t iffe SMritian at Eighty-Seven Years of Editorial Freedom 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Thursday, February 24, 1977 News Phone: 764-0552 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan We should bacli AFSCME, but it must work both wavs I What are a tenants f rights? ACT I - PROLOGUE There cometh a time in the great affairs of people when one must enter the private rental market. Alas, 'tis but a limited market and 'one that gouges the pocket and causeth great misery at that. Yet, at the same hour, 'tis a market which doth reap mounds of profit for the Lord of the Land and the financier. o tenants, awake! Learn thy rights and assert them and thou shan't live in these miserable conditions for time everlasting. ACT II- COMMANDMENTS Hear ye, hear ye: what follows are important mes- sages from the heavens (and the Michigan Student Assembly Housing Law Reform Project) which lay down the law of the land and refereth to thy be- loved rights. Know these when thou search, often in vain, for thy hovel: 1 - No Ann Arbor landlord may refuse to rent to you because of your race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual preference or student or marital status. 2 .- Some clauses in your lease may be invalid - they are often illegal and unenforceable.bHowever, we recommend that you sign the lease since most of your rights are statutory rather than contractural (that is, they are rights that cannot simply be lost by signing a rental lease), and moreover, a landlord might consider you a troublemaker and not rent to you at all if you question the lease too much. 3 - You have a legal right to sign a rental agree- ment if you are 18 years old. Sometimes a landlord might want your parents to co-sign and if you don't mind, then go along with him. If it is not feasible, then assert your right to sign the lease (in as non- agressive a way as possible). 4-By law, a landlord may collect the first month's rent in advance and a security deposit equivalent to 1' months' rent. So be prepared to pay both the first month's rent and the security deposit (ie 2V2 months' rent) when you sign the lease or soon after. (For future reference, if you follow the specific guide- lines of the Security Deposit Act, available at Legal Aid or the Tenants Union, you will probably get your entire security deposit back.) !TENANTS RIIN by RICHARD DUTKA Upon begetting they dilapidated tenement, thy legal rights abound (however they don't abound to the ex- tent they should.): 1 - You have a right to move into a clean liv- able apartment; don't waive this right unless you have to (ie you have nowhere to go and you must move in), and in that case see a Legal Aid or Ten- ants Union lawyer for advice. 2 - Upon moving in, immediately ask for a dam- age/inventory checklist; this is your legal right and your only protection against being charged for dam- ages that existed before you moved in. On the list, label and write in every bit of damage you spot, re- gardless of how minor it may appear to you. This in- cludes scratches, chips, stains, cracks, tears . every- thing. 3 - Your landlord does not have the right to harass you, invade your privacy, or enter your apartment without permission under most circumstances. Ask Legal Aid or the Tenants Union for advice about your rights to privacy. 4 - Michigan law gives a tenant the right to with- hold all rent if a landlord does not make needed re- pairs. Withholding rent is a tenant's most powerful, and often only, leverage in any dispute with a land- lord. Don't be afraid to assert this, or any of these rights since a landlord cannot evict you for assert- ing your rights. g - Don't use your landlord as your legal consul- tant; he/she has a great deal of interest in you not lnowing your rights. See Legal Aid (763-9920) or the Tenants Union (761-1225) for legal advice. ACT III - CALL TO ARMS AND FEATS Arise ye tenants and serfs, the renting hour is upon us, assert thy rights and organize! THE AFSCME STRIKE is only one day old and already some tell-tale signs of how the picketing will be conducted are surfacing. Are tl ie picketers going to use the students as pawns in their struggle with the administration? If this is true, then AFSCME is embarking on a very perilous path, a path that might lead to the loss of vital student- sympathy for the strikers. Yesterday, AFSCME members at.- tempted to prevent the student buses from running. No one was beaten up or physically intimidated, but AFSCME m e m b e r s reportedly lay down in f r o n t of passenger-filled b u s e s, preventing movement. And some went so far as to beat on the buses with picket signs. We cannot condone any intimida- tion a c t s of this sort. We support AFSCME's walkout.