Page 51x THE MICHIGAN DAILY Wednesday, August 11, 1976 AMA admits to postal fraud WASHINGTON (AP) - The Ameri- vice announced last month after re- can Medical Association (AMA) submit- ceiving the documents that it was re- ted false reports to the Postal Service opening an investigation of possible for 4% years, allowing it to underpay fraud by the AMA. postage bills by as much as $450,000, Mitchell's letter to the AMA legal de- an AMA lawyer says. partment advised that: The admission of the false reports and "The AMA may be charged with hav- underpayments was made in an Aug. ing submitted false reports of JAMA 13, 1975, letter to the AMA legal de- Journal of the American Medical Asso- partment from Lee Mitchell, an attorney ciation, the organization's weekly maga- for the AMA. zine circulation to the Postal Service THE ASSOCIATED PRESS obtained a in violation of the United States Crim- copy of the letter, and Mitchell con- inal Code." firmed its authenticity. HE RECOMMENDED the AMA go to The letter is among the AMA docu- postal officials and acknowledge the er- ments given to the Postal Service by roneous reports, which AMA officials an unidentified man believed to be a subsequently did. However, no additional former AMA employe. The Postal Ser- postage has been paid, AMA spokesman The state capitol at Spring- The first local temperance or- field, Ill., was constructed of ganization was formed in 1789 limestone between 1868 and 1887 by the farmers of Litchfield G ro at a cost of $4,000,000. County, Coon. New York's Brooklyn Bridge Daylight Saving Time went was opened to traffic May 24, into effect in the United States, r Joseph Breu said in Chicago. The issue concerns a legal require- ment that organizations with second- class mailing permits distribute no more than 10 per cent of their circulation as free sample copies. Copies exceeding the sample copy limitation must be mailed at a higher postage rate. The false reports came after the AMA board of directors decided in 1970 to expand the JAMA circulation by send- ing free copies to physicians who were not AMA members, the letter said. "THESE PERSONS were to receive the publication without cost, apparently with the goal of increasing JAMA's at- tractiveness to advertisers by adding to its circulation physicians who were high- volume subscribers of drugs and medical devices," Mitchell said. However, the AMA in reports to the Postal Service understated its nonpaid circulation by about 30,000 to 40,000 copies per issue for a 230-week period ending in 1974, the letter said. "We would estimate that postage was underpaid during the period in question by between $299,000 and $450,000," it said- The letter said fines for the false reports "could be as much as $117,000." Mitchell said his review was only of JAMA, but "we believe. these issues may also be relevant to 10 AMA spe- cialty journals and to AMA's Today's Health magazine." up investigates religious Dedom in Soviet Union 55P555 NUZ TS IT FREE WHEWLI SSTUDENT NIGHT 50cAdmission With Student I.D. HOURS: Fri. & Sat. 9 p.m.-2 a.m. WEEKLY HOURS: 9 p.m.-2 a.m. ' 516 E. Liberty 994-5350 4 l El : V:+ GENEVA, Switzerland (/) - The policy - making body of the World Council of Churches met yestertay to consider re- ligious freedom in the light of a report charging that the So- viet government continues to persecute religious believers. The report, prepared by inde- pendent researchers in Britain, the Netherlands and Switzer- land, charges that Soviet "dis- crimination against the Church, against any form of religious practice or belief, is woven into the very fabric of the structure of the state." THERE HAVE BEEN im- plied warnings that the Soviet member churches might with- draw from the World Council if the inquiry into religious freedom is pressed too hard. There are six Soviet church- es among the 286 World Coun- cil member churches, repre- senting Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and old Catholic de- nominations totaling 500 million people Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Nikodim of Lenin- grad and Novgorod is one of the six presidents of the 134- member central committee, the Council's policy-making body. The study was not commis- sioned by the Council but was made at the request of a "group of church leaders pro- minent in the ecumenical field," according to the report's auth- ors. THE REPORT was based on official documents and on in- formation from Soviet dissi- dents, among them two mem- bers of the Russian Orthodox church, Father Gleb Yakunin and layman Lev Regelson. "No amount of pressured signatures will prove the ab- sence of religious discrimina- tion in the Soviet Union nor will it be proven by the insist- ent assurances of Soviet state and higher church figures," the two men said in a letter dated March 6, 1976, but not publish- ed until yesterday. The 92-page study suggests state persecution of believers continues despite new Soviet assurances of religious freedom given in the Helsinki agreement of the European Security Con- ference last year. IN THE HELSINKI agree- ment signed by 35 nations Aug. 1, 1975, the West accepted the postwar map of Europe - in- cluding the Soviet dominance of Eastern Europe - in ex- change for Western - backed clauses pledging the further- ance of civil freedoms in the signatory states. The study charged that the Soviet church hierarchy was "bowing to manipulation" by the state. It said it had become clear from dissident sources that "there are signs of a grow- ing crisis of authority and an increasing lack of confidence in the church leadership" in the Soviet Union. 