OPINION

Page 6
~be midbiian aiag
Vol. XCV, No. 4-S
95 Years of Editorial Freedom
Managed and Edited by Students at
The University of Michigan
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the
Doily Editorial Board
Applause for L.A.
L ABOR NEGOTIATION of comparable worth, or pay
equity, is gaining acceptability as the common sense
approach to a serious problem. Through negotiation,
unions and their employers can set standards for re-
evaluating jobs in work forces dominated by women.
Proponents of comparable worth want salaries in these job
areas to equal salaries of workers in male-dominated jobs
of similar value.
One of the major problems with leaving pay equity up to
the courts and legislation to decide upon,is that com-
parable worth does not provide a system from which to
measure the value of certain jobs. If left to the legal
process, comparable worth would face a difficult and
drawn out battle. Dragging salary values through the legal
system could open up hostilities between men and women
workers. Clearly this is not a desirable situation. Com-
parable worth proponents want to reverse discrimination,
not encourage negative feelings.
Still, the problem of underpaid women workers is a
pervasive one. In the state of Washington, for example,
beauticians were paid considerably less than barbers.
Nationwide, on an average, women are paid only 61 cents
to every dollar earned by men.
-The Civil Rights Act of 1964 has been whittling away at
this gap by granting women equal pay for performing the
same job as men. But if beauticians and barbers do com-
parable work and have similar training, it is apparent that
discrimination is often based not on job performance, but
on job categorization. It is for this reason that proponents
of comparable worth have called for the reassessment of
job values.
Last week in Los Angeles, the City Council approved a
union plan to increase the salaries of 3,900 librarians and
clerks, most of whom are women. The pay increase cost
the city one half of one percent of its total budget and ser-
ved to raise the women's salaries by 10 to 15 percent, equal
to the city's male dominated garden caretakers and main-
tenance workers.
In Los Angeles, the respective parties decided upon the
criteria they would use for establishing pay equity. The
city recognized that the persistent pay gap between the
city employees was a result of discrimination, and was
able to reach an effective compromise with the union to
reverse this discrimination without going through
legislative or court channels.
While common sense dictates that other cities and
private employers follow the fine example set by Los
Angeles, not every employer will be as aware or sensitive .
to the issues.
When collective bargaining fails, appropriate labor ac-
tion is necessary to combat unfair wages. Workers in
historically female-dominated jobs must organize in order
to assert their value in the nmar et place.

Wednesday, May 22, 1985

The Michigan Daily

Lies in Central America
B Dean Baker that it is a totalitarian regime that brutally represses its
By own population while preparing to invade its neighbors.
First of a three part series We also know that the Reagan administration believes
that if it lies enough, we will come to accept its lies about
Last October, Peter Teeley, Vice President Bush's Central America as truth, because most of us will never
press secretary, was confronted with evidence that see the retractions.
showed that several statements that the vice president IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to reconcile our actions in Central
had made in his televised debate with Geraldine Ferraro America with out professed concern for democracy, self-
were false. He responded by pointing out that his boss determination, or human rights. It is not difficult to ex-
could say anything he liked and twenty million people plain our actions as stemming from a desire to protect the
would hear it. Twenty thousand, maybe two hundred interests of U.S. corporations.
thousand, would ever hear a retraction. For most of this century U.S. corporations have profited
It may come as no surprise to most of us that politicians from access to cheap labor and raw materials throughout
frequently lie, but when they begin to openly brag about Latin America. Whenever regimes have come to power
lying as strategy, it may strike us as cause for concern. If that were more committed to serving the needs of their
we accept the expert opinion of Vice President Bush's populations than the needs of U.S. corporations, they have
press secretary, the administration can make up any invariably encountered the hostility of the U.S. gover-
story it likes and over 99 percent of the people who hear nment.
the lie will continue to believe it. Clearly this is the ad- In some situations the U.S. government has been able to
ministration's strategy for gaining public support for its bring about a change of government or a change of
Central American policy, policies through economic pressure, as was the case in
IF ONE ONLY heard President Reagan speak, it would Jamaica in 1981.
be possible to believe that the United States supported ON OTHER occasions we have helped to organize coups
democracy in Central America. He never mentions the to overthrow the offending government, as in Guatemala
military dictatorships that we have supported and con- in 1954, Brazil in 1964, and Chile in 1973. In several instan-
tinue to support in the region. According to President ces we have applied military force directly, as in the
Reagan, we believe in the right of nations in the region to Dominican Republic in 1965, Cub in 1961, and Grenada in
self-determination. If this were true we obviously would 1983.
not have invaded Nicaragua five times earlier in the cen- The unifying theme behind our actions in all these cases
tury, and left a brutal dictatorship to rule over the coun- is that we opposed new governments that were deemed
try. Nor would we have overthrown the democratically inimical to the interests of U.S. corporations, even if they
elected government of Guatemala in 1954. Nor would we had the overwhelming support of their country's people.
be threatening to overthrow the government of Nicaragua The stake of U.S. corporations in Central America is not
today. very large. This is entirely true of Nicaragua, where few
President Reagan claims that we are concerned with corporations have much invested. The reason why
human rights. Obviously we are not concerned with human Nicaragua is important to the Reagan administration is
rights when we aid a government in El Salvador that has because of the example it provides. If it is allowed to sur-
killed 50,000 of its citizens in the last six years, or when we vive it would show that a government in Latin America
aid a government in Guatemala that has killed even more. could steer a course independent of the United States, that
Supposedly we are concerned about freedom of the press, a government can place the needs of its citizens over the
but the fact that the opposition press in El Salvador was needs of foreign corporations.
shut down by the mutilation murder of the editor of one All of Latin America is watching the progress of the
paper, and the fire bombing of the office of another, does Nicaraguan revolution. In recent visits to Uruguay and
not seem to trouble us. The president professes concern Brazil, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega was followed
for freedom of religion, but clerics are routinely but- around by cheering crowds; not the sort of reception that
chered in our ally El Salvador after being labeled "sub- the head of state of a tiny impoverished nation typically
versives". receives. Clearly if the revolution can succeed many other
Clearly the president is lying. He is lying because he nations are likely to be influenced by its example. It is
knows he can gain support for his policies with these lies, exactly this that Reagan fears. Since he can't express this
U.S. citizens will not support the overthrow of a concern publicly however, we can expect many more lies.
democratically elected government in Nicaragua because
Reagan disapproves of their domestic policies. We might,
however, be persuaded to support the overthrow of the . aker, a doctoral student in economics, is
Nicaraguan government, if the president can convince us president of Rackam Student Government.
Letters
To the Daily: tnership rather than confrontation by student has mastered a second
A few days ago I was in Moscow to the USA-USSR in the third world-but language (Chinese, Russian, Spanish,
celebrate the peace that came to most urgent, more people to people French, German, etc.-take your
Europe 40 years ago. We talked about exchange to live and work in the choice). We would do this out of
a joint Cosmonaut-Astronaut mission USSR and the USA. But for us respect for the history and cultural
to Mars; some independent Inter- Americans that means more of us will achievements of other countries.
national Organization that could have to learn Russian. I suggest a
educate and thus aid World Public compulsory requirement for ad- -Robert Madden
Opinion to halt the arms race; par- mission to any university that the May 17
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