WGBH Journal; Khun Suree Panchareo

Good evening and welcome to GBH Journal I'm Amy sands. Tonight Greg Fitzgerald shed some light on an important but little publicized union struggle being fought over at St. Elizabeth's Hospital right turn on red turns out to involve federal funds not just U.N. patients at red lights. Chris out when who can't resist a little fun fills us in on the history of Valentine's Day and the airlines has some reservations about Governor King's new cabinet appointees. And we'll have all of that right after the local news. Welfare recipients will finally be receiving their cost of living increases after a seven month delay. Governor King decided yesterday to pay the 6 percent increase allocated by the legislature in July to general welfare recipients. However there will be no increase for recipients of aid to families with dependent children which makes up most welfare recipients. That money will continue to be held up until conflict with federal legislation is cleared up. According to Human Services secretary Charles Mahoney. Meanwhile the Department of Public Utilities has changed its stand on speeding up the hearing process for the Boston Edison nuclear power plant earlier this month the utility commission

announced it would speed up the schedule from two to five days a week. That action was challenged by the attorney general's office which said that that schedule would make it impossible for groups opposed to the plants construction to get hold of legal documents held by the state. The newly announced schedule will be four days a week giving access to state records to intervenors once a week. The implementing legislation that is required to make the classification amendment a reality seems to be getting mired down in the complaints of a number of special interest groups. Business farm an environmental interest crowd at a legislative hearing today hoping to win special tax breaks by changing the terms of the classification Amendment. The Taxation Committee appeared reluctant to make piecemeal changes in the implementing legislation today. However co chair person Robert McCarthy proposed that the legislation be delayed for one year to give lawmakers a chance to totally revamp the procedure. Seeking special changes in the legislation today where the associated industries of Massachusetts the Massachusetts Farm Bureau and the Massachusetts

forest and Parks Association. If everyone in the city of Glen paid their taxes the city tax rate would drop by $12. About 3 million dollars is owed to the city by delinquent taxpayers. According to the city's tax collector Massachusetts fair share received a list of the delinquent accounts last night after a 20 month battle with Cronan. It took a Supreme Judicial Court to create to finally release the list the largest outstanding bill on the list was that a Boston gas company who owes the city over half a million dollars from their 978 taxes finally after a last ditch effort to overturn a controversial bill to raise the drinking age to 20 failed in the house. The measure was passed on to the Senate today. The house which had earlier this week supported an increase of only one year to 19 in the drinking age. Yesterday bumped it up to 21 in two stages. About 100 disappointed students were in the House gallery when the bill was successfully moved on to the Senate. One of the concerns of many legislators during the drinking age debate was the fear that states surrounding Massachusetts would be able

to sell alcoholic beverages to Bay State teenagers because of their lower limits. Those fears were eased somewhat today after New Hampshire governor Hugh Galland recommended that the New England regional commission recommend at its next meeting that all New England states implement a uniform drinking age. And that's the news. Organizing in Boston hospitals has the reputation of being extraordinarily difficult among the city's labor organizers. Over the past several years a majority of the large hospitals in the city have fought off union drives after having spent large sums of money for labor consulting firms who organize hospital supervisors against the unions. St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Brighton has been the focus of a particularly bitter union struggle a close union election there ended in the defeat of the Union in October. And shortly

thereafter the National Labor Relations Board cited the hospital management for thirty eight separate counts of unfair labor practices that struggle goes back a long way. Greg Fitzgerald filed this report in June without passing union cards. By June 23rd we had a majority of those 750 people having indicated by signing cards that they wanted election. And that's when all hell broke loose basically that's when the hospital started responding. With an anti-union campaign more vicious more deliberate sort of more calculated more insensitive I would say than any campaign that we've seen in Boston in the union six years of organizing. That's e-mails as an organizer for local 880 of the Massachusetts hospital workers. The union has been attempting to organize the seven hundred fifty service and technical workers of St. Elizabeth since 1977 and 80s efforts were not the first organized Santis workers district 11 ninety nine. Another union tried in vain in

