The Wisconsin Magazine; 826

Have almost nine years of employment at EMC and I think that I'm going to lose my job and report on unemployment and that's what's going to happen. It does worry me. My wife is pregnant right now. Oh sure workers worry about unemployment in the future. More on tonight's magazine the Wisconsin magazine for January 14. Reporting from Madison Dave Iverson. Good evening. Not Detroit or New York but Kenosha the city with the highest unemployment in the United States for part of last fall. We'll have a report on unemployment and Kenosha in just a moment. Later on tonight magazine former presidential press secretary George reading talks about the presidency and the men who hold that office. And we'll conclude this week's program with a profile of a Milwaukee artist and his world of built in beauty. This morning American Motors announced that automobile production at Kenosha would be suspended entirely for one week. The shutdown will put six thousand workers on temporary layoff. That's in addition to

2400 AMC workers previously laid off who aren't sure when they'll be called back ever. You get the picture. The city of Kenosha and AMC in particular is having problems. Unemployment there rose as high as 20 percent and the tail end of 1981. In fact last year was so bad for AMC that the company sold fewer cars than at any time in its history. American Motors is now asking its workers for help by loaning the company a portion of future worker raises and benefits the future of ANC and unemployment in Kenosha will depend in part on how that proposal fares art Hackett reports tonight on Detroit and Dairyland. More work and good everything goes up when America Morning down the and down and down. Good times or bad. Some people just don't love you when you're the biggest employer in town. During the week between Christmas and New Years. Most of American Motors operations were shut down inside the lakefront plant. A relative handful of workers were

putting together the first editions of a new model being built as a joint venture with Renault. It's seen by many as American Motors and OSHA's last big home. Kenosha is by no means a lot in America. There are plenty of other towns tied to the auto industry that have equally high unemployment levels. But as one person pointed out there very often. Bigger cities the unemployed people sort of get lost in Kenosha. You get to know them. Read. Some of those laid off you don't get paychecks of some sort and others get another kind of check. Well we were just it was more than a third of American Motors Kenosha workforce is laid off and laid

off and on throughout the last four years. Some like Maria Mandery who works in the paint department try and hang on how you've been getting by working part time. For me I own a home mortgage is on it and they work and the banks have been working with me but it's been hard. But you she'll still manage to smile through it. Sure. You have to others use special benefits to go to school so they couldn't do something else. Going into hotel management. I'll never go back to my owners. Even if they call me back. And money is good but I'm only going to work for about three months whatever. Maybe maybe longer make sure that I don't get laid off and have to go through the whole thing again. It's not worth it for sure. If you're a great

number of Kenosha workers have simply given up when they stop collecting unemployment. They statistically disappear. Though we do know they're there. They're just waiting for an opportunity to come out and apply for work. We figure within a 50 mile radius we have over 30 to 40 thousand people including skilled people that are ready to work when we have a mass hiring. We have on an average of three to five thousand people come out and apply for the available jobs. We've had a recent employer where we didn't advertise. She had about 100 jobs. Or I think we had close to 3000 applicants just through word of mouth. For workers with some hope of survival at AMC talk revolves around a company proposal but they loan a 10 percent future increase in benefits back to the company. United Auto Workers Local 72 members have already voted that

down once. But in light of industry wide problems they'll reconsider later this month. I don't think that people really understand how important it is and how important to their future it is in what's what's giving 10 percent and whatever they want right now versus not leaving the job. Take a chance gamble but I doubt it. I personally I am against Bill because as far as I know they don't. They don't him my money. I'm working for a company fine by the same token I have a family to support and I have bills to pay and they don't give me no guarantee of this. He asked me why I don't feel that I'm for several of the people who have been opposed to it. They want to guarantee them a guaranteed loan. A company really could do. Well

what is a guarantee. Life isn't going to get an over. You've got to live or die tomorrow. So much of a Guarneri do they want. Oh yes there is room in the shop and you've got to remember that rumors are shoptalk and we live by rumors only. I have almost nine years employment here at AMC. And I think that I'm going to lose my job and report on unemployment. And that's what's going to happen. It does worry me. My wife is pregnant right now. Doug Jackson was somewhat alone in his misery and Louis and Idas Wisconsin beer garden. It's in the other end of town near firms like Mick white wire rope that are still running three full shifts.

This town is based on American Motors which they forget about all the little people that are around here make white one across the street over here Peter Pearse dynamite down the road down here. You've got the American Brass. There's a lot of that time. This city lives off of that. They don't realize that it was probably somewhat of a resentment in the sense that historically our wages and our fringe benefits although we've had a United Auto Workers Local in our factory have not been on a comparable basis with American Motors we've always been one or two contract so to speak behind them then. Being paid and getting free. On the other hand of course all of us either have relatives or close friends or in-laws who work at American Motors and. The impact of their slowness at this time certainly affects all of us in that way. Several downtown retailers contended things weren't all that bad. The owner of this

store said even the unemployed American Motors workers spent some of their layoff benefits in a store there and across the street. The store owners described this season as one of those things they've learned to live with the up and down cycle of American Motors has always existed. So consequently we do make adjustments for the months of December. Started out slow and so we had to do some promoting know promoting accelerate towards the end in fact just last week the week after Christmas has been better than was last year. So the whole month of December should end up. Pretty good. The effects of the problems that American Motors on the retail community have also been lessened by the growth of other industries in Kenosha Vista International makes sausage casings. That farm. Is expanding. This president says having a workforce made up mainly of women whose husbands fear layoffs that AMC build what he calls a

spree. But sharing the city with an auto maker presents problems too. It is depressing for the other industries probably in the city to be negative. Because I think most companies today that are in business are owned by some parent company outside of the state of Wisconsin and they probably are reluctant to add facilities or really get behind their facility here in Kenosha because what they read. But this town is alive the future of American Motors is still being debated. I think but not on air. I think to go here I think they are ready to I don't think that there's been this a lot of people get together and start working together to get the company going. There's a huge boom we're going to have to pitch in something. We make good money. We you know we've got good benefits and we're going to have to pitch in something to help the company.

My opinion. Members of the United Auto Workers Local Number 72 will meet in Kenosha this weekend to decide whether or not to participate in national negotiations over the AMC loan proposal for the next few minutes we're going to talk with the head of another union about other employment problems in the state. Tom King is the executive director of the Wisconsin State Employees Union. Mr. King we just saw an interesting proposal which is for workers in effect to help bail out the company by the proposal that is to loan back some of their future benefits and raises to the company. Is that kind of thing ever going to happen at a state level with state employees ever be put in the position of helping to bail out the state. Well in the most recently concluded negotiations we attempted to do that. We wanted to take 10 percent of our pension funds and invest them target their investment in the state of Wisconsin to assist the Wisconsin economy and take another 10 percent and provide a residential mortgage program for

our membership to assist the very sick housing industry in this state. So we are willing to take our money. And risk it on the economy of the state of Wisconsin and our employer. Unfortunately the state rejected that proposal although I see the governor is now talking along those lines. Do you see that kind of thing being generally necessary in the future. In other words are our state bureaucrats going to have to take a few lumps in order to preserve jobs you may lose 360 jobs for example and job service over the next couple of months. There are going to have to be a lot of innovative approaches to the problems that we face and we have to call on all of our ingenuity and creativity to meet the very serious problems we're all facing. It is part of the problem that people are just not going to be quite sympathetic to. You know to state bureaucrats. I mean let's face it it's somewhat easier to be more sympathetic to the guy who gets laid off on the assembly line. But but you know this is not a time when people are terribly sympathetic to government employees. No I don't. I don't think that's the attitude generally. There are some irresponsible

politicians who find that it's in their best interest to use public employees as scapegoats for their ill advised decisions and judgments. But the fact of the matter is and particularly here in Wisconsin. We have a long history of high quality public service and I think the taxpayers of this state historically have supported that level of public services and have supported the public employees who provide those services. What about sympathy for your most recent plan which is to use state money to pay for jobs formerly funded by the federal government those 360 jobs that job services there are going to be sympathy in the legislature for state money to be used to maintain those jobs. I think so because the the workers you see saw being laid off at American Motors desperately need the services that are provided by those three hundred and sixty people who are going to be laid off are some of those people we just saw the Kenosha office for example is that going to be affected by it. Oh absolutely. There will be layoffs down there the people who are laid off at American Motors will have no place to go to find other employment to get

assistance to be placed in other jobs to get assistance and processing their unemployment compensation claims and importantly making certain they get their unemployment compensation checks on time. So your point obviously is that that is not just a cut off of state employees but it also affects employees all over the state or whether all over the state. Absolutely. All right. Tom thanks very much. All right. We're going to turn now to the topic of the presidency today is the 360 at the Ronald Reagan's presidency during his first year in office. The president has gradually become more separated from the American people less controversies and even bullets nudged closer. George Reedy was Lyndon Johnson's press secretary in the mid 1960s. He says that isolation is an inevitable part of the presidency. He teaches journalism now at Marquette University and recently he and I talked about his perspective on the presidency and what happens to the men who serve in that office. There is a certain point in the White House where any president I don't care who he is

is going to lose his sense of public reaction. It's inevitable because it's such an artificial light. It's the only position in the United States and I know we're a man and as you know Piers where everyone else's isn't here to live in a world of ours is to lose contact with. The president you know the president's life was rather strange. Nobody is ever present. No one no no president. With the possible exception of Gerry Ford. Has been able to maintain his sense of balance and his sense of community with his fellow citizens. So so does the president then since he's among these inferiors needs someone who can tell him when he's full of it you'll never find it. I can recall. Did you ever tell Lyndon Johnson. Oh yes. Would you see the president doesn't necessarily listen. One of the characteristics of American politicians is listen and listen to him. The president has the

illusion that he doesn't have to listen to anybody he should. But there is no immediate pressing need. Every other politician does and the United States Senate for instance where Lyndon Johnson was superb. He had to listen all the time because he couldn't do anything unless he could persuade at least 50 men to go along with them. All of them primadonnas and sometimes 66 six men when he got in the White House all of a sudden he discovered that all he had to do was give orders. That's the basic difficulty with the presidential office it appears to be a place where all you got to do is give orders. You've written that Ronald Reagan is like a like a poker player that he knows when to hold on when to raise when to fold ax. Expand on that and why is that an important attribute for a president. I think that he he he has all of those characteristics and I think he plays things politically rather well. Mean the most impressive demonstration was out of the air controllers. Another president might have gotten into an argument with the air controllers as to whether they were entitled to more money whether they were being worked too hard.

He didn't do that at all. He went right to the heart of the matter. As far as public opinion was concerned what he said was a broken their word. They've broken the law. They're fired. And that was it. No the important point though. Is that he immediately ran into some problems some of the foreign air controllers that talked about blocking American airplanes. And he just put on his poker face and stood where he was. But that sort of thing to me is extremely good. And what happens is that during the first year the man is in office everyone is very kindly to the press is kindly to them because you know journalists are Americans like everybody else. They want their president to succeed. Everybody acts of psychopaths wants a president to succeed first because he's the country you know for him to fail means your country fails. And the so during the first year a president gets an extraordinary leeway. That is why the shock of the second year when he suddenly starts running into opposition is usually a shock.

It happened that now after this first year what happens that we're able to suddenly criticize the president that we feel free to do that. And is that going to happen to Ronald Reagan. Issues begin to pile up. We see the reality of the United States. We all think of it as one great big monolith that the United States needs this for the United States needs. Actually what we are is a collection of regions of people of different ethnic the sense of people with different viewpoints of people with different ideas all of which have to be reconciled on some minimum basis. Now the prestige of the presidency the president is the one really unifying factor in our country. He unifies us. He is us. So to speak. And so when he first comes in we have a fascination with him. And as I said he usually gets a lot of leeway but at a certain point our sectional and regional instincts take over as they should as they should. But you know it's quite possible in the United

States. For Amin's policies to be very unpopular and for the man to remain popular. It's because the president really has two jobs. One is that managing the country's affairs. That's where his policies can getting very unpopular. But the other is to be the symbol of the country which is equally as important. And I think that people are rather like Reagan as a symbol. Much has made of the fact that that Ronald Reagan is an actor and given what we've talked about how significant is that. Do you think. Not terribly No. I know that's that's us that's a rather wide widespread theory that because you have TV and because TV is an actor's medium that attracts actors I'm very dubious of that. I think that I think that Mr. Reagan has really been as much of a politician as he has been an actor. After all he was head of the Screen Actors Guild and you know one does not become the head of the Screen Actors Guild

by a process of virgin birth or Partha Genesis one becomes president or something like that by politicking for it. I believe that. And in fact in one sense I think that an actor may be something of a disadvantage in TV because an actor is never quite sure just who or what he is. I have known quite a few entertainers in my life and most actors really have an identity crisis throughout their lives. One day their King Lear the next day their Willy Loman the third day there one of the little foxes and after after a while one starts wondering just who or what he is. And Ronald Reagan and I think he knows who he is. Either this is not true comedians by the way I found that comedians are usually people with some depth which is rather interesting. Its a serious actors that have the identity crisis comedians usually know what they are the clan themselves. I have a question as a comedian purpose well it will not be a bad idea except a comedian. Comedy is a sense of proportion. And no one with any sense of

proportion will ever be president. Former presidential press secretary George Reedy who is now maintaining his sense of proportion by teaching journalism at Marquette University. Finally tonight we'll turn to another world where there is a sense of proportion. Architecture and art though today's designs often feature prefabricated walls and Styrofoam ceilings. There was a time when built in duty was more important and built in convenience when walls were designed to be artistic expressions in and of themselves. In Milwaukee Julian Orlandi is still about the business of creating permanent images and plaster and waiting for the time when people will again want art built into their home. This is sort of like icing on the cake. The building is a building and then the decorators come in with the decorative arts. This is a decorative art ornamental plastering cabinetry

and marble and stone. All of those things make the finish of a building. A building is just a warehouse until the decorators move in. I'm one of the decorator as far as I know I'm the only person in Wisconsin that you can come to with a picture in a book and wind up with Finished work in the building. That can do the whole thing from design and model making molds making fabricate information ready for paint. If I told you I was in it for the money and then you looked at my bank account I would be a laughingstock. So I cannot admit I'm in it for the money sometimes quite secretly I am in it for the my it's just that I do very poorly at acquiring money. Thoughts. Are saving it for the fun of it for the adventure of it. That's a lot more important to ultimately than the money if given a chance to

shovel snow for five dollars an hour or go running through the snow and not be paid at all go riding through the snow I much rather. Pay now. Still the business is casting the classroom into a lot of this throwing and splashing. Well I grew up working for my father when I was 5. I was mixing cement for him and doing things around the shop. Eventually when he retired I want the business from him. And here I am and I enjoy it. It's a lot of fun and I enjoy when I get a chance to do with this trait. The treats the magic you can wear and the nice thing is that it leaves you with a more or less permanent piece that you can paint or keep or whatever and it won't go to rot or shrivel up.

You'd be amazed at how much longer your pencil Yes it's a good day. Master Blaster is a very versatile medium. It's very it's immanently shaper boy will do almost anything for you and it has no grain. Like he has a green white car available. It's very forgiving if you cut too much away. You can put a little more back on him. It's a lot of fun to work with. I've told you all the secrets to this point know I'm just going to do a little work here. Not very often what you're right. I will help support all the finer details at the bottom of today's buildings are mostly decorated by art that is carried in the door and hung on the wall or set about on the floor. Well we take a look at some of the older buildings in this country and the buildings that we go to see when we go to go to Europe. The art is intrinsic.

The art is built into and onto the building and cannot be moved away from the building without damaging the building in a different way of thinking about a building. We don't need to turn things over as fast as we do that we could build with a greater sense of permanence and build things more well more durable build them to last longer build them to be eminently more repairable and maintainable. I think that that is important. The business of energy and how. Well the costs of energy the maintainability of a structure becomes more and more important a whole new range of ideas are going to come forth and a whole new notion of decorating and permanence is going to be called for. And this very exciting time I think I think this is the beginning of a very exciting

time. This takes many forms. Some people wish to create or recreate a museum piece and that's what we did with the English ceiling we were looking at. Some folks just want to have fun and they want quality but they're not after any particular architectural purity there. They're making their own. And that gets to be a lot of fun. It's a test of one skill that stretches your ability to work. With your trade with your tools with your imagination. To make more pliable and workable the connection between your mind and your hands. And when you walk out of the building and the owner is smiling and patting you on the back saying gosh this is wonderful and we're going to miss you. We really enjoyed having you in the building. That's the greatest thrill of all it's one.

I love it. Milwaukee artist Julian or in Orlando. Finally tonight a final update the last chapter we think in our report on the Berean Christian school. Last fall we told you the story of the temple county facility and its continuing battle with the Department of Social Services. So authorities finally close the school because it lacked a license to operate as a group home. The facilities director Reverend Ritscher heard later even received a contempt citation. Now though everything appears to be returning to normal. The contempt citation has been dropped and the facility does not have to obtain a license after all. As part of the agreement the school will in return not accept children processed through the state's juvenile justice system. Reverend hurt has also agreed to allow students to return home during the summer months and to bring the facility up to fire health and safety standards. And so finally School is back in session. And that's our report for this Thursday evening. I'm Dave Iverson. Have a good. Night.

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