Page 4-Friday, February 10, 1978-The Michigan Daily b4i au Eighty-Eight Years of Editorial Freedom. 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Vol. LXXXVIII, No. 109 News Phone: 764-0552 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan The mayoral mess: Solved Legalities threaten a union By Sue Warner ww rri' A T LONG LAST the legal hodgepodge generated by last April's one-vote mayoral election has come to an end. The agreement struck Wednesday by Mayor Albert Wheeler and Councilman Louis Belcher to hold a "new" election seems, in the final analysis, to be the best resolution to a bizarre problem. The attorneys had argued, and we agreed, that the election should be Salvaged, that the 21,000 people who voted in the election deserved to have their votes count. But the complexion of the case ganged when the State Supreme Court raled that the township voters who had been improperly registered - because of faulty street guides used by the city's election workers - did not have to reveal their votes on the witness stand. Without that knowledge there is no way to properly decide whether Belcher or Wheeler won the election. Regardless of the absentee ballots and the one voting machine that were also the subjects of ajudication, there were at least 23 votes improperly cast in the election, and no constitutionally-sound Method of finding out how those votes Were cast. Acting City Attorney R. Bruce Iidlaw, who represented the City Clerk's office in the lawsuit, argued that the city should not have to incur the $25,000 cost of a new election because the election could be resolved from the esults at hand. oN0.gins fro: N OMINOUS development has ap- pearedon the horizon for the up- oming state ballot. State Representative Kirby Holmes R-Utica), with the backing of the state raternal Order of Police, wants to put e issue of capital punishment before Michigan voters in this November's 'lection. Holmes' wish requires that he initially garner the signatures of at least 265,000 registered voters for a getition. With over 100,000 names already in hand - and with the help of ,he statewide police group - his suc- cess appears likely. We are opposed to the death penalty in any form for any reason. Deserving 1s much opposition is the idea of placing such an issue on an election- year ballot. The appearance of the capital punishment question on Michigan's ballot would make the upcoming elec- tion campaign into a circus. The city attorney's reasoning was spurious. First, it should be remembered that the township residents voted im- properly because the City Clerk had failed to update Ann Arbor's election street guide. It is only justice that the city should bear responsibility for the error. Secondly, as the American Civil Liberties Union argued before the State Supreme Court, the mayoral can- didates' names will simply be added to this April's City Council election ballot, avoiding the expense of a separate elec- tion. The cost factor should have had little impact on the decision to correct the mayoral mishap.. The unfortunate side of the "new" election is that it is being held so long after the original election of last year. Although the upcoming re-vote has been arranged in the spirit of a runoff election, it will be complicated by the fact that Albert Wheeler has been in the mayor's chair since last April. Unfortunate, too, is the fact that the 21,000 proper votes cast last April - representing the honest efforts of 21,000 people to influence city policy - must now be discounted entirely for the price of a mere handful of improper votes. The choice to put the mayor's race up before city residents again certainly does riot undo the historic mistakes made by Ann Arbor officials last year, it simply remedies them. Ij, "All right, gentlemen, let's consider this one more time. " m death vote The death penalty issue is one of several scare-hysteria types, against which rational arguinent fails to make headway. Argument over the question is instead devoted to one emotional out- burst after another. Some 73 per cent-of the public backs the idea of killing the perpetrators of certain crimes, according to one poll. The concerns and fears which form the basis of public support for capital punishment are understandable. Placing the death penalty question on the ballot will create pressure on state candidates for office to make it a major campaign issue. Instead of giving their attentiop to pressing state problems such as PBB con- tamination, urban decay, support for education and a multitude of others, candidates and voters alike will be oc- cupied with the more volatile death proposal. The overshadowing of these other issues would indeed be unfortunate. Last week, members of the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) were forced to choose what eventually boils down to the lesser of two evils. Backed into a difficult corner by the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC), GEO