The `Union Man' at Labor page 3 vol. 2 • no. 3 summer 1979 N, I GrIgal Trr k N. C. CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH, INC. Board of Directors The Magazine of the N.C. Center William G. Hancock, Chairman for Public Policy Research Patricia H. Wagner, Vice Chairman Grace Rohrer, Secretary James E. Harrington, Treasurer 3 The `Union Man ' at Labor Thomas L. Barringer -Jerry Adams Thad L. Beyle Daniel T. Blue, Jr. 6 The HEW-UNC Dispute William L. Bondurant Its Roots Are Here at Home Betty Chaffin -Ned Cline Walter E. Dellinger III Walter DeVries Joel L. Fleishman 10 Covering Washington Virginia Ann Foxx Many Newspapers Rely on the Phone, Harry E. Groves Press Releases R. Darrell Hancock -Martin Donsky Watts Hill, Jr. Wilbur Hobby Mary Hopper 12 Jailing Runaways and Truants Walter T. Johnson, Jr. Betty Ann Knudsen A Novel Approach to Juvenile Thomas W. Lambeth Law Thelma Lennon William R. Ludwick -Brad Stuart Wayne Montgomery Roy Parker, Jr. Donald D. Pollock 14 `The People 's Advocate' McNeill Smith Robert W. Spearman James C. Wallace 15 Restructuring the Family Alfreda Webb Harrison Wellford Planning Program Cameron West Change for Uniformity' s Sake? Betty H. Wiser -Brad Lamb George Wood 22 CWIP: Was It Part of `A Swap- CenterStaff Off'? Mercer Doty, Director Henry Wefing, Editor, N. C. Insight SallyeBranch Fred Harwell 25 Governor Responds to Center Mindy Kutchei Report Martha Pavlides Brad Stuart N. C. INSIGHT is a quarterly magazine published by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research, Inc. (a non-prof tax-exempt corporation ) at 700 West Morgan St ., P. O. Box 10886 , Raleigh, N. C.27605 . Telephone (919) 833-1656. Annu membership rates: Individual, $15 ; Library or non-profit group, $30; Corporation , $ 50. Third class postage paid at Raleigh, N. Copyright 1979 by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research , Inc. Articles reprinted by permission . Printed The Graphic Press, Inc., Raleigh , N. C. The Center is supported in part by grants from the Carnegie Corporation, the Fo Foundation , the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation , the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundatio The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the individual members of the Center 's Board of Directo Design by Mary Margaret Wade. Cover photo by Linda Miller. Brooks ' election gave heart to those who saw the commissioner's office in the past as having been one-sided in its support of management aims. The `Union Man' at Labor by Jerry Adams The office has the appearance of that of a graduate student who is in the middle of his disserta- tion. No fewer than seven plain chairs hold piles of files, mimeographed reports, correspondence, computer printouts, bulletins, memoranda and magazines, all at some stage of being read. More paper piles cover the desk, a couch, a coffee table, a sideboard, a wing-back chair and a metal table. Across the floor are boxes of vertical files containing yet more information. Standing among the erudite litter are two bronze sculptures of muscular young men, one stringing a stout bow, the other cleaving wood with his bare hands. And in the middle of the office, in a chair he's just cleared to make room for his paunchy frame, sits John C. Brooks, North Carolina Commissioner of Labor and member of the Council of State by mandate of the state Constitution, authorized under the statutes to protect and promote "the safety and well- being" of the 2,554,300 North Carolinians who make up the state's workforce. John Brooks: the Bad Boy of North Carolina hard-fought primary battles against Mrs. Jessie Rae politics. Scott. Brooks is examining his knuckles and talking on Brooks himself says, "There's nothing significantly about a wide range of subjects during an interview. `union' or `anti-union' about the Department of Labor. Every once in a while, he yields for a question. It is a service agency for employers and employees, The content of his answers reflects knowledge and their interests are served by the improvement of absorbed from the information around him and the those services." experience gained from going through five elections Nevertheless, the general perception in the state is in his quest for the office he holds. The length and that Brooks, at the very least, has an open mind complexity of some of his answers reflect a character- toward labor whereas labor commissioners of the past istic for which he has been criticized. have been closely associated with management. "As a student of government," says a friend, Pointing out that in northern states the labor com- "there's no one more brilliant in the state. But some- missioner is usually appointed and, like the U.S. times John will sit on his ass until the Nina, the Pinta Secretary of Labor, is a staunch unionist, one close