THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Sunday, February 24, 1974
THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sunday, February 24, 1974
UNIVERSITY TOWERS
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LOOKING
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THE WEEK IN REVIEW
GEO:
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of cred ibility
One of the unwritten command-
ments of union politics goes
something like this: "Thou shalt
not call a strike vote unless thou
art certain of victory." The lead-
ers of the fledgling Gradu'te
Employes Organization (GEO)
violated that commandment last
week with results which may be
disastrous to their cause.
Weeks of rising expectations
ended Tuesday night whet GEE)
leaders announced that they had
failed by some 270 votes to secure
majority approval for a strike of
University teaching fellows.
GEO had staked its credibil-
ity on the outcome of the strike
vote without much knowledge of
how-much supoprt they could ex-
pect among rank and file TFs.
The vote for a strike was, tak-
en by itself, impressive. Bu in
the context of public expecta-
tions GEO raised, it has to be
counted as a failure.
And the failure left TF support-
ers and sympathizers in a state
of confusion. Editors of T h e
Daily were, forced to make hasty
changes in a strike endorsement
editorial when the vote came in
late Tuesday night. S o m e 150
students who showed uo for a
strike support meeting sere at a
loss; about a third simply left,
while others hung around and is-
tened to confused suggestions
that perhaps undergrads should
strike in sympathy anyway. And
an American history prof. had to
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make a somewhat sheepish ap-
pearance at his Thursday morn-
ing lecture after having dra-
matically announced two days
earlier that he would hold classes
in a near-by church for the dur-
ation of the strike.
The scene at GEO's post-vote
meetings was reminiscent of
those stories which crop up from
time to time about old people
who, refusing to accept the death
of a loved one, prop up the ratting
corpse in a chair and talk to
it. With an obvious setback star-
ing her in the face, GEO Chair-
woman Sandra Silberstein brave-
ly proclaimed, "We are on the
way to victory."
The irony of this public optim-
ism was heightened by the fact
that only 60 supporters bother-
ed to show up Wednesday night
- down from over 400 Monday
night. Clearly, the failure of the
strike vote had brought about a
dramatic collapse of the wave
of public attention and sym-
pathy upon which GEO was rid-
ing.
Just how seriously GEO's posi-
tion had lipped was evident in
the group's decision to accept a
ruling by the Michigan Emply-
ment Relations Commi;i4)i
(MERC) on their legitimaGcv.
GEO had earlier- dismissed a
University suggestion of MERC
intervention as "unacceptable."
By Wednesday, what was once
'unacceptable" had swiftly be-
come the .only option.
When the setting for t h e i r
struggle with the Univeristy
moves out of the public eye and
into the court rooms and hear-
ing chambers, GEO will have
lost more than momentum.
Wihh wide-spread public sup-
port, GEO was at least on an
equal footIng with the administra-
tion. In the new, more private
setting, the University -- w i t h
its battery of skilled corporadr al-
torneys - has clearly gaiied the
upper hand. Simply put, they
are much more familiar with the
terrain.
If plans for a MERC adjudi-
cation go through, state officials
will visit campus and supervise a
formal balloting to determine
whether GEO in fact represents
a majority of graduate employ-
es,
Even if .GEO wins the MERC
election, the state of the union's
contract demands remans up
in the air.
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Fleming Silberstein
At a Wednesday night meet-
ing, Silberstein contended that
if GEO is recognized by MERC,
the University will have to bar-
gain in good faith.
But this remains to be seen.
In a statement Monday, Presi-
dent Fleming made clear the ad-
ministration's position that the
funds do not exist to meer t h e
TF's economic demands. "T n e
further demands of the gr.up "
Fleming wrote, "could on .y be
met by increasing revenue or by
taking from other parts of the
University" - options he sees
as impossible.
If Fleming's negoliating stance
remains firm, GEO may find that
the cloak of legal recognition
without a ;redible strike threat
is not enough. 'the legacy of last
week's premature vote may oe
one that will haunt GEO fur
some time to cme.
McDonalds-
in next door
"1 ... and there's hamburger
all over the highway in Mystic,
Conn."
-Firesign Theatre
It was not so much the ham-
burgers themselves, but t h e ir
containers that worried the 6,-
813 people who signed petitions
urging City Council to reject
plans to build a McDonalds bur-
ger stand on Maynard, near cen-
tral campus.
And, in a larger sense, is was
a more general concern over the
deterioration of the downtown
environment that motivated the
outpouring of public concern sur-
rounding 1' affaire McDonalds.
"Look at Washtenaw Ave. and
the mess that is," a local resident
told council Tuesday night.
"That's only a token of the mess
you are making of Ann Arbor."
I
The anti-McDonalds coalition
was a hodge-podge of commun-
ity groups and special interests
which included Democrats, H u -
man Rights Partykmembers. the
underground weekly Ann Ar-
bor Sun and several dwnwvown
restaurant owners.
They raised a number of con-
cerns, including potential traf-
fic hassles in the already con-
gested area, the nutritional qual-
ity of McDonald's fool, work-
ing conditions in McDlnald's res-
taurants, and, of course, the lit-
ter problem.