1075 in 1976 to organize the hospital. The Union was defeated by a wide margin but the National Labor Relations Board overturned the election citing unfair labor practices by the hospital's management another election was held and another defeat was handed to pro union workers. In 1977 unionization attempts began a new local 880 organized enough support among service and technical personnel to call for another NLRB supervised election in the spring and summer of 1978. There was growing support for a new union. That's the way Nancy Mills viewed it. She said the climate of the hospital suddenly changed. The hospital ministration was able to turn the hospital into an armed camp during the. During the union campaign I can't not armed with guns but armed with real psychological warfare tools threats intimidation pressure they fired three people for union activity suspended two others for union activity isolated union supporters from people who were leaning

against the union. Just a whole range of tactics designed to make people feel that that the union organizing effort had brought terror into their lives and that when if the union won that there was simply going to continue repeating the union lost in 1976 hospital workers rejected the Union last fall. But the vote was much closer and repeating the events of the previous election. The NLRB issued unfair labor practice charges against the hospital. Thirty eight to be exact and a new election was ordered. Many of the unfair labor charges were leveled against the hospital supervisors who both the union and the board felt may have unfairly pressured employees to vote against unionization. The union places the blame on the hospital's use of modern management methods. A labor consultant firm used in many area hospitals when organizing drives began. Saint Elizabeth alone spent some seventy five thousand dollars on the firm during the early election drive of District 11

99. Nancy mills of 880 feels it was the use of the 3M company which turned the tide against a pro union vote. They take over the hospital. So they took supervisors off the floors away from away from patients for hours at a time. Training them about how to deal with employees concerns about the union but also really turning those supervisors into crusaders against the union scaring the wits out of them about what a union would mean to them and making them come and report to the consultant about who was leaning which way. You know one of the questions people are asking making the report on how many other people are pro-union how many are anti-union and making them feel like bad supervisors. If their employees were not against the union we have bent over backwards trying to create an environment where each employee can make a free choice as to whether he or she would like to be represented in the administration of a saint Elizabeths denies that their use of the consulting for him lead to unfair labor

practices. Williams carried the executive director of the hospital so the hospital supports the idea of unions having already negotiated with two other unions representing nurses and maintenance workers. Scary said the consulting firm was used to instruct supervisors how not to commit illegal anti-union practices. He also said the major effort of the hospital was to provide enough information on the union from the hospital's point of view so that workers could make their own decisions. In each instance where the information has been provided by the organizing Union we've tried to provide information which would make the individual who is devoted knowledgeable as possible about both sides of the issue. The National Labor Relations Board in original proceeding issued 38 unfair labor practices against the hospital does that not put you in the position of at least appearing to be trying to stop unionization within this particular unit.

We are led to believe that one of the strategies of an organizing union is to create situations where charges can be filed for instance. We had a number of employees who were disciplined. It was suggested that perhaps they were disciplined because of the organizing efforts that certainly was not true. Some of the charges involve the fact that we increased our salaries and our French benefit program. And the inference was that this was done you know wanted to keep out a union. This was not so this was done in conjunction with the beginning of our fiscal year program. Just as we've done for many many years. So the point is they were disciplined I guess either fire fired or suspended. According to a they are employees which you are saying were released because of issues totally unrelated to the unionization effort. Yes that's true. And the hospital has a grievance procedure and as a matter of fact I think in each of the instances in question the employees

were returned to their former positions. My name is Jerry scope and I work for transportation in the hospital. I transport patients around all over the hospital. I was fired for gross insubordination. That's what they claim. But they said that I had had its root problems and it was determined through the grievance procedure that I didn't have an attitude and I didn't have an attitude because I worked very hard for the hospital I worked 60 70 hours a week sometimes you know and I made a lot of money there of course but I didn't have an attitude. The only attitude I had was a pro-union attitude you know because I was glad to see the union doing something for us. There's absolutely no doubt in your mind that. You were fired primarily because of your attitude with the union. Yes I know so it's very hard now to go back to employees at St. Elizabeth's and say that you were brainwashed. Again that's e-mails of local 880 that you were convinced to vote against the union