decided that it will face up to an administration challenge to its members' status as Univer- sity employees. That decision will undoubtedly determine the union's strategy for at least the rest of this school year as the Graduate Student Assistants (GSAs) align forces for the next stage of their already year-old legal battle for recognition by the University. The latest chapter in the GEO saga was prompted in late January when MERC stated it could not rule on a University ap- peal of a lower MERC judges decision unless evidence was heard on the now-classic "student-worker question." THE APPEAL was made on an August ruling by MERC Ad- ministrative Law Judge Shlomo Sperka which found the Univer- sity guilty of an unfair labor practice (ULP) for refusing to sign a contract with GEO in November 1976. The ad- ministration refused to sign the agreed-upon pact pending resolution of two unsettled grievances left over from the previous contract. MERC procedure calls for an .administrative law judge to hear cases and pass a recommen- dation on to the commission as a. whole which makes a final ruling. If either side in the dispute objec- ts to the recommendation, it can appeal to the entire commission as the University did last Sep- tember. If there are no objec- tions, MERC usually accepts the law judge's recommendation as its decision. In hearings before Sperka last year, University lawyers attem- pted to enter evidence that GSAs are students and therefore not en- titled to bargain collectively. SPERKA, however, would not allow evidence on the student- worker question, claiming it had protecting its through the leg st ate. own interests - l processes of this been settled by a 1973 Michigan Supreme Court decision. In that ruling, interns and residents at University Hospital were found to be both students and employees - entitled to contract bargaining under the Michigan Public Em- ployment Relations Act. The full commission ruling on the University's appeal of the Sperka recommendation said it could not rule on the appeal without hearing testimony on the question of whether GSAs are students or employees. Con- sequently, the commission or- dered the case back to Sperka and explicitly ordered him to allow evidence on the student- worker issue. The MERC order did state that either side could ob- ject to the commission order. Obviously, the University had no intention of objecting, but GEO was forced to make a serious decision - whether to take the case to the Michigan State Court of Appeals and hope the interns and residents decision would hold for GEO, or amass evidence of its own and fight the University's challenge directly. DESPITE a GEO Stewards Committee recommendation that the union take the case to the ap- peals court, the membership voted to comply with the MERC order. Thus, in the near future, GEO will begin gathering wit- nesses to testify on the em- ployment status of GSAs in what is bound to be a lengthy trial. By taking this route, GEO is just about forsaking any claim to employee status based on the in- terns and residents case. However, it is doubtful that the chances of a GEO victory at the appeals court level were as cer- tain as the original Stewards Committee recommendation suggested. Basically, GEO would have been placing confidence in the fact that the appeals judges would not find any major dif- ferences in the employment con- ditions of GSAs and those of the interns and residents. But, dif- ferences do exist in both the em- ployment and student status of the two groups and one would be safe in assuming the University would point these out. IN TAKING the case to Sperka, GEO is also in danger of losing its claim to legitimacy as em- ployees. The University will un- doubtedly lodge convincing arguments to the fact that GEO members are not employees. One of the administrations major points will probably be a precedent established by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in denying Stanford University GSAs the right to organize. As well, the ad- ministration will likely claim that GSAs are given their "jobs" as a form of financial aid and that they are not evaluated on their performance as teachers, but on the grades they earn in their graduate school classes. Despite these arguments, it is quite obvious that TAs are, in fact, performing services for the University and are receiving payment for these services. It seems unlikely that if a GSA totally ignored his undergraduate and research responsibilities that his department head would not call this to the administration's There is no absolute right or wrong in the case. Neither side can be blamed for doing what is natural - attention. And, it is even more unlikely - unless undergraduate education is worse off here than calculated - that the University would not terminate the GSA's financial aid." OF COURSE, there is no ab- solute right or wrong in the case. Neither side can be blamed"for doing what is