Eighty-three years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Friday, September 6, 1974 News Phone: 764
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104
Schuler 's
h appy
familIy?
Editor's note: The following is an inter-
view with Myra Wolfgang and Bob Alpert,
v-0552 organizers for Local 24 of the Hotel, Mo-
tel, Restaurants Employes, Cooks and
Bartenders Union, about the upcoming
we wanted to discuss the issues openly.
We've challenged anyone in the manage-
ment at Win Schuler's to a public debate,
but we've received no response from them.
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unionization vote at Win Schuler's rest- WE COULD DISCUSS the labor move-
aurant. The Daily welcomes all corres- ment in a vacuum, but I particularly want
pondence about this issue, and we are to focus on Schuler's and student employ-
most interested in hearing from other ment in Ann Arbor. There is a shocking
Ann Arbor restaurant employes. Please number of students here who are working
address submissions to "Letters to The in restaurants and not even being paid
Daily." the legal minimum wage. I do not say this
as a condemnation of students, but rather
By MARNIE HEYN as a condemnation of employers who are
taking advantag'e of the fact that many
Daily: Next week there will be a union- students must work in order to live and
ization vote at Win Schuler's restaurant go to school. Students in Ann Arbor readily
in Ann Arbor. Why Schuler's, why Ann condemn landlords, and rightfully so, for
Arbor, and why now? rents that are being charged, but they
Myra: Local 24 of the Hotel, Motel, fail to see the point in condemning with
Restaurant Employes, Cooks and Bar- equal venom employers who do not pay
tenders Union has been petitioned by a them either a fair wage or even the legal
group of employes at Win Schuler's res- minimum, who exploit them.
taurant here in Ann Arbor to assist them Now, Schuler's has suddenly developed
in organizing a union. We have given them the attitude of paternalism, and have taken
that assistance, and a majority of em- all of their employes under their wing.
ployes have signed cards authorizing a Things are happening there that have
union to represent them, and the union never happened before. They have an-
so notified Win Schuler's restaurant. Win nounced a health and welfare program,
Schuler responded that if we have a they've put fans in the kitchen, they've
majority, the majority should be proven said we have an open-door policy. It's
in an election conducted by the National obvious that without a legal, binding con-
Labor Relations Board. That election has tract, what the employer gives, the em-
been scheduled for September 12 even ployer can take away. And as for Schuler's
though we had petitioned early in July. open-door policy, employes tell us that it
It's interesting --to note that since we consists of the classic reply, "If you don't
received authorization cards over 90 em- like the job, why don't you find another?"
ployes have quit there. However, the
election is still on, and we decided that SO, ONE OF the most important things
a union can do here is establish a griev-
ance procedure so that problems can be
handled in a systematic, organized way,
and so that employes need not be fearful
of taking up a grievance because they will,
have a spokesperson to do it for them.
On that particular question, Schuler's is
trying to make a big issue out of "strang-
ers" interfering in their big happy family.
That's nonsense, because the union is the
employes, and the employes are the union.
And even though Schuler's speaks of the
employes not needing anyone to speak
for them, Win Schuler is one of the leading
f mamare f taMirhaa h P.tigt S
members or the mcngan tesauran n,,
sciationand0doesn'theatetohaveth BUT THAT WASN'T the case at all;
sociation, and doesn't hesitate to have the Michigan did pass a minimum wage law
MRA speak for him. and the company did expand in Michigan.
Getting back to the whole question of But before we had a minimum wage law,
wages paid in Ann Arbor, the Michigan to answer Schuler's contention that he
minimum wage law was passed without a knows what's best for his employes, when
doubt as the result of the efforts of the the minimum wage in Michigan was $1.25
Hotel and Restaurant Employes Union. an hour, waitresses at the Stevensville
And it wasn't an easy struggle. In fact it=restaurant were getting $1.25, and the
finally required a sleep-in in the Senate waitresses at the Fort Wayne, Ind., res-
in order to force some amendments to the taurant-hardly 40 miles away-were get-
law so that it would become meaningful ting 75 cents. And the menu prices were
for hotels and restaurants. the same in both cases. So we feel that
AT THAT TIME, the law only applied to organizing Schuler's is very, very im-
people of 13 weeks tenure. Because of the portant, we are here at the request of their
kemployes, and if we are successful there,
great turnover in the business, it meant we are planning a major campaign in Ann
that the majority of the employes were Arbor to organize the hotel and restaurant
not covered. And there was really no pro- employes, because we feel that the em-
vision to prevent an employer from firing ployes here are being exploited, and the
people before the 13th week to avoid com- only way that they .can overcome that is
plying with the minimum wage law. We through organization.
