I), • Fraser's defense of a working woman's right to express her political ideology on and off the job is the civil liberties test case of the '80s. BY ROBERT CRISMAN AND MARC KRASNOWSKY II 'I eventy years after Pacific Northwest courtrooms frontrunner in the crusade for the dignity of labor and for affirmative reverberated with the tremors of the free speech action for minorities and women. fights launched by IWW rebels, the First Amend­ The right of workers to speak their minds on and off the job, and to ment rights of working people are once more on trial freely choose their own friends and associates, is on trial in Seattle. in Seattle. The job rights of the most exploited and demeaned workers­ s As the testimony unfolds in the critical case of lowpaid women and people of color-are also on trial. Clara Fraser against Seattle City Light management, a harrowing And the right of political radicals and critics of all types to express story comes to light, an incontrovertible record their convictions, without persecution from today's breed of of city management skullduggery against a McCarthyite witchhunters in government and business, is on trial, too. woman employee who has long been a That is why feminist Gloria Steinem called this case "the human and civil rights test case of the '80s." And that is why an impressive and significant groundswell of sup­ port erupted almost overnight once the case came to public hearing on January 14, 1980. Fraser filed her sex and political ideology discrimination charges six years ago, in August, 1974, and was upheld by the Seattle Human TO NEXT PAGE ZFi As Clara Fraser's historic case of discrimination basi political ideology unfolds in the courtroom, it is clear th~ Rights Department in 1977. In 1979, Mayor Charles Royer conciliated a settle­ ment, but the Seattle City Council re­ labor, as well as the tenets of socialist feminism, are eqUQ jected it and called for a hearing to deter­ mine whether Fraser may win job rein­ statement, back pay and damages. Fraser especially devised for the trial. tum, selected her as their chairperson, to be associated with Clara." With endorsement from Washing­ Cloud has focused heavily on Fraser's which made her the co-chair of the com­ Marilyn Bircher testifted that Fraser ton State's King County Labor Coun­ off-the-job "afftliation" with some of the bined worker-management negotiating analyzed the hoax leaflet at a mass em­ cil AFL-CIO, the National Lawyers women trainees in Radical Women, a committee. ployee meeting, calling it a management­ Guild. and scores of labor, civil rights, socialist feminist organization. Robert S. Leighton ITI, Senior Power inspired provocation to divide the work­ and other social-issue organizations And of course Fraser is denounced as Station Operator and a walkout leader, ers and diffuse their militancy. Fraser and concerned individuals across the "abrasive" (she "couldn't get along with testifted that Fraser" consistently upheld defended her right to be a radical, but country, Fraser's charge-that Seattle people"), as lazy (cheating on working the positions of the employees" in the ne­ offered to resign her offtcial positions City Light harassed and then ftred her in a hours), as a crook (documents disap­ gotiations. "She tried to get manage­ with the employee group. She was given a blatant act of discrimination on the basis peared), and as dishonest (padding a con­ ment to fulfill its promises. " rousing vote of conftdence to continue her of sex and political ideology-has won sultant's bill). Like every whistle-blower George Rauch, Underground Systems role, said Bircher, and was applauded. sympathy from thousands of people. against government chicanery, Fraser is Supervisor, was management co-chair on being personally maligned and slandered the Bill of Rights and Responsibilities The competency question Fired for her principles to blunt the effect of her criticism. Committee. Rauch, a hostile witness, ad­ itness after witness at- lara Fraser was hired on But Fraser's case is armed with the mitted that Fraser "represented the em­ tested to Fraser's profici­ June 4,1973 to be the strongest of all weapons-truth, facts, ployees in a manner agreeable to them," ency and professional­ ftrst Education Coor­ and logic. Faced with the potent testi­ but complained that she forced manage­ ism, and her good rela­ dinator for Seattle City mony of scores of Fraser's witnesses, ment to "compromise" and to lengthen tions with people. Light, a public utility. A management's legal house of cards has the time of meetings. W Dick Sugiyama found C few months later, she was already been demolished. Rauch, Leighton, and McDougall all her "very competent, very organized. assigned to organize the Electrical Trades Under questioning by Fraser's attor­ testifted that the adopted Bill of Rights, When she was not getting any direction, Trainee (Em program, designed to bring ney, John Chen Beckwith, witnesses have completed after a year of negotiation, was she picked up the