Vol. 32-No. 1 46January 6, 1989 EDITORIAL -I--- By JOHN F. HENNING Execut'ie Secretary-Treasurer Californi Labor Federation, AFL-CIO When Cornwallis surrendered to Washington at Yorktown, it meant victory for the Revolution and birth of a new political order. As some 3,500 British troops dropped arms, the Red Coat band played "The World Turned Upside Down.'" A mournful and prophetic air for those who sensed the loss Margaret Butz Sherr Chiesa of a people and a n.ation. Loretta Mahoney Something like that perceived loss must be afflicting the fading.generations that around the globe gave their souls to Stalinism. Most V\bmen Ever~~~ Mikhail Gorbachev has largely reversed the direction of seven Soviet decades in his rush to liberalism. Indeed, a certain conirwmation comes in the'AFL-CIO's InFe Ladrsi report that it now mntiscontact with the Inter- Professional 'Association of Workers of the U.S.S.R. when not frsrae by authorities dead to change. Gorbachev does it aU in the name ofLeninismm as-he told More women are participating in President months Leni envisioned the leadership of the Cali,fornia Labor Reagan som.e ago. Federation than at any time in the wither'mg away of the state through the pristine purity of prior history of thie state AFL-CIO soiais. There was no witherinag, but rather burgeoni9ng organization. once Stali took.the Kremln in 1924. The new year finds five female .Comrade Khrushchevr was th'e rierst to voice formal vice presidents seated on the Ex- heresy., He. did it in 1960 at the 20th Co'ngress of the eputive Council,. the pli-.sWin -Soviet. Commit Pat. a i- StWlin had l.}.. body that guides the federation be- a tween biennial conventions. quidated "millions,"' shocker to inctsabroad who Loretta Mahoney, executive had approved every act of state terrorism. secretary of the State Culinary There is no keepin pace with Gorbac-hev. This week Workers Council has been a vice the Soviet. News 'Agency Tass reported that the Com- president since 1971, first serving munist Party on Thursday requested the mass rehabilita- at-large and subsequently as tion of- Soviet citizenls convicted by controOfed courts in representative of the federation's Stlns purges. District 12 incl1uding Santa Rosa where she resides. She has more Tass said the governing Central Committee ofthe party service than all except two of her called for annuhnenlt of verdicts that sent thousands to 36 colleagues. their deaths, labor camnps or exdle in the 1930's, '40's and Mahoney's status as the only 9509s. woman on the Executive Council 'Again this week the violently forbidden was voiced. changed in 1986. Soviet histor'n N. Vasetsky, writing in Moscow's Sherri Chiesa, president ofLocal said Stalin had directed the assassina- 2 of the Hotel Employees and Literary Gazette, Restaurant Employees ofSan Fran- Margaret Deanl Ophliea McFadlden tion of Leon Trotsky in Mexico in 1940. Vasetsky also cisco, was elected in March of that named the secret police officer charged with organizing year to represent District 10. an international vice president of at-large vice president last October the murder. It would appear the Party has taken the fr-st Five months later Margaret the Service Employees and general during the federation convention at step in Trotsky's rehabilitation. Butz, deputy director of Local 790 manager of Local 434 at Los Los Angeles, becoming the fifth Freedom is half, loose now 'n Russia, and truth is of the Service Employees in Sans Angeles, who was elected to an at- woman on the Executive Council. writin fast. Gorbachev last month said there must not be Francisco and Oakland,' was large vice presidency and was Only days earlier Dean had been Iin Soviet there will elected at the federation convention seated on the council in December chosen to head the California State "missing pages" history. Piresumably of 1987. Local 1000 of be the stonies of Trotsky and countless others sent to the to fill an at-large vice presidency.- Employees Assn., in Next came Ophelia McFadden, Margaret Dean was elected an the Service Employees. wall the long years Of tyrny The official newspaper Izvestiya recently said the Soviet Unio.n has canceled rmal history exlamiaino elemen- HihCutHt okr tary and high school students because the text books used in the schook; are collections of lies. "The guflt ofthose who fooled generation after genlera- The new, conservative majority last week culrtailing damages em- ecutive secretay-treasurer of the tion is gigantic and without measure," the paper sadin a of the Califomia Supreme Court ployees can collect in wrongful California Labor Federation. front page editorial. ""They poisoned with Ues the minds, placed business stability ahead of discharge suits, legal observers Others called thie decision thie and souls" of Soviet students. workers' rights