because the hospital misrepresented what the process of collective bargaining and what the union is all about and the hospital made life miserable for you illegally and gave you the impression that the union would mean terror. So you voted against it under false pretenses now you know better go back and vote. Yes well not that easy. People don't want to admit that they were brainwashed and B the damage has been done. You know they've been frightened whether or not the hospital tried to unfairly convince St. Elizabeth workers to vote against a union may be irrelevant at this point. What's at stake now is a delay of up to 18 months for a possible new election at the hospital. So Elizabeth's management appealed to the NLRB following the board's issuance of the 38 unfair labor charges an administrative judge at the NLRB will convene a trial next week to determine whether those charges were investigated thoroughly enough. Meanwhile pro union organizers both within and outside the hospital are lobbying the Archdiocese of Boston which owns the hospital. A number of organizations within the

archdiocese have expressed concern over the alleged union busting charges and the use of a firm which has publicly flaunted its successful union decertification elections. And within the bureaucracies of state and federal labor councils an active lobbying campaign not too much unlike to campaign against the JP Stevens company is beginning to shape up for GBH Journal. I'm Greg Fitzgerald. As it now stands Massachusetts is the only state in the country which has not adopted a right turn on red rule. At issue is a proposal to require all states in cities to permit motorists to make right turns after stopping at red lights unless a sign prohibits the maneuver. So far only New York City Washington DC and Massachusetts have held out on a Department of Energy request which has included the information that if those right turns are not permitted the

state and two cities could lose some federal funds. Today lobbyists from Boston and New York outlined their case with the Department of Energy in Washington arguing that right turn on red is dangerous. This is only the latest skirmish in this controversy. When it all began last spring Robert Ferraro filed this report. In Massachusetts it is illegal to turn right on a red light unless a sign permits it as any pedestrian or motorist knows traffic in the state is notoriously dangerous game. Whether the reason is the low level of police and force meant or simply the congested maze of roads is academic right turn on red r t o r is allowed in the state. Many people feel there will be an increased threat to safety. Undoubtedly it will confuse an already confused number of drivers. So why change the law. Well the main reason is money. If art is not an acted the Energy Policy Office may lose a federal grant. The total sum one million one hundred fifty six thousand dollars. The Energy Policy Office depends on this money to run all their various energy

conservation programs statewide. A cut off would mean such programs as van pooling solar engineering and energy efficient lighting would end completely and the policy office itself would have to close in order to hear the argument for a right turn on red. I talked to Richard Hoover of the Triple-A the AAAS supports our TLR and I asked Mr. Hoover if this office bases that support on the alleged fuel conservation of a right turn on red. It certainly will save some and you will expedite traffic I don't think that's the primary concern as your questions indicate we would support right in the interest of uniformity. Again and again and again it has been proven that when traffic laws differ from locality to locality state to state you have a confusion in the motorists mind you bridge accident. If this reason alone should be one to allow the rate to read we can do it it's been done for he. Eight of the other states I'm sure Massachusetts can work it out.

Mr. Holder went on to describe the political climate surrounding right turn on red in Massachusetts and the various political influences affecting the law. I think we have to come to grips with this thing. I don't feel we'll lose federal aid I can only make myself believe that we're the speaker of the House of Representatives coming from Massachusetts. Massachusetts is going to lose very much Federal Way. I'm sure that Speaker Boehner wouldn't let that happen but I'm sure that we must run time into agreement with the other states the problems that the legislature faced in this is been up before the legislature about three or four years now is to try to. Hit sort of a compromise between conflicting points of view. Our secretary of transportation claims that this thing is going to hurt people kill people. The Registry of Motor Vehicles is quite concerned about the blue line and the big difference. So is this organization. That's why we say there

should be engineering studies but we don't feel if you should leave your head in the sand we believe that right you're right is going to happen and it probably should happen here in Massachusetts but it has to be carefully controlled. Those against our t o are basically object to the permissive and dangerous nature of the law. Among the most vociferous lobbying groups anti right turn on red the Bay State Council on the blind is the most active. That organization feels R T O R would only further mass motorists disregard for traffic laws and would not guarantee an empty street for a blind person crossing with the green light. These safety problems have not gone unnoticed by various state agencies and the official position is currently at t r t o r.. Henry Lee head of the energy policy office in Massachusetts detailed the conflict between his office and the federal agency in charge of the grant program. Well I think eventually they'll be more flexible I think in any bureaucracy. You have a built in flexibility and flexibility that