-They have legiti- mate grievances against the adminis- tration of t h i s University and we hope. that they achieve their desired ends. RUT THIS IS a free country and as they are so aptly proving by their strike, people have the inalienable right to dissent. And AFSCME mem- bers must realize that not everyone in t h e University community sympa- thizes with their grievances. Every in- dividual has a right to an opinion and AFSCME has absolutely no right to use any type of coercive or intimida- tory t a c t i c s to alter that opinion. AFSCME has a right to make its posi- tion known to anyone who cares to listen to them. But their persuasion- ary rights do not extend beyond this point. AFSCME's grievance is with the ad- ministration of this University, and not 'with its students. Impeding the students' ability to reach their classes does not hurt the administration, it only hurts the students. We fervently hope that yesterday's actions were only the individual acts of a few 'overzealous picketers, and not union-wide strategy. If acts of this kind continue, AFSCME faces the risk of losing student support and respect, two invaluable weapons in their hope for a quick and equitable settlement. How to keep your own name U. S. Steel and Marvin Esch deserve each other By CHARLOTTE SEBASTIAN In last week's column, Charlotte Sebastian spoke of her feelings on keeping her name rather than adopting her husba'nd's. This week she presnts information on how to kep your name upon -marriage, or to change it back to your maiden name. men to retain their names is still active in a wide not be lost," said Lucy Stone. Well, increasing num- bers of women are choosing not to adopt their hus- bands' surnames - to retain their "maiden" names. The concept is not new; Lucy Stone, quoted above, is probably its best known and earliest proponent. The Lucy Stone League, formed in 1921 to encourage wo- book, from the name tag on the mailbox or from variety of women's rights issues. Women's reasons for keeping or returning to their birth names (or hyphenating -their name with t h e i r husbands') are varied. A few cited in the Booklet for Women Who Wish to Determine their Own Names After Marriage are: "I did not want to disappear from the telephone "legitimate" baby - all without assuming your hus- charge plates. Exchanging my name for my husband's name would be a denial of all that I was before I was married." "By becoming 'Mrs. Him' would contradict not only the identities each of us has built up for ourselves, but also our definition of the relationship we have together. "I am a Chicana and my Spanish heritage is very important to me. This name, Cassell, is foreign." Women are expected to give up not only their last name, but their first name as well. What a clear re- presentation of how society views the status of the two people involved in the marriage. He stays John Doe . .. she becomes Mrs. John Doe. The two become one, and the one is him., "But what about the children?" is usually the first question asked by most people. For those who choose to have children, there is a whole range of possibilities; the most popular seems to be either to hyphenate the parents' names or to use one of the surnames as the child's middle name. If you want to retain your own name after you marry, you don't have to do a thing! Simply coptinue using your name as you always have. It is absolutely legal. Yes, you can purchase a house, obtain credit and credit cards (though it's a real struggle to get cards issued for two different last names on the same ac- count), file joint income tax returns, and even have a "legitimate" baby - al without assuming your hus- band's name! The only institution (besides parents and in-laws) which still can't always cope with the situation is the Social Security Administration. The SSA may try to convince you that you're using the wrong social security number, but a couple of letters of clarification usually sets them straight. For women who have already been using their husband's name, the process to change back is slightly more complex. You have to, of course, backtrack and change your name on all the records our bureaicratic society thrives on. Although some people feel more comfortable going through an actual legal proceeding (with a lawyer, legal fees, etc.), a name change does not require such a process. Your name is whatever you want it to be, as long as you're not changing it for fraudulant purposes. A birthcertificate or marriage license will suffice to get the Secretary of State's office to change your name on -your driver's license. Once you have your driver's license in your new (or rasher "old") name most of the other records are rela- tively easy to change. For more information consult the Booklet for Women who Wish to Determine their Own Names After Marriage compiled by the Center for a Woman's Own Name. (Check a Woman's Bookstore in Ann Ar- bor.) Also contact: The Lucy Stone League, 133 E. 58th St., New York, N.Y. 10022, or Feminist Legal Services - University of Michigan, Hutchins Hall, (phone 763- 4158). On the Majority Side is presented by the University's Comrmission For Women. Comments and column ideas are welcome. The CFW is located at 108 Administration Building, 763-2203. WE CAN'T SAY itcame as much of a surprise to hear that former Second District U.S. Rep. Marvin Esch has taken on a job with U.S. Steel as the company's-new Washington lob- byist. Esch, who was defeated by Demo- crat Donald Riegle in his attempt to win the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the late Philip Hart, has accepted the job of "director of federal rela- tions" for the steel conglomerate, and will start work next month. Essentially, Esch's new job will be to approach his former associates on Capitol Hill and try to persuade them as best he can to vote for the interests of U.S. Steel. This, presumably, will mean a g r e a t deal of legwork to defeat or emasculate environmental legislation, antitrust proceedings, and other governmental infringements on the rights of free enterprise. I.S. STEEL IS to be congratulated; we find Esch remarkably well- suited for this new line