in the 4-3 decision agree. clearest demonstration to date of " . .the bottom line is that this the reason the labor movement The reported numbers sugtred in the Staii years court is hostile to worker efforts campaigned so hard against the are aplf. ritin in November in the Mocw Ies, designed to regulate a boss' ar- ultra-conservative campaign to Soviet hitrnRoy Medvedevrsi at least 17 mSo bitrary behavior through substan- remove Chief Justice Rose Bird perished. tial money awards," Stanford Law and two liberal associate justices first wave came in its Professor William B. Gould IV from thie Supreme Court in 1986. He said the ofrepressions 1927-28, wrote this weekend in a commen- The decision was written} by victims being tens ofthousands ofthe foUowersofTrotsky. tary published in thie Los Angeles Malcolm Lucas, appointed by *Show trials and nmas executions of Old Guard Times. Gov. George Deukmejian to dssidnt followed in the 1930's. "Unfortunately, thiis decision replace Bird as chief justice. That the truth has been revealed for Rusas liv*m treated people as just another com- Justices Edward Panelli, John modity -labor-to be bought and Arguelles and David Eagelson, all millons virtually chlegsbelief. Stfll, it had to happen, sold by business," sad Steven J. conservatives nwned to 'relace however delayed. Kaplan, attomey for Daniel D. liberals, joined in Lucas' op'imion. The system had co.ntre#qd all but the minds of writers. Foley, the Los Angeles man on Marcus Kaufman, another new Smgled books au fiible'ink. Writers somehow whose suit the court ruled. conservative justice, and Stanley touching and hearing'i world beyond. The.pen and-not "The court is going in the wrong Mosk and Allen Broussard, hold- the gun brought the-despotism down. Upside~D.oWm direction by" weakening workers' overs from thie Bird -court, wrote rights," said John F. Henning, ex- (Continued on Page 4) The caznpaign to tear down -sent employers and the one-namned scheduled for Friday,, Jan. 20. said. The -rule is thiat a store clerk California worker protections con- rto speak. for thie general public left Chairpeson Lynnell Pollock, an Auto dealers and oter emnploy- sales associate in Chevalier's tinued without holiday respite as nohope thtte body could -carry, employer representative,, said she ers, including Firstone auto ser- words -must get tie and a-half the Industrial Welfare Commis- out its oriia task 'of promoting was interested in- giving --the mer-- 'vice shops, want to nullify 'a court for work beyond eight hours a day sion, in its last session of l988, te welfare of workers. cantile wage order the 12-hour day of appeal decision at Los Angeles unless he or she earns at least half entertained employer proposals to- At the top of the conunission's provisions approved last- Septem- holding thiat mechanics 'paid for again as much as the mimum effectively terminate thie eight-hour. D)ec. 16 agenda were proposals to ber forother' industries even though piece work cannot be considered wage, anid unless at least halfofthie day for additional tousands of eliminate overtimne pay for auto this wasn't being requested. commissioned employees and total is in commissions. wage-erers. mechanics paid on flat -rates and John F. Henning, executive sec- therefore exempted from existing Chevalier told IWC members The session Dec. 16 at San Fran- department store employees who retary-treasurer -of the Caifomnia state timne and a half overtirne pay thiat about 70 percent of the people cisco was marked also by the earn commissions. Both catgre Labor Federation, told te com- requirements. employed in California department departure of one of the two labor ofworkers are covered by ffemer- missioner's they ought to feel af- Departrnent stores want to get rid stores eain lessthan $6.38 a'n hour, representatives on te five-member cantile industry regulations,.state fronted because employers were of a regulation' requiring tem to which is one and a half times the commssion. wage order 7-80. trying to get around the law -by atp- pay time and a half to sales.clerks minimum wage. David Padilla, former president The employers asked thie IWC to pealing to the, IWC. whose total earnings, including Own.ers will not pay time and a ofa Teamster local at Stockton, an- appoint a wage board to consider' "These employers are tryinig to commissions, do not amount to at half, he said, indicating thiat one nounced that he would not accept alterations to thie wage order, in- achieve trough tis cormmiss'ion least $6.38 per hour. result is a public poorly served because thiere are no store clerks to reappointment. itiating a process that worked what a court has denied thiem and A confrontaion between a state He cited comments he made against workers almost without ex- what themselves admit -te wait upon tem.