sometimes results in. Citizens that live in you know a little bit overreaction I think that to take the Massachusetts energy conservation program and really destroy it over a measure that saves no energy and perhaps could jeopardize the lives of many pedestrians seems to me to be a little bit backwards. Although it may be amazing that a simple traffic law can become such an involved issue. The fight over a right turn on red could easily escalate into a brawl as the showdown approaches. The end result will either be that Massachusetts will be the only state in the United States without R T O R or motorists will soon have another reason to honk at the car in front of them for GBH Journal. I'm Bob for Aagot. I suppose red hearts are more in people's minds today than red lights this Being think Valentine's

Day. It's really kind of a tricky day. It's great if you have 11 pretty awful if you don't. Really how many of you out there are gay or straight woke up this morning feeling sorry for yourselves because you don't have anyone to send a valentine to. Well maybe next year. Here's some consolation for you from our own Chris outline. Nobody knows for sure how Valentine's Day got started or even who St. Valentine actually was. One theory is that the choice of the name Valentine's Day for the proverbial SAP beginning to rise on February 14th was actually a linguistic misconstruction the English of the Middle Ages observing a French activity called a gallon time which was the jolly practice of young gallants and damsels chasing each other as a first sign of spring. Thought there Gaal as cousins were saying Valentine and soon developed quaint practices of their own to mark the traditional time of choosing a mate. Another theory regarding the name is that there actually was a Christian martyr of the third century idea of particularly kind demeanor named Valentine who was put to death on this day. So in a religious sense the day

should be a reminder that all peoples of the earth ought to be kind and loving to one another. However this festival we call Valentine's Day is not dedicated to religio philosophical profundities but rather to that light hearted preoccupation. Romance February 14th is in fact the eve of the ancient Roman fertility festival. The Looper Kal on this day male and female Roman use would draw for their partners for the loop or CALEA which began on February 15th because of the state's connection to a pagan festival celebrations of a frivolous kind on the day of the Louvre CALEA were banned in most European countries by the church. It's only since the 14th century and predominantly in Great Britain and later in its colonies the Valentine's Day was never much of a deal. The Roman Looper CALEA probably never died out among the Britons and after Christianity became the official doctrine they probably took Valentines Day to cover the popular holiday. Whatever Valentine's Day may have meant in the past it means big business for the purveyors of

non-essential goods such as cards chocolate and flowers. Valentine's Day reads like an advertising primer. The church may choose to regard homo sapiens basic sexuality as original sin but business not encumbered by these reservations sees sex as a primary motivating force for purchase of a product through association. The product is advanced as a means of securing love or reaffirming affection. The primary identifier of this product is the heart. The temple of my soul the essence of my spirit the source of my very being here in flaming pink tinfoil as a symbol of my deepest affection is a pound of chocolate butter creams here sweet heart heart of hearts is an emblem of my own dime love. A 2 foot by 2 foot cart of Snoopy peeking from a heart shaped doghouse and blazing with the eternal appellation. Be my valentine. That's Chris that went in here's an extra tidbit for you. Now in times they should be happy and gay but in fierce winter sway we can do naught but pray. Let

me remind you if I may. Don't give up hope sweet spring is on the way. That's what Boston subway riders heard today over the public address system instead of the usual there will be no smoking in the cars we had with laughter and applause the poem was the idea of Bob Devon The 61 year old public address system announcer. Devon controls a central board from an office to inform passengers throughout the city about delays and problems he says. We know we can't provide the service we would like because of the weather or equipment. So we try to relax people with the pome. The rocky road travel by Governor Edward King with his cabinet appointees has equaled

only by the rocky road that Richard Nixon traveled with his Remember Haynsworth cars well in the Supreme Court. Never mind John Mitchell. We can only hope that none of Governor King's unfortunates end up in prison. Here's Louis Lyons with more. The candle governor finds things he cannot do. As is the experience of all promising politicians this morning's news report says Secretary of human affairs has decided the state must pay a 6 percent cost of living increase to 20000 welfare recipients at a cost of a million $900000 a year. That's a state expense but the larger headache is on the promised reduction of local property taxes by a free use of municipal expenditures. King in his campaign promised that he could cap such expenditures within last year's limits without violating the autonomy of school boards or the municipal payroll increases resulting from binding arbitration. But his political advisers now tell him he cannot exempt a lodge employee

