NATIONAL NEWS
Parental Kidnappers Beware!
With the purpose of increasing the number of cases in which federal officials can intervene to locate and apprehend parental kidnappers and other fugitive felons charged with state offenses, the U.