natural - protec- ting its own interests - through the legal processes of this state. As far as the legality of the whole question: in a broad sense it is probably best for everybody involved if all the evidence, in- cluding the student-worker question is heard and MERC of- fers another verdict on'the ULP charge. Regardless of what MERC decides, one can almost rest assured whichever side loses at MERC-will then take the case to the Court of Appeals - just as the interns and residents case progressed over the course of almost four years until it finally reached the Supreme Court. THE QUESTION which can't be ignored in any assessment of the current legal battle is whether GEO will be able to maintain the membership sup- port needed to justify its union during the complicated legal maneuvering. Many onlookers have suggested that contacting GSAs to testify in Sperka's hearing will serve as an effective organizing tool - and they are probably right. But in the long run, it will remain to be seen whether GEO can withstand the internal erosion which may result as the court fight mounts. The administration will un- doubtedly survive. GEOahowever, if it is to remain viable, must retain an organization of GSAs who are not simply committed to isecuring a decent living for themselves. They must also be committed to the eventual establishment of a good, healthy union-management relationship - one which would add to, not detract from, un- dergraduate and graduate education at the University. Sue Warner is Labor repor- ter for the Daily. , at '- 'r <£, , , h F' l .n ipP B > f ' t , ? k. F' ,i.3 ::l :r b &.. .s . ./ , ' L , .r. LETTERS TO THE DAILY A candidate clarifies lr E C6Ak4( CORN 4 MoJIM4MYVDOr CARE. WE GRc# CORN AwJIMMY OI4V CARE "... To The Daily: Thanks very much for the ex- cellent coverage you are giving the various races for City Coun- cil, including ours in the Fifth Ward. It's gratifying to see that at least one local news outlet is trying to raise the level of public information before the election, rather tlan complaining about the low voter turnout the day af- ter the ballots are counted. One correction I would make in your Fifth Ward article on February 4. Pinelake Village Cooperative, of which I am president, is not public housing. Rather, it is a private develop- ment which, as the name implies, is owned by its resident mem- bers. Many of our members receive subsidies from the government which make the monthly charges more bearable in the ever-inflating Ann Arbor housing market, and preserve the mixed-income character of the ment is much less likely to develop the "slum" charac- teristics of Ann Arbor's public housing projects. Many people experience this confusion between public housing and government-subsidized housing, but it is apparent to most of us actively involved in housing developments that the latter is by far the preferable way to reach the needs of low-income people for decent housing while preserving the desirable charac- teristics of mixed neighborhoods and greater resident control over their living environments. -Joel Goldberg Democrat for Council Fifth Ward dorms and drugs To The Daily: As a Resident Fellow in East Quad, I was shocked to see that Eric Arnson, Bursley Resident Advisor, has been fired for helnina one student sell another we smoked pot, we probably do it in our room from people on our hall folks on the hall wante high, fine, as long as behind closed doors. From the start, this like an absurd policy, es in $5 dope fine Ann Arboi not observed it, nor h people who live around have many of the RF's with. When I think how c come to committing E nson's "crime," it's sck scary to me directly, bi that Housing would throe RA apparently liked residents for doing so that is most circles is cot acceptable! Are RF's and RA's sup be on a pedestal ab students they work w should they act as frie residents will feel com seeing when problems think the answer is4 his stand should students on his hall to have the ns, away co-ed bathroom they had all 1, and if voted for. I don't think Housing d to get has any right to tell students how it was to live, especially at the exhor- bitant rates they charge. I would seemed think this should extend to RF's specially and RA's, who for free room and r. I have board put in many hours a week ave the helping students deal with the U. me, nor That Eric Arnson has lost his I work job just for being like everyone lose I've else seems criminal to me. I hope Eric Ar- he's successful with his lawyer ary. Not getting his job back - that is - if ut scary he still wants it after all this. w out an I believe you have a policy of by his printing only signed letters. I mething hope you will see why I feel I can- mpletely not do that in his case. - A Concerned Resident Fellow ?posed to,* ove the with, or doing the job nds who ifortable To The Daily arise? I In loco parentis and 60's obius. Idrugophobia have returned6to obvious. - L -- -_ "...