classes teachers firemen policemen covered by these exceptions and accomplish his freeze to untangle this Gordian knot. The city manager of Cambridge has been recruited to apply his special in making taxes seem to disappear. He thinks the issue can be compromised. He's reported by fitting what he calls a cap within a cap to those departments that budgets would be capped like the rest. But they'd be given freedom of spending within their budget limits. Of course the school committee already has control of its budget by law and there isn't much flexibility in applying a binding arbitration on the wages of policeman. I want to situate the town officials proposed as a way to circumvent the king caps bar of the money he says on a bond issue to meet the payroll increase but bonding of course is for long term debt. The 30 year bond is kind of a sound way to pay for a sewer system or a new school. The last generation to borrow on bonds to meet current

payroll is to saddle future taxpayers with paying for dead horses. A quite opposite procedure is urged by members situates Alliance for lower taxation knock off the recreation department he says. Why should my neighbor have to pay for my kid's recreation. That's the kind of thing that should be taken out of the budget and assumed by private spending. End quote. A partial approach to this treatment didn't work in Natick that the recreation committee last fall did cut 20 percent from its budget for the current fiscal year by cutting out playground supervisors. But last week's time election a candidate for the Recreation Commission with a platform to restore the cuts won by two to one. The extent of resistance to the king freeze will be measured by the legislative action on his budget when it's presented along with such palliatives mirrors juggling acts and compromises as experts in physical leisure demand may can try failure of tax freeze promises will be easier to ride out than

failure in appointments to keep positions the appointments in this administration go from bad to worse. The first appointment the office of Elder Affairs had to be reversed for the obvious inadequacy of the appointee for banking commissioner a bank employee was selected his family were conspicuous campaign contributors. The appointment for Consumer Affairs brought instant protests of consumer groups. The new insurance commissioner recommended by an insurance company president immediately announced a reversal of the state's auto insurance policy to return rate making to the insurance companies. It took special political influence to make the appointee to head the end BTA acceptable to the district board. Today's news is that the governor's political advisers tell him he must remove his new insurance commissioner for his role in real estate deals. The king philosophy about regulation seems to have been that a banker is the more appropriate choice to regulate banks than someone in a neutral position about banking. But

even that view does not explain some obviously flawed individuals appointed. The failure of King's transition Bharti to make any effective check on the person is to be appointed shows such gross failure of their own responsibility as will reflect on their own futures in public life. Doesn't anybody have to confirm this important point. Months is a natural question by the reader of exhaustive Washington hearings on federal appointments. Doesn't the executive council have to confirm appointments. The answer is No. Only for judges and scatted miscellany of other posts. Nobody is responsible for confirming appointments to the most important state offices. This current appointment disasters point to the absence of any confirming function makes a gap in public protection in Massachusetts. But one would not want to assign it to an executive council notorious for log rolling and obstruction. Rather it's a further case for eliminating the council committee of the

state senate would be an appropriate body to have responsibility to hold public hearings as in Washington and recommend to the full Senate for a final vote. It's not good that the Senate is a political body but this is a political process that can't be avoided. It can be made an open process through public hearings the senators are exposed for their actions. Election time when nobody knows who is executive council areas council or district is of a different area than the legislative and it makes just too much for the voter to keep track of. The council is a hangover from colonial days of royal governors. The only elected check on those unelected officials units debilitated form in Massachusetts. It's been described as the vermiform appendix of the body politics the collapsible nature of the king appointments should incite public debate on the process of confirming appointments and a dividend that could be a limb a nation of a useless Executive Council.

Commentator Louis Lyons that's GBH journal for this Wednesday evening producer for tonight show is Marcia Hirtz in the engineer is Michael Garrison much help came from Becky Royce. My name is Amy sands have a good living. This is WGBH in Boston.