating a
kind of educated proletariat. But
at the same time, they are
"bumping down" high school
graduates and the less skille
workers who normally fill suc
jobs into what some ecomonist
fear will be a permanen
underclass with virtually n
prospects for advancement.
The result is a bleak picture fo
those at both ends, but especiall
for tae less educated minorit
youths who are hit hardest by th
crunch.
By the end of this century
predicts Stephen Dresch,
director of the Demographic
Studies Institute in Connecticut,
the undermining of, the
"traditional mechanism9u of
social and econOmi
advancement" will, if curren
patterns hold, lead t
"fundamental and sociaill
traumatic disruptions... "
The inexorable changes novW
gong on, he told the Joint
Economic Committee, will leave
"very fewuntouched.'
"
Al Goodman writes o
education for Pacific New
Service. This article is part o
PNS's continuing coverage o
the trends reshapin
America's economy.
The PBB ads and Fitz
POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS in this
country seem to be run by
persons who say at the outset: how far
can we go without being accused of
mud-slinging or dirty politics. The
speeches they give their candidates to
parrot are filled with glittering
generalities, the "I'm just like you",'
and "come on, everybody's jumping on
the bandwagon", techniques of
audience persuasion. But the most
dastardly means of persuasion is an
emotion-packed argument - the most
effective device a politician has to win
votes.
Whether it is glittering generalities
or emotion-based arguments, makes
no difference; they are all bad. They
are not based on logic; they do not
demonstrate to the listener that a
candidate is-qualified for the position
she or he seeks. An emotion-charged
speech or advertisement is hollow,
which may imply something about
candidates who use such techniques.
State Sen. William Fitzgerald had
been running radio ads which credited
the toxic chemical PBB with a host of
maladies. "Want to know the truth
about PBB in Michigan," one ad said.
"Loss of hair, memory loss, blindness,
liver cancer, birth defects, the brain
developing outside of the head," were
all tragedies attributed to PBB. Then
the ad states that everyone "is going to.
get a taste of this stuff." And of course,
Sen. Fitzgerald attributes the PBB
debacle to Governor William Milliken.
The problem is that no proof exists
which attributes these maladies to
PBB. The chemical is harmful, but we
don't know enough about it to make
statements which link PBB to brains
growing outside of heads. The ads,
which have since been taken off the
air, after severe criticism from Gov.
Milliken, were at best irresponsible.
The ads were a plea for votes, based
not on fact, but solely on emotion. The
governor should be attacked for his
mishandling of the PBB incident with
effective factual evidence. The ads
were sharp and effective, but they
were wrong. They were all style and no
substance, which may tell us
something about the candidate.
average only $114. And yet, he
says, three out of four new jobs in
the past 26 years have been in
these categories.
The decline in skill
requirements has not only hit the
high-skill areas, such as
butchers, tool and dye makers
and other machinists.
Automation has also "de-skilled"
jobs at the supermarket Checkout
counters, retail stores and large
commmercial chains.
Employees at some
McDonald's restaurants, for
ecamply, now merely have to,
push cash register buttons
marked not by numbers but by
pictures of hamburgers or french
fries or milkshakes. The machine
then does all the computing and
tally up the change, an
arithmetical task the employe
once was expected to perform,
ONE McDONALD'S manager
explained that it leads to greater
efficiency and service to the
customer. But, says Chris Pipho,
associate director of research for
the Denver-based Education
Commission of the States, "While
the manager of McDonald's
might go to the Kiwanis and talk
about kids not reading or writing,
in practice he hasn't done much
to help them use these skills."
THIS LACK of motivation -
perhaps the result of the
students' own awareness that
most jobs are poorly paid and no
longer require much in the way of
skills - has produced just the
sort of job seekers who fit the
"lower level caste" of workers.
The rate of "functional
illiteracy" - not being able to
read a newspaper or fill out a job
application - is about 13 per cent
of all 17-year old high school
students (not counting the
thousands who drop out
annually), according to the
federally financed National
Assessment of Educational
Progress, Functional illiteracy
among blacks and Hispanics is
believed to be much higher.
And, while there has been some
progress made on the functional
illiteracy rates, overall
educational standards, as
reflected by the College Entrance
Examination Board, have been
steadily declining. Between 1962
and 1976, average acores on the
verbal portion of the Scholastic
Aptitude Test have declined from
478 to 429, a 12.9 per cent drop.