were able to get some strengthening
amendments as a result of numerous hear- TOMORROW. Feeding The Hand
ings held usually before a House com- That Bites You
mittee, then a Senate committee, often a
joint committee.
I do not know of one single hearing that
was held-and I attended all of them-that
either Win Schuler. or one of his represen-
tatives were not there to fight against any
strengthening of the wage law-as a mat-
ter of fact, they opposed the law entirely
before it went on the books; and they op-
posed it by saying that. if Michigan had a
minimum wage law, they would not ex-
pand in the state of Michigan, they'd gd to
other states to build their restaurants.
Actions speak louder .. .
ON WEDNESDAY, August 21, the
Senate voted on Defense Appro-
priations for the fiscal year 1974. Not
much was changed from the previous
year (1973). We are still spending
billions of dollars on defense, while
thousands of people in this country
are going hungry, homeless, and out
of work.
William Proxmire (D.-Wis.) pro-
posed an amendment to the bill to
reduce the military aid to South Viet-
nam from $700 million to $550 mil-
lion. This $550 million is the amount
Congress allocated to South Vietnam
in 1973. The Senator's rational for
this was set down very eloquently in
the Congressional Record for that
date. '
According to the Defense Intelli-
gence Agency, in 1973 the U. S. spent
$5.3 billion on South Vietnam. The
avowed purpose of U. S. involvment
in Southeast Asia is to keep a bal-
ance of power between the "free" and
the "Communist" forces in the area.
But according to the D.I.A., the U.S.
S.R. gave North Vietnam only $175
million in 1973, and the Peoples Re-
public of China only $115 million. In
fact, the two Communist superpow-
ers have been reducing their military
aid to the North each year. This is a
ratio of 8 to 1 on expenditures in In-
dochina for one year, and while the
U.S.S.R. and the P.R.C. are reducing
military aid, the U.S. is raising theirs.
n 7HY? The official purpose of our
involvement in South Vietnam is
to preserve peace, and that is where
our money is. supposed to be going.
But is it? Senator Proxmire said
"The U.S. dollars go into the pockets
of the corrupt bureaucracy in Viet-
nam." According to the Senator,
South Vietnam's 92 generals have
been ordered recently to cut their
personal staffs (chauffeurs and lac-
keys) from 36 to 11 each. He went on
to cite further abuses of power and
U.S. m o n e y; blackmarketeering,
"ghost soldiers, and incompetence at
the higher levels. '
The Senator from Wisconsin stated
that the only way that the U.S. can
stop this in any degree is to limit the
amount of money that goes to South
Vietnam. If this was done the money
would be limited, and the officials of
South Vietnam would have to keep a
tighter control of spending, and cor-
ruption.
Betty Ford, in her press conference
on Wednesday told the American
public that we would have to "tight-
en our belts" in the next year. This is
not new; Congress has been saying
this for months now, and the Presi-
dent has stated that inflation is our
number one problem. Cutting back on
aid to the corrupt regime in Saigon
will not stop inflation, but it would
help.
WHEN THE AMENDMENT came to
a yea or nay vote, the nays had
it 47 to 44. The bill was defeated by 3
votes. The reason why it was defeated
is that 8 senators were absent when
the vote was called. Among them
were such anti-war politicians as
Kennedy, Gravel, McGovern, Case,
Javits, and Percy. If any of them had
been there the amendment might
have passed, but for reasons unknown
none of them were there.