of work. He has certainly had a lot of experience, as the record shows. During his ten- year career as Second District Repre- sentative, Esch was a frequent friend and ally to the Big Business interests. And at times he has put those in- terests above those of the nation's poor and underprivileged. In fact, much of Esch's time as a congressman was taken up with the same tasks he will be employed at as a lobbyist: hustling votes and buying time for the industrial dinosaurs of the American economy. We hope hsch enjoys himself, as much as a lobbyist as he did as a congressman. He'll at least be getting good money now. And it'll finally be coming out of the steel company's pockets instead of ours. TODAY'S STAFF: Letters to the News: Phillip Bokovoy, Greg Jay Levin, Stu McConnell, Norton, Shelley Wolson Editorial: Mike Beckman, Ken ion Krupa, Mike Parsig- Arts: Susan Barry, Lois Josimovich, Dobiafas Matulionis Photo: Pauline Lubens CHEY, Y XNoW, E, DON-' BYGONES ARET BYGONES -T ALL IN THE PAST4""NOW ,9BOFr THOSE PRICE CONTROLS ON STE1EL... RIEGLE ~ -- MAR.Y .... '. AFSCME To The Daily: WHY AFSCME IS ON STRIKE: With rents, utilities, and food prices all going up, workers can't live on what the Univer- sity is offering. This is what the proposed contract included: 1) a 55 cent wage increase spread over 2 years (this doesn't even make up for the 57 cents that the workers lost in the last contract due to inflation and the ceiling on cost-of-living pay- ments): 2) no cost-of-living pay- ments this time (the last con- tract bad ,cost-of-living provi- sions with a 15 cent ceiling), 3) no improvements in medical insurance or sick time -- no eye- glasses or dental; 4) the classi- fications that 'were upgraded were compensated by an equal number that are scheduled to be downgraded; 5) no increase in the number of holidays; 6) a 100% increase in the cost of parking. This "package" is be- ing accompanied 'by elimination of jobs, and speed-up for those who remain. The workers felt strongly enough to reject the contract by an overwhelming margin, and voted to go on strike, despite the absence of strike benefits. WHY WON'T THE UNIVERSITY OFFER A DECENT CONTRACT? There is an economic crisis in this country, and the Univer- sity is affected. The crisis is resulting in *uts to education and other social services, and the U. is responding by cutting back in the areas they consider the least important and which offer the least resistance. On the one hand, they raise Flem- ing's salary and build presiden- tial libraries; on the other, they raise dorm rates and tuition yearly, and refuse to give the workers a wage that keeps up with the rate of inflation. It's convenient for the U. to blame these hikes on the increase in workers' wages, but what are in their struggles, and have a common interest in resisting these attempts to make us pay for the crisis. WHAT CAN WE DO? 1) Don't scab for the Univer- sity. Refuse to cooperate with efforts to have us empty gar- bage, fix meals and fill in for AFSCME. 2) Boycott dinner lines, and if you're a STUDENT EM- PLOYEE, stay off the job or avoid doing union work. 3) Help picket at your dorm, or someplace on campus if you don't live on the dorms. 4) If you would like to help with leafletting or other activi- ty, call us at 995-8957 or 663- 5364. 5) Come to the rally at noon on Friday on the Diag - we will be marching over to Presi- dent Fleming's house to demand that he grant the Union's de- mands. The Revolutionary Student Brigade To The Daily: The administration has bust- ed the clerical's union. They are in the middle of legal attacks on the Graduate Employees Or- ganization's right to exist as a union. Tuesday, AFSCME voted not to let this happen to them. The AFSCME Student Support Committee urges students to support the AFSCME strike. The average wage of AFSCME em- ployees at U-M is less than $4.40 an hour. This is lower than the United States government's low budget standard for a family of four. While Robben Flem- ing's salary of $71,429 makes Daly him the highest paid state offic- ial, the "great University of Michigan's" AFSCME wages fall far below most of the state's schools and colleges. AFSCME has been our tradi- tional ally against tuition infla- tion. Also, icutbacks in services hurt both students and work- ers. When dorms don't serve breakfast, students go hungry, and workers are laid off. If the university stops free bus ser- vice, both students and workers will suffer. When the university fought student efforts to start a student bookstore, AFSCME supported the subsequent sit-down strike. As a result, the University Cel- lar was formed. During the Black Action Movement strike, AFSCME again supported stu- dents. Now AFSCME is asking for our support. How can students support AFSCME? DEMAND FULL SERVICES and- complain about any reduc- tion in present services. DON'T SCAB for the univer- nity. Refuse to cooperate with efforts to have us empty gar- bage, fix meals and fill in for AFSCME. ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE A STUDENT EM- PLOYEE refuse to substitute for union jobs. WRITE LETTERS to The Daily, President Fleming, and the regents urging serious nego- tiations and a quick settlement. Join the student support com- mittee. For more information call 761-1237 or 764-0650. Ilene Moskowitz, Debra Goodman, For the AFSCME Student Support Committee lii"t ,~ ,CN~~~r IT AM' C lQOS TF J 7 DP~t) OF Ri GGT GST f Pp zcFOP oll n