The Michigan Daily-Tuesday, August 5, 1980-Page 3
:Local Scene
Wordprocessors
ex-employees
picket for third z
time this year
By MAUREEN FLEMING
Former employees and sympathizers
have set up a picket line in front of.
Wordprocessors, an Ann Arbor
duplicating shop, for the third time this-
year. Their latest picket is a consumer
boycott to "Let the customers know just
how unfair the owners are," said .
Suzanne Napoleon, a former worker.
Wordprocessor's stormy employee
relations history started August, 1979,
when the employees picketed to show
their intentions to unionize. Following
this was a vote on possible membership
in the Industrial Workers of the World
(IWW) union.
JIM SMITH, an owner of Wor-
dprocessors, said he was not personally
against unions but he was against the
IWW.
He objected to the IWW because he
said the union was a revolutionary
Socialist union and the employees were
trying to wrest control of his business
from him.
Transfer
students
look for
I y.
dormitory
housing
By MAUREEN FLEMING
Some persons camped out all night,
others straggled in at dawn, and by the
appointed hour of 7:30 a.m. yesterday,
approximately 150 men and women had
joined the queue at the Student Ac-
tivities Building. They had not lined up
to obtain tickets to some long-awaited
concert, nor had they huddled together
solely for the sake of each other's com-
pany.
The needed a place to stay during the
coming fall and winter terms, and were
hoping the University could bail them
out.
EVERY SUMMER the University
Housing Office accumulates residence
hall cancellations, and at a set time of-
fers the vacancies to students who
either failed to sign up for or lost the
previous winter term's dorm lotteries.
The annual dormitory sign-up began
yesterday and will continue until the
fall term begins. #
The Housing Office requires all
students seeking a dorm room to make
their request in person, and assigns the
open spaces on a first-come, first-ser-
See STUDENTS, Page 7
After several months and challenged
votes, the count for unionization was
tied.
A tied count meant the employees
could not call another vote for one year,
Napoleon said. According to Napoleon,
relations deteriorated rapidly after that
tie vote. In April, 1980, 28 employees
walked out after what was termed "a
trivial event but the last straw" by
Napoleon.
SHE EXPLAINED that management
refused to transfer any calls to the print
department. She said that in itself was
not a serious event, but was a
culmination of attempts by the
management to oust union sym-
pathizers in the shop.
After 11 days of picketing the strike
was settled, negotiations began, and the
employees called in the National Labor
Relations Board to investigate the labor
dispute.
Judy Allen, another ex-employee,
said that since the April strike, more
than 20 employees have been "fired,
laid-off, or harrassed so they couldn't
take it anymore and quit."
SHE ADDED that since the beginning
of May the owners have hired new
people in the place of the laid-off emn-
ployees. "They (the new employees)
make more money though they're less
qualified," Allen explained.
Owner Smith denied this charge.
"There have been no cases where
someone new was hired and a laid-off
person was just as qualified." He added
that new employees have been hired,
but not to fill the same positions as the
laid-off ones.
"What the owners are trying to do is
make sure no one is still employed at
Wordprocessors who would want to
organize into a union," Napoleon said.
She added that the year waiting period
is almost up and the employees would
again be allowed to have a union vote.
SMITH DENIED this charge also. He
said his shop has not been in a
profitable situation for some time. He
explained that he was taking steps to
rectify the situation.
Smith said he was limiting the num-
ber of hours the shop would be open and
cutting back on the number of em-
ployees. He added that his business has
slowed down because the volume hasn't
been as high since the last strike, and
that summer has always been a slow
period.
Smith said that some of the em-
ployees have been called back from
layoffs but have refused to return to
work. "What they're trying to do is
pressure the store into a union," Smith
explained. "Since they can't have a
union vote for a year, they're trying to
underhandedly put pressure on us."
JUDITH SAWYER, EX-EMPLOYEE at Wordprocessors on South State St.,
pickets yesterday outside the store entrance. Store management has had
trouble with employee relations since August, 1979.
Libertarians
convene at';
sp onsor
BY JOYCE FRIEDEN
"Life, liberty, and the'pursuit of hap-
piness" - these were the words used in
the Declaration of Independence to
illustrate the rights the nation's first.
legislators wanted for every citizen of
their new land. The best method to
uphold these rights was- a hotly con-
tested issue at the University this
weekend, as the Students for a Liber-
tarian Society held their first nation-
wide conference here.
"Libertarianism embodies the idea
that the individual should have the
ultimate control over his own life in
both the economic and personal
sphere," explained Tom Coughlin, an
SLS member from the University of
Minnesota. "People should be allowed
to do what they want as long as it's not
an aggressive, act toward another
human being."
P'ARTY MEMBERS emphasized
debate.
there are different factions within the
party. "It's hard to get the groups
together," said Rutgers University
student Robert Kirsch. "There are the
minimalists, who believe in as little
government as possible, and then there
are the anarchists, who want no gover-
nment at all. -
"But for the most part, the party has
a consistent stand on the issues," he
continued. "I might not agree with their
stand on abortion, but the party is con-
sistent in its beliefs and devoid of the
hypocrisy I see in so many parties and
politicians."
Sharon Presley, who is not a college
student, attended the conference as a
representative of the Association of
Libertarian Feminists, a 200-member
group of female Libertarians.
Presley discussed the group's stand
on prostitution, saying "there should be
See STUDENT, Page 9