It is this kind of negligence on the
part of leaders that is destroying
public faith in government. In 1972
George McGovern, then a presiden-
tial candidate, called for an end to
U.S. involvement in South Vietnam,
but last Wednesday he was absent.
Actions do speak louder than words.
-DAVID WARREN
TODAY'S STAFF:
MYRA WOLFGANG, right, confers with labor organizers from other unions after a Coalition of Labor Union Women session during their March conference in Chicago.
Letters
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Bill Heenan, Cindy Hill,
Pilate, Judy Ruskin
Biddle,
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Editorial Page: Marnie Heyn, David
Warren
Arts Page: Ken Fink
Photo Technician: Stuart Hollander
Editorial Staff
DANIEL BIDDLE
Editor in Chief
JUDY RUSKIN and REBECCA WARNER
Managing Editors
SUE STEPHENSON .......................Feature Editor
MARNIE HEYN ............................Editorial Director
CINDY HILL........................Executive Director
KENNETH! FINK .................... ...Arts Editor
STAFF WRITERS: Prakash Aswani, Gordon Atcheson, Laura
Berman, Dan Blugerman, Howard Brick, Charles Cole-
man, Barb Cornell, Jeff Day, Della DiPietro, William
Heenan, Steve Hersh, Jack Hrost, Andrea Lilly, Mary
Long, Jeff Luxenberg, Josephine Marcotty, Beth Nissen,
Cheryl Pilate, Sara Rimer, Jim Schuster, Stephen
Selbst, Jeff Sorensen, Paul Terwilliger.
Sports Staff
MARC FELDMAN
Sports Editor
GEORGE HASTINGS
Executive Sports Editor
ROGER ROSSITER ..................Managing Sports Editor
JOHN KA LER .................Associate Sports Editor
THERESA SWEDO ............. Contributing Sports Editor
victims
To The Daily:
ALTHOUGH I AGREE entire-
ly with the comments made in
the editorial of the summer is-
sue (2 August) concerning am-
nesty, I was much disconcerted
by the tone. I spent 1972-73
working as a pediatric consul-
tant at a reconstructive surgery
hospital in Saigon and various
children's facilities in the South.
What we need to realize is
that the war rages on. F e w
of us know that there have been
more Vietnamese (North and
South) killed in the first year
after the "just and lasting peace
with honor" than Americans
killed during the twelve years
of our military occupation.
The true prisoners of war are
not those who elected to bomb
and managed to live through
the horrors of their decision, nor
are they the AWOL GI's or
"draft-dodgers" secure some-
what uncomfortably perhaps
in Canada or Sweden, rather
they are the millions of refu-
gees, displaced persons -
houseless, hopeless, innocently
injured, stranded as prisoners
in the mire of the war and the
corruption.
IN THE DAY and age of
ecology and women's liberation
and gay liberation let us return
some of that vibrant anti-w a r
sentiment which has been al-
most entirely replaced by the
various liberation movements,
and force the U.S. foreign policy
to change. The editorial spoke
of Vietnam as a thing of the
past, a subject no longer dis-
cussed in these "post-draft"
days. Only a political solution,
Michigan will have an oppor-
tunity to vote for union repre-
sentation - a goal toward
which many of us have been
working for some time, and it
is no time for apathy. Those of
us who believe we are entitled
to work under contract so that
we will know how much our
salary increases will be next
year, and those of us who be-
lieve that we are entitled to the
dignity and respect of negotiat-
ed working conditions must be
at the polls at the appointed
time to cast our ballots.
Many of us have donated un-
told hours trying to better the
working conditions of all. We
have Commissions for this and
Commissions for that, all small
groups working in different di-
rections with no sense of unity
and so many issues to argue
there has to be resultant frag-
mentation, we have wasted
years discussing inequitable
salary compression. For in-
stance, a 5 per cent raise for a
$5000 yearly employee amounts
to $250, and a 5 per cent raise
for a $15,000 yearly employee
amounts to $750. An excellent
example of financial juggling
but little consolation for the
lower level employee who has
to pay the same for groceries
as everyone else. Our inade-
quate grievance procedures are
regarded as unjunst by many
authorities. The Promotional
Openings Program is really not
an opportunity at all but an ego
shattering device designed to
keep the lower level employees
in the same old dead end jobs,
since most of the applicants for
the better jobs are hired by
the supervisor before the posi-
t;on is even nosed n th hill e
ed for change, now is the time
to cast your ballot for AFSCME.
