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MAY 2 1 1982

CTATE HISTORICAL

Vol. 10, 40.2

Coming Out: The Political and the Practical

Coming out is not a statement to the public about your private life-it is a political act, said Rhonda Rivera, author and law professor at Ohio State University. Speaking before a racially mixed au dience of about 100 men and women (twice the anticipated number) at the opening session of Cleveland's First Annual Lesbian/Gay Conference on April 3, Rivera prodded the listeners to adopt an actively political stance.

Gay people, Rivera pointed out, experience "continuous, explicit legal discrimination". In her legal research into the treatment of gays in the judicial system, Rivera found that, in the absence of laws to protect gays, judges rule arbitrarily, often based on their own ignorance and homophobia. Also, in this legal vacuum, private employers can hire and fire

based on their own whim and bigotry. A few cities in the U.S. protect gays by municipal ordinance. Cleveland is not one of them.

Yet Rivera mentioned that some progress has been made, Wisconsin passed the first state gay rights bill in the nation. As a result of a National Gay Task Force project, 75 Fortune 500 companies pledged not to discriminate against gays. Also, some initial steps were taken by the Carter administration to forbid discrimination in civil service jobs on the basis of sexual preference.

Briefly mentioning the abortion question, Rivera asserted that gays, need to understand the issues of choice and government intervention. Those fighting for reproductive rights and gay rights, she felt, are natural allies, since both believe in the individual's

District 925 Exerts Pressure at CCC

By Edie Vonn

As office workers celebrated National Secretaries Week, April 19-23, clerical and other non-management workers at Cuyahoga Community College continued to press their trustees for recognition of District 925, the union that has been engaged in organizing activities on Tri-C campuses. Anne Hill, Midwest Regional Coordinator of District 925, has the signatures of more than half the 500 clerical, technical and professional non-management personnel who have no representation. Professors are organized, as are maintenance and groundsworker personnel, but the trustees are refusing recognition of this diverse group of workers because they do "not want to begin the process during difficult ecomomic times for state colleges?'.

The union organizing activities of District 925 are part of a national organizing campaign by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), AFL-CIO, which has invested about $2 million in organizing white-collar workers nationally. Previously ignored as a poor organizing risk, white-collar workers are now seen as the source of union growth. Declining industries of heavily organized workers are forcing unions to build membership among office workers, who constitute more than half of non-agricultural employees.

District 925 was created when SEIU entered into

partnership with Working Women, the national organization of clerical workers which was organized by Karen Nussbaum. Working Women, barely ten years old, now has a membership of 12,000. Paid staff members in the local affiliates are drawn from the women's movement. They are skilled at community organizing and in the use of the law to tackle discrimination in targeted industries, especially banking and insurance. Nussbaum, Executive Director of Working Women, is also president of 925.

The resistance that 925 is meeting at Tri-C is not unusual. White-collar campaigns have never been easy; in the current economic climate, business is fighting unionization harder and with more sophisticated tools. Union avoidance and decertification are popular topics at management seminars. Management consultants and legal firms that specialize in anti-union management techniques are commanding high fees from their clients, contending that unionized white-collar workers are. harder to manage and will drive up costs by demanding better wages.

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The Tri-C workers who want representation do not consider money their main concern. According to Hill, their dissatisfaction is in how they are treated. In recent reorganizations on all Tri-C campuses, nonrepresented employees were arbitrarily transferred (continued on page 10)

Commentary: Is 925 Feminist?

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By Edie Vonn

The popular media frequently refer to District 925 as a feminists' union, organized by women and run by.women. President Karen Nussbaum stated recently, "We're organizing not just as workers but as women. We'll address the problems that women face. We'll bring with us our own women leaders and our success on issues of concern to women”.

I was confused, therefore, to read in the Plain Dealer recently that Anne Hill, Nussbaum's Midwest Regional Coordinator of District 925, stated that 925 is trying to lose its feminist image. Asked about this statement, Hill responded that although 80 percent of the workers whom District 925 seeks to represent at Tri-C are women, men are not excluded. from membership, organizing activities, or executive positions within the union. "Some of our members may consider themselves feminists, but many do not. Our concern is solely with their rights in the workplace".

There is something troubling about this statement. It evokes a "yes, but" response in me. I want to say, 'Yes, but can 925, with its feminist-oriented approach, deny its connection to the feminist movement, which demands equality in all areas of our

lives, not just at work?" I want to ask, "Yes, but can you achieve equality with such a narrow focus? Are you not concerned that your non-feminist female members will relinquish their power to their 'natural leaders,' the men?" And, finally, "Yes, but how do you reconcile this with Nussbaum's strongly feminist public statements?"

The awakened interest of women in the trade union movement is not necessarily an indication of a higher awareness of women's concerns. The powerful unions which are now recruiting office workers are not idealistic agents of social change and women's rights, but an industry which seeks new markets for its services. Those women who reject the philosophies of the feminist pioneers can be as flexibly managed by chauvinistic union leaders as they were by the authoritarian managers in their workplaces.

District 925 grew out of Working Women, strongly feminist organization dedicated to fighting discrimination. I believe that 925 should proclaim, not reject, its feminism. It seems that it is time for a rigorous self-examination, questioning if equity can be achieved' in the workplace while ignored in other spheres of women's lives.

LOCAL NEWS

right to control her or his own body without restrictive laws to the contrary.

Following her keynote speech and a standing ovation, Rivera conducted a workshop entitled “Legal Planning for Loving Relationships". Here she outlined a combination of legal documents which she felt gay couples should consider and which protect the individuals from three entities—the government, the biological family, and each other.

First she mentioned that basic to any planning of this sort is the preparation of a will. This makes clear the person's wishes and protects the partner from claims of the government and the biological family.

Secondly she advised couples to prepare documents giving each other medical power of attorney. Such a statement should enable the individuals to give all medical permissions and act as next of kin in a medical emergency. She related various accounts of lifetime partners looking on helplessly while estranged biological family members or distant relatives were granted exclusive visiting privileges in intensive care and the right to make critical life decisions.

Where children are involved, she suggested assigning the partner legal power of attorney with an affidavit to act as next of kin. If there is an ex-spouse who could assert parental rights at the person's death, the partner could be made guardian of the child's property so that she/he could have some input into how the child is raised.

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Rivera advised taking out a small life insurance (continued on page 11)

Steinem Speaks

By Susan Woodworth

On April 19, 1982, Gloria Steinem spoke at the Raises and Roses Celebration held in honor of working women during National Secretaries Week. She appeared at the Cleveland City Club at a cocktail reception attended by approximately 175 people.

Steinem delivered a short talk, limiting her remarks to the issue of the female and Third World workforce in a white male multinational economy. She insisted that the sex caste system of patriarchy will be changed only by a revolution from within its structures. In her estimation, a political coalition of working women and minorities struggling to redefine the nature and value of work will have the broadest and most far-reaching effect. For this reason she strongly supports organizations such as Cleveland Women Working, who sponsored the event.

Steinem identifies herself as a writer and a working woman, and opened her speech with anecdotes about her experience as a token woman in the journalism field. She graciously answered a few questions from the audience, indicating her support for women in electoral politics, and the need for women to use traditional political avenues to raise issues. In response to a question about how women can be motivated to work for change, she responded by referring to events or issues that have mobilized feminists for years-those crises and frustrations that personally affect the lives of women.

Steinem closed her speech with a call to each woman in the audience to commit one outrageous act in the name of feminism within the next 24 hours. Her warmth and good humor attracted the crowd and held their attention for another CWW event.

WSW Note: The writer did not notice what Ms. Steinem was wearing.

May, 1982/What She Wants/Page