0 G(Mm- UAW Local 2001-U of M CLERICALS IT COULD BE YOU ! Over 105 clericals have filed grievances in the last 11 months, fighting back she was told not to make them. She was targeted for this discharge against University abuses and violations of our contract. These continuous the day after she filed a grievance. violations confirm what we already know: in all important aspects of the Without a Union, these clericals would have no defense. employment relationship, management's interests are fundamentally opposed REPLACING PERMANENT CLERICALS to our own. Without our Union, we would have no way to defend ourselves against reckless management decisions to sacrifice clerical interests to their Two permanent clerical jobs in an office were filled by temporaries, own. We would be at the mercy of our supervisors. With our Union, we have who have no Union protection or benefits. This lessens the number the collective strength and organization to stand up to management and of clerical positions and trains non-clericals to carry out our jobs in supervisors. We can defend ourselves effectively, since we take seriously the the event of a strike.. position: an attack on one is on attack on all. SPEEDUP A clerical was given a number of additional duties. No extra Without a Union and a contract, we give management the power to "settle" staff was hired to help her, and she was expected to get everything disputes between their interests and ours. We know how they will "settle" done-or else. This happens all the time at the University. Without such disputes. Here is a partial list of management "settlements" of disputes a Union, we have no way to fight back. Through our contract we con against which the Union is fighting. These and hundreds of other grievances, define and defend job classifications and amount of work, so that f now and in the future, would die without a Union. management cannot arbitrarily add duties. RACISM All white supervisors in one department changed the duties of RECLASSIFICATION a Black receptionist to those of a file clerk. They minutely scrutinized An employee was promoted from C-s to C-6. Subsequently the her work in hopes that this harassment would cause her to leave the University unilaterally reclassified her position to a C-5. office. Without a Union this clerical could not fight back. Management reclassified four clericals in C-5 positions to C-4's 31.1 % of disciplinary charges have been against minority clericals claiming that their duties had decreased, when, in fact, they were while they comprise only 10.6% of the clerical workforce. performing new duties formerly done by P&Aks. Without a Union, these clericals would have to take what manage- UNJUST DISCIPLINE AND HARASSMENT ment dished out. A clerical in the hospital was threatened with disciplinary action, In the pest year, there have been over two dozen cases of disciplinary layoff including discharge, after becoming active in the Union. Following and discharge. Without a Union, an individual clerical would have little a year of harassment, she was given a 2 day disciplinary layoff for chance of successfully challenging management's "rights' to carry out such alleged "bad attitude" and a failure to perform her duties well. disciplinary actions. Every dispute over wages, benefits, evaluations, working .A clerica with 61/2 years seniority was fired for alleged absenteeism, conditions, promotions, absenteeism, harassment, etc. would become an un- Her resistance to viruses had been weakened by a chronic medical equal conflict between a well-organized University management and an condition, and she had too much public contact on her job. Instead isolated individual clerical. of aiding this worker in finding a job with less public contact, man- Only by using our collective strength in our Union can we protect our jobs, agement denied her a transfer and set her up for the firing. our wages, and our working conditions. The strength of the Union is the Another firing occurred when a Black clerical with ten years seniority membership, and the direction of the Union is determined democratically by was accused of making long distance phone calls on the University the membership. We must not throw away what we worked so long to ac ieve, WATS Line. She had not made any long distance calls since six since, at present, our Union is our only tool for gaining control of our working months earlier, when she had voluntarily paid for personal calls before lives. VOTE "YES" FOR UAW LOCAL 2001 IN THE AUGUST 5-11 DECERTIFICATION ELECTION! OUR UNION WITH EACH OTHER IS OUR ONLY STRENGTH! UAW LOCAL 2001 EDUCATION COMMITTEE HELEN KELLY, LISA NORTH, PAM O'CONNOR, DOC WHITING, JO WILSMANN.