It is the only way to gain
strength and cohesiveness and
unity, and please don't stop
there. Become involved, elect
qualified people to represent
you in your bargaining unit be-
cause we have a wealth of po-
tentially excellent people with-
in thisnUniversity. If there is
something you want to know
about unionization and collec-
tive bargaining AFSCME UM
Organizing Committee ,will en-
lighten you, if you will call 994-
4646. Join a committee. Learn
with your co workers. Don't
hesitate to ask questions. Now
is the time to ask, please don't
say you didn't vote because you
didn't know - after the elec-
tion is over.
The structure of AFSCME,
700,000 public employees w i t h
basically the same problems as
we have, combined with our
knowledge of the University is
an ideal beginning. Most of us
need to work, and the only way
to maintain a measure of se-
curity is to have the University
contract for our labor. This is a
commitment, we who have the
opportunity to vote must make
to ourselves and to our tempor-
ary co workers who will not
have the privilege of voting,
some of whom have been tem-
porarily employed since 1965.
I HAVE served on the Com-
mission for Women and its sub-
committees and with the assist-
ance of an excellent steering
committee I was successful in
the formation of the Women's
Commission at University Hos-
pital. I've walked the rocky
roodofth di i ni', ,,i( -Pr.
a
AFSCME. I believe it's the only
way.
-Pat Freer
Main Hospital
running
To The Daily:
I HAVE decided to seek the
Democratic nomination for the
University of Michigan's Board
of Regents at the state conven-
tion. I ask for your support. I
am a junior and a political sci-
ence major at the university.
I strongly feel there is a ne-
cessity for a student regent. A
student regent can best repre-
sent the concerns of the student
body and understand the prob-
lems it faces. Most of the cur-
rent regents have little person-
al contact with the campus and
Ann Arbor.
I have criticized the regents'
Committee on Student Govern-
ance since its inception because
the regents were looking for a
weapon to weaken and possibly
destroy student government on
campus. I favor deferred tui-
tion and deferred college loan
programs. New scholarship and
loan programs must be created
in order to keep up with the
steady increase in college tui-
tion. I support full public dis-
closure of salaries of the uni-
versity's faculty and employees.
I also want a teaching-train-
ing requirement for teaching as-
sistants.
I AM FOUNDER and Presi-
dent of Campus Coalition, which
is the largest campus political
party. As Administrative V i c e
President and later President
of the University Housing Coun-
cil I helned cnntinue the TFW
member and as its current Act-
ing Coordinating Vice President,
I and only a few others had
charged SGC President Lee Gill
with attempting to embezzle
student government money last
October. Gill mysteriously re-
signed last January and disap-
peared; the police are still
searching for him on charges
of embezzling $8000. Also,: I.
have served on two student gov-
ernment committees and three
housing selection committees.
I AM A College Young Demo-
crat and I was a delegate to the
Michigan Young Democrats con-
stitutional convention. I was a
block captain, high school co-
ordinator, poll worker, and all-
around volunteer for Senator
Humphrey in the 1972 Pennsyl-
vania Presidential Primary. I
was later a dorm coordinator
for McGovern for President, a
precinct captain in 1973 for Ann
Arbor Councilman Norris Thom-
as and mayorality candidate
Franz Mogdis, and have helped
a number of other candidates.
During the summer of 1972, I
worked on the Democratic Tele-
thon, participated in a registra-
tion drive for Representative
William Green (D-Pa.), and was
a volunteer for Common Cause.
I have led a successful peti-
tion drive to name a school'in
memory of slain Philadelphian
civil rights leader and teacher
Samson Freedman. Also, I have
belonged to numerous environ-
mental organizations, such as
Defenders of Wildlife and the
American Forestry Association.
I AM CURRENTLY working
on the state representative cam-
paign of Marilyn Young. former