and the Santa Maria get back before he'll make a observer of North Carolina government and politics decision." Indeed, it is said that Brooks' tendency says Brooks represents an unusual example of "interest- to be tentative is causing grumbling among the union group liberalism" in a conservative state. "In a state rank-and-file that worked for his election. On the like North Carolina," he concludes, "it's the first time other hand, for someone who was openly regarded you've had a union man." in North Carolina's corporate management circles as Attitudes can influence the delivery of the a serious threat---that is, as a "union man"---before "services" to which Brooks refers. Among the services he was elected, Brooks' capacity for going slowly is offered by the department---an arm of state govern- probably a political virtue. "I think John has softened ment unnoticed by most citizens unless they happen his approach considerably," notes a management to read inspection notices in elevators---are two that representative who did not support Brooks during his could influence important developments in the state's future. erry Adams is a free-lance writer who works in First, there is the apprenticeship program. Estab- inston-Salem. lished by statute in 1939, the program has been a SUMMER 1979 3 of ideas for reaching the day "when employees all over North Carolina are judged on the basis of merit and not on ancestry." In 1965, Brooks served as counsel to the North 661 haven't seen a tremendous Carolina Fund, a private, foundation-supported, difference in the Department of Sanford-nurtured effort that antedated the national Labor under John Brooks' War on Poverty. In 1967, Brooks moved to Maryland administration. 99 to serve as chief of staff in that state's constitutional revision effort. He returned in September, 1968, to -George Shelton serve about 15 sometimes stormy months as the first Capital Associated Industries director of the N.C. General Assembly's legislative research office. Brooks' resume notes that he "also served simultaneously as enrolling clerk, editor of publications and director of computer services." hollow one, all but ignored by state commissioners Observers point out that he probably learned most, of labor and by the U.S. Department of Labor. But however, about human relations. After continuing the idea of the program is to train, using both private conflicts with his legislative employers, Brooks was and public resources, the skilled workers that North dismissed and went immediately to work for the Carolina desperately needs to continue industrial constitutional revision effort in Illinois. growth and raise its abysmally low wage scale. After a year, he settled into law practice in Raleigh Second, the commissioner's office has influence, in January, 1971. The next year Brooks took a run at both symbolic and substantive, in labor relations in William C. "Billy" Creel, who sought election in his North Carolina. Symbolically, in a right-to-work state own right as labor commissioner after years as right- with the lowest percentage of unionized workers in hand man and heir apparent to Frank L. Crane, com- the nation, Brooks' election gave heart to those who missioner since 1954. Because labor commissioners had saw the commissioner's office in the past as having a habit of picking their successors---Crane supported been one-sided in its support of management aims. Creel---there had not been a wide-open campaign for In terms of substance, the office is statutorily em- the post in more than 40 years. Brooks forced Creel powered to conciliate and even arbitrate labor-manage- into a run-off, but lost. ment disputes. Though the power has up to now Creel died in office during the administration of been exercised in only modest ways, it has the poten- Gov. James E. Holshouser, who appointed fellow tial for placing the commissioner in the middle of labor Republican T. Avery Nye. Brooks decided on another disputes involving public employees, who are proscribed try. In 1976, the Democratic primary presented a from the traditional forms of union organization by crowded field of Brooks; R. J. Dunnagan, a labor state law. This has already happened in Winston- department official; Virgil McBride, a lobbyist for Salem, where Brooks found himself between the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.; and Mrs. Scott, the Teamsters and city government as the result of a strong wife of former Gov. Bob Scott. A source thoroughly effort by the union to organize policemen, garbage familiar with the broad sweep of North Carolina collectors and maintenance workers. management recalls that Brooks was firmly identified as the leastdesirable candidate in the eyes of execu- tives, who in the Democratic primary tended to line John Charles Brooks was born in Greenville, N.C., up behind Mrs.