slack. There was good I women into the all-male trade. attested to her effective work for affIr­ never implemented by management. At­ planning for the ETT programs. She met Fraser was chosen for this unique task mative action and labor's aims at City torney Beckwith has stressed this as an the deadlines." because of her rich experience as a femin­ Light, the respect she earned from her example of management treachery. Former trainee Jody Olvera, now ajour­ ist and civil rights leader, as an organizer coworkers and from sections of mid-man­ neywoman Station Constructor, said and administrator, and as a professional agement, her sudden removal as ETT The big red scare Fraser set up the women's program so developer of adult vocational projects for program organizer in June, 1974, which anagement lost little time that "we could succeed, and not get the disadvantaged. A veteran labor activ­ seriously endangered the program, and inredbaiting Clara Fraser dumped onto the job to see who would sur­ ist, Fraser helped pave the way for Superintendent Vickery's strong hostility once the walkout erupted. vive. I thought a lot of care had gone into women's massive entry into unions and to her, expressed in schemes and tricks Joan Whiley, former dealing with the problems we would face, nontraditional trades in the '60s and '70s. employed to discredit and remove her. Community Relations the things women haven't been taught." Her background in labor struggles M Specialist, said that at thrust her into another leadership role Testimony on the walkout one point during the employee upheaval, during and after a dramatic mass walkout 1 McDougall, a journey- Vickery showed her "what looked like ex­ by City Light employees in April, 1974, a man Cable Splicer and a tracts from a police file. It said Clara had 1973 year after she was hired. leader of the employee been a member of the Communist Party June 4-Clara Fraser hired as She was elected by the employees to walkout in 1974, testified in the New York area. I said 'It looks like Education Coordinator. chair a committee to negotiate a Bill of at length about the bitter someone's been going into FBI files'. " September-Fraser assigned to Rights with management. She partici­ A division between dicta- Personnel Specialist Fran Ross testi­ illiill coordinate the planning and imple­ pated in the Mayor Uhlman Recall Cam­ tor Vickery in his "marble palace," and fted that Administrative Services Director mentation of the Electrical TradE paign, an offshoot of the walkout. She crit­ employees in the field. Carole Coe, Vickery's adjutant and Trainee program for women, a 1m icized management's elimination of Marilyn Bircher, Cost Accounting Man­ Fraser's boss, labeled the walkout "com­ mark project to develop women inl planned affirmative action training, and ager, was a spokesperson for the clericals munist-inspired." City Light electricians. its inadequate safety policies, during hear­ during the walkout. She described how Said Ross, "Coe reminded me of the ings of a Public Review Committee to the Vickery administration "manipu­ McCarthyite witchhunt of the '50s." Coe 1974 investigate City Light Superintendent lated people out of their positions and credited her inside information to "a February-March-Supt. Gordo Gordon Vickery's practices. She drew did little about affirmative action." friend in the FBI. " according to then­ Vickery cancels the slots reserve attention from the media, and was pub­ Dick Sugiyama, former Equal Employ­ Assistant Personnel Manager Steve for minorities and women in a m licly criticized by Vickery. ment Opportunity Investigator, stated Church. agement training course, and also c Many other City Light employees were that Vickery "circumvented the proper Charles Poole, a former Employment cels a shorthand course developed highly visible leaders. But Fraser was also personnel practices and promoted his Practices Specialist for City Personnel, II Fraser to help upgrade lowpaid min a known socialist, a 35-year participant in own favorites. " Sugiyama said that Vick­ said he was told by Bill Rheubottom, ity and white women clericals. the antiwar, civil liberties, Black freedom ery angrily" stressed loyalty over compe­ Fraser's supervisor, that "she was Fraser, her supervisor, and two El and Native American movements, and tence" and used his "hatchet people" on terminated because she was a officers protest these decisions. support work for international struggles. those who differed with him. communist." Administrative Services Directol Mter 21 years in the Socialist Workers During the employee eruption against Mike Sharar recalled the events sur­ Carole Coe blames Fraser for the p Party, she had left it and helped to found Vickery, Fraser quickly became a leader, rounding a sloppily-produced, hoax leaf­ tests, declares that Vickery is unhal the Freedom Socialist Party in 1966 and according to Mike Sharar, former Com­ let that was circulated throughout City with Fraser's "attitude and perfor· Radical Women in 1968.