Sfri$&trnt &ut~ Vol. LXXXI, No. 14-S Ann Arbor, Michigan-Saturday, May 22, 1971 Ten Cents Twelve Pages Janitors try to .... air complaints before Regents w' By ROSE SUE BERSTEIN Thirty-five University janitors, protesting the loss of t y their paid lunch period, interrupted the Regents monthly meeting at various points yesterday. President Robben Fleming denied them permission to address the meeting. An American Federation of State, County and Munici- a pal Employes (AFSCME) chief steward, Joel Block, said that the workers came to the meeting to make their griev- ance known to the Regents since, he claimed, the griev- ances they had filed through the regular procedure-had been consistently ignored. T n - ~ ~~ ~ ~ - -~u~isc ci CHARLES MOTT, one of the largest shareholders of General Motors stock, talks with another share- holder yesterday before the start of GM's annual stockholder's meeting in Detroit. Reform campaign fails to change GM'S policies By JONATHAN MILLER special to The Daily DETROIT - A challenge to the management of General Mo- tors by Campaign GM and the Episcopal Church failed as ex- pected yesterday to capture suf- ficient votes to force a change in GM's policies. Despite its defeat along with the other proposals, there was unexpected support !or the Epis- copal proposal for GM to cease business operations in South * Africa. Leon Sullivan, the first black ever appointed to GM's Board of Directors, lashed out at his co- poration's policy and pledged sup- port for Stockholder Proposal number eight "The corporation shall not conduct manufacturing operations in the Republic of South Africa and shall wind up its present manufacturing oper- ations there as soon as possible." The remainder of the directors recommended a vote against the proposal. GM Chairman James Roche explained, "General Mo- tors . . . must conduct its busi- ness in conformity with the laws and regulations of each country. "We are a' free 'orporetion owned by free whites, uh, and blacks," declared Roche to a chorus of boos from the Ce m- paign GM supporters in the crowd and loud guffaws from the press gallery. "The Board of Directors believes that with- drawal from South Africa might well aggravate those situations with which the proposents of this proposal express concern." Sullivan, in an emotional and lengthy speech, termed South Africa "the most ruthless" coun- try in the world. He took issue with Roche's con- tention that the company opera- tions in the African nation are a liberalizing force. He said Ameri- can companies "by their very presence are helping to sustain the existence" of apartheid. "Why does the world want to go slow when the rights of the black man are at stake. Ameri can industry-including General Motors - cannot morally con- tinue to do business in South Africa," Sullivan said. Campaign GM, a reform group other proposals in an attempt to seeking to give stockholders and , break the control over nomina- the public a greater voice in the tions of managers now exercised management of the world's la.g- by the board of directors. est industrial corpora'-ion, pre- Nominations printed on stock- Previously, the janitors had worked an eight-hour shift, which included a 20 minute paid lunch period. Now, they work a shift which extends over eight and a half hours, within which a half hour is to be set aside as an unpaid lunch break. Thus, the janitors are apparent- ly working 20 minutes more for the same pay, University Manager of Em- ploye Relations J a m e s Thiry said last night "there's nothing in the collective bargaining agreement that prohibits chang- iing work shift hours," Me de- clined to comment on the rea- sons for this specific change, but said it was "unusual" for Uni- versity employes to have paid lunch periods. At an early point in the meet- ing, Regent Robert Brown (R- Kalamazoo) inquired about a letter he and all the other Re- gents had recgived expressing the janitors' grievance. Immediately thereafter, Block asked Fleming for permission to address the meeting and explain the janitors' complaint. Fleming denied the request, commenting that the workers "know how to get in touch with us.'' When Block and several of the other janitors present again re - quested permission to speak with the Regents, Fleming told them that they could talk with the Regents after the meeting had adjourned. In a leaflet distributed to the Regents and the press, the jan- itors expressed their complaint- "On April 27, all Plant Depart- ment janitors were told they See REGENTS, Page 10 TI' IRegents fail to act on UC code At yesterday's Regents meet- ing, the Regents had been slated to discuss the University Council's (UC) proposed con- duct code for the University community, but these rules were not mentioned at the public open session. The Regents discussed the rules with UC members at their closed session Thursday, but took no action on them. UC, a .tri-partite committee established by a Regents bylaw to design a uniform conduct code for the University com- munity, presented t h e i r pro- posals last February. To be enacted, however, the UC rules needythe approval of Senate Assembly - the faculty representative body, SGC and the Regents. Thus far, Senate Assembly has suggested modifi- cations that would render the code more stringent whereas SGC has suggested modifica- tions to make it more lenient. Until the UC code can be en- acted, the Regents Interim Dis- cipline Rules, passed in April, 1970, remain in effect. Other regental action included: -The approval of a $300,000 renovation program for the stu- dent Health Service Building, which does not meet code stan- dards for fire protection and pro- visions for the handicapped. sented three proposals whichla were also soundly defeated. A disclosure proposal - to make GM publish reports of its progress in minority hiring and training, air pollution research and development and safety de- vice research and development- failed to garner substantial sup- port after GM's Board of Direc- tors recommended rejection of the plan. Roche said the proposal was redundant because GM "bas an enviable record of open disclos- ure to its stockholders and the public generally." Campaign GM presented two holders proxy forms are cur- rently made by the board. Only enough candidates to fill the va- cancies are listed on thes proxy form. Campaign GM attempted tc. force the corporation to carry the names of up to 30 indepen- dent candidates on the proxy forms. The proposal failed cn management's recommendation. "This represents an attempt to secure the benefit of the corpora- tions proxy solicitation facilities by groups of stockholders who have not demonstrated that they have broad stockholder support," See REFORM, Page 10 -uay-uary Viani PRESIDENT ROBBEN FLEMING walks out immediately after the end of yesterday's Regents meeting. Most of the Regents remain- ed to discuss with University janitors the loss of their paid lunch pariod.