Underlying it all was t h e
growing feeling among the peo-
ple who live downtown - most-
ly students, young people, a n d
blacks - that the Republicans,
whose constituency is .argely in
the city's outlying areas, are un-
interested in the quality of the
central city.
They point to the destruction
of an historical house on State
and Huron last year to make
way for Gino's, and to plans for a
Burger King around the corner
from theKMcDonald's site, as evi-
dence of a trend toward decay.
They cite the GOP co incilmem-
bers' unanimous support f)r Mc-
Donalds is charging that the par-
ty is backing its wealthy busi-
ness community allies at tie ex-
pense of the central city popula-
tion.
The Republicans responded by
saying that the issue had been
distorted and emotion t..zed, and
emphasized a laissez-f A :e phil-
osophy for city planning. "The
landowner," Councilman LI1 o y d
Fairbanks (R-Fifth Wsrd) said,
"has a right to develog proper-
ty as he chooses so long as he
complies with all local ordin-
ances."
Democrats anti HRP members
have traditionally opzrated un-
der a somewhat broader interpre-
tation of the city's authority.
"We oppose it (McDonalds) be-
cause the people in the area
don't want it," Councilman Nor-
ris Thomas (D-First Ward) ex-
plained. "We believe in llow-
ing the wishes of the people who
live there."
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campaign notes
One of the most significant early battles of Election
'74 will take place not in Ann Arbor, but in Federal District
Court in Detroit.
There, the city's Democratic and Human Rights parties
will seek to have the Republican Party's voter registration
plan overturned. The issue is one of crucial importance
in Ann Arbor's political power struggle.
In the fall of 1971 and spring of 1972, voter registration
was carried out on both a door-to-door and fixed-site basis
throughout the city, with heavy emphasis on student wards.
and precincts. The drive netted some 14,000 new voters -
mostly supporters of the liberal Democrats or the radical
HRP.
Under this year's plan, drawn up personally by GOP
Mayor James Stephenson, all registration will be done at
fixed sites rather than door-to-door. Only one of these
sites - the Union - will be in the center city/campus area
where under-registration of voters is most, acute. The
other five site are located in solidly Republican residential
neighborhoods where previous registration drives have
yielded the fewest new voters.
Democrats and Human Rights Party members, who
need student and black votes to offset the GOP's solid
majority in the city's white middle-class residential dis-
tricts, have reacted violently to the plan.
"The Republicans are restricting registration as far as
it's politically feasible in order to cut off new voters who
are unlikely to vote Republican," charged Councilwoman
Carol Jones, whose Second Ward constituency is dominated
by students.
The case has been assigned to Federal District Judge
Damon Keith - generally considered a judicial liberal. The
outcome of races in at least three of the city's five wards
may depend on his decision.
Last week, the Ann Arbor Sun - the Rainbow People's
weekly, loosed another in a series of broadside attacks on
the tactics of HRP, in an article by Contributing Editor
Linda Ross.
Ross accused the party of following "a narrow, elitist
road" in running a candidate in the hotly contested Fourth
Ward. "In an election as close as the Fourth Ward, with
a Democratic candidate who is not strong running against
the ever popular Clyde (William) Colburn," she wrote,
"(HRP candidate Margo Nichols), candidacy may just tip
the scales and insure Colburn's unnecessary election."
The Sun and the Rainbow People have traditionally
taken the position that HRP should concentrate only in the
First and Second Wards where its strength is greatest.
They attribute the party's recent string of electoral fail-
ures to their refusal to follow that advice and the dispute
has been growing increasingly bitter.
Exacerbating the problem this year is the Rainbow
People's vendetta against Colburn who they believe to be
responsible for a cut-off of federal revenue sharing funds
to RPP-sponsored community programs.
Right now, RPP and the Sun are officially on the
fence, refusing to commit themselves to any HRP candi-
date as yet.
* * *
Meanwhile, however, HRP itself has been far from
quiescent. They kicked-off the formal campaign for their
rent control ballot proposal last week with the publication
of a slick, four page tabloid entitled: "Rent control? HRP
answers your questions."
The attractively layed-out campaign sheet puts for-
ward, in chatty, informal language, the party's case for
rent control. It cites figures showing that Ann Arbor has
the second highest median rent in the country and that
rents here have risen at a rate over three times the
national average.
The pamphlet also attempts to answer charges, leveled
by Republicans and some Democrats, that the proposal is
inflexible by stressing the authority of the plan's elected
Rent Control Commission to make "variances" in individual
cases.
Underlying it all is the strong theme of the conflicting
economic interests of tenants and landlords. "Don't feed
the hand that bites you," it urges, "Vote yes!"
-CHRIS PARKS
1 1
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Department of Political Science
presents
Professor Yehoshafat Harkabi
Dept. of International Relations, Hebrew University
"Israel and the Palestinian"
8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 25
Room 229, Angell Hall
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OFFICE HOURS
CIRCULATION - 764-0558
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