Motivation for education has
suffered so badly that many
schools are now reporting an
average daily absentee rate as
high as 25 per cent.
Letters to the Daily
"WE- MUST A~PRCC IR~Et JCiGWv'CRISI
AS -rHE MOC'AL EKONAL trOF WAR
-- A.Zm~, g1
tl
'K .:__
peacekeepers
To the Daily:
In the course of the past few
days I have watched alternately
in shock and outrage as the
Michigan Daily continued to
refer to the Syrian troops
occupying Lebanon as
"peacekeeping forces." In light
of recent events, to continue to
describe the 30,000 man Syrian
force as "peacekeepers" is a
gross perversion of the term's
true meaning.
To portray Syria's systematic
destruction of the Christian
community of Lebanon as some
type of peacekeeping mission is
ludicrous. The Syrians are not
pursuing peace, but rather they
are pursueing their long-time
dream of domination of Lebanon
and creation of a greater Syria.
To accomplish this, the Syrians
literally do not care who or how
many they must kill.
I suggest that the editors of the
Michigan Daily take a long hard
look at the facts of the horror now
being perpetrated in Lebanon
and realize the true purpose and
meaning of Syria's Lebanon
involvement.
It would have been interesting
to see how the current editors of
the Michigan Daily would have
covered the actions of the
Russian "peacekeeping" force in
Czechoslovakia in 1968.
would like to raise my voice in
protest against the advertising by
helicopter that occurs every
football Saturday in this city.
The incessant droning that
invades my home for five solid
hours on these dreaded days is
distressing on two counts. It
disrupts my concentration and
affends my sensibilities in terms
of energy conservation.
} In an age of dwindling natural
resources, I feel that this sort of
action is grossly irresponsible. It
would be better business not to
waste fuel for five hours, to my
mind. A far more admirable
method of placing one's
establishment in the public eye
would be to allocate these ear-
marked advertising funds to the
Ecology Center or some other
worthy cause. In doing this, the
money would be utilized in a
productive fashion, energy would
be saved, and that annoying noise
would be eliminated.
In the event that business
would adopt this alternative
method of advertising, I believe
that they could make it be known
to the public and thereby
accomplish the same goal. I
would feel considerably more
amenable to patronizing a
business that assumed a
responsible attitude in regards to
this issue, and feel certain that I
am not alone.
recent folly with Gov. William
Milliken.
I don't really care if Mr.
Canham is being had or not, but
that my out-of-state tuition is
being had. Mr. Canham is an
employee of a public service
institution, to which I pay plenty
of hard-earned, taxed money. I
think both he and the University
should show a little more
discretion in displaying their
personal tendencies - especially
when then try to associate these
views with such a sacred
institution as our Wolverines,
-Robert Hayssen
misuse of
student funds
To the Daily:
The recent article in the Daily
mentioning the use of Michigan
Student Assembly (MSA) and
LSA Student Government funds
to finance a gay teach-in was
quite revealing. The article said
the group will use the funds to,
among other things, examine
"religious and ethical attitudes
towards homosexuality." One
can easily imagne the uproar that
would result if MSA and LSA-SG
funded Christian groups to
examine homosexuality.
Anyway, such is the dishonest
nature of these fees that,
Accounts Office they will giv
you a slip o paper informing yo
that student government fees ar
mandatory this year.
As for the note on the back o
the bill saying one could ask pett.
please for his money back, the
will tell you with a straight fac
"You don't expect us to waste al
that paper, do you?" A
interesting point: if suc
economy is affected by sendin
out unwanted old billing form
then why couldn't they slip in
small piece of paper rea~iing
"Your freedom has bee
cancelled by a majority vote o
ten per cent of last year'
students." So what one gets is a
all or nothing deal: one c4nno
know ahead of time how MSA o
LSA-SG will spend one's
mandatory fees. Students have
not allowed their "governments"
to have a blank check
everywhere. For instance: *
Earlier this year at: th
University of Nebraska
mandatory fees were used tofun
gay political groups. However
after a blizzard of mail protentin
funding of such activities :with
student fees, the Regents voted 6-
2 not to allow fees to be used for
any political groups. Students at
the University of Texas went one
better and eliminated : the
possibility of student government
misusing their funds: they voted
I