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PUBLIC "DEFENDER" FIRES WOMAN OFFICE WORKER FOR REFUSING TO MAKE BREW

New York (LNS) -A legal secretary in Chicago's public defender's office has been fired because she refused to make coffee for her boss.

Iris Rivera, 35, was given a two weeks' termination notice on January 25 when she wouldn't comply with a new policy set by director James Geis at the Office of the State Appellate Defender. That office represents criminally accused poor people in their appeals.

"From now on," wrote Geis, "all secretaries will have responsibility for making coffee without assistance from the attorneys. But Rivera refused. "I don't drink coffee," she explained. It's not listed as one of my job duties and order. ing coffee is carrying the role of homemaker too far.

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"If you're refusing to make coffee,' responded Geis, "**consider yourself fired."'

Rivera, a former factory worker and a woman who supports herself and three children on an annual salary of $9,600, promptly filed a sex discrimination complaint with Illinois' Fair Employment Practices Commission. At the same time, she appealed her dismissal to Ted Gottfried, the State Public Defender in Springfield. The appeal has been denied.

Area secretaries who heard about the standoff contacted Women Employed (W.E.), an organization of women office workers. The group mobilized a demonstration at Rivera's office on February 2 According to Jackie Shad of W.E., fifty women "demonstrated for the ignorant executive exactly how to make a cup of coffee." Before it was over, Jean Hoffencamp of W.E., presented a bag of wet coffee grounds to one of the lawyers (Geis was on vacation).

Afterwards, in an interview with the Chicago Daily News, Bruce Stratton, an administrator in the office, reiterated management's position. "He said," the News reported, "that since attorneys are paid more than secretaries, delegating the coffee brewing to the secretaries was 'cost efficient'."

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Rivera is standing firm. "I am paid to assist in the handling and disposition of appeal-related matters in this office, she wrote earlier in her appeal. And she told the News, "just because I'm a woman doesn't mean I should have homemaking duties in the office."'

Apparently,

Chicago-area office workers agree. "It's incredible," said a staffer at Women Employed, referring to the response to the demonstration. The phone hasn't stopped ringing for two days. Women from all over are registering their support."

After the struggle was reported on the evening news in New York, office workers sent telegrams of support to Rivera. They also began to mobilize workers and sympathetic lawyers to exert pressure on the Public Defender to rehire Rivera and do away with the policy.

As a result of the pressure, Rivera was recently reinstated in her job, and is not required to make coffee for her boss.

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GAP WIDENS BETWEEN MEN'S AND WOMEN'S EARNINGS

New York (LNS) -New statistics from the Labor Department contradict the widely-held view that the relative economic position of women has im. proved in the last quarter century.

Acording to "The Earnings Gap Between Women and Men," published in 1976, "women who worked at year-round full-time jobs in 1974 earned only 57 cents for every dollar earned by men." And this gap has widened since 1955.

"In 1974," says the report, "the $11,835 earned by men was 75% more than the $6,772 earned by women." The gap was 56% in 1955.

NOW OBJECTS TO DRESSES DEMAND

Superior Court Judge Charles W. Froehlich Jr. of San Diego raised the hackles of the National Organization for Women by ruling that women lawyers and court officers must wear dresses, not slacks, in his courtroom.

The judge said the courtroom is formal: Male lawyers weare ties and suits, the bailiff wears a uniform, and the judge himself wears a robe.

NOW was not impressed. The judge "doesn't seem to realize that attorneys and probation officers who happen to be women are no longer his 'little girls' who must put on dresses to please Daddy," said Joan T. Casale, president of the organization's San Diego chapter.

LESBIAN MOTHERS SOUGHT FOR NIMH STUDY

Lesbian mothers and their children in over 15 states have participated in a project funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and more volunteers for the study are still being sought throughout the country in rural and urban areas. Researchers with the Long Island Research Institute and the Department of Psychiatry, SUNY at Stony Brook, hope to gather data which will be relevant to lesbian mothers in child custody hearings.

"We are eager to be contacted by women who are living in remote, rural areas and women who may not be open about their lifestyles or who may not belong to any lesbian feminist organizations, says Mary Hotvedt of the Research Institute. "We are very careful to safeguard the privacy of participants, as mothers may face the risk of losing their children if it were known that they are lesbians. Children are not asked any questions about their parents' sexuality, or about sex in general!'

Women interested in participating or finding out more about the study should write to Jane Barclay Mandel or Mary Hotvedt, c/o Long Island Research Institute, P.O. Box Q, Central Islip, New York 11722 or call Hotvedt at (516) 444-2220 or in the midwest, Mandel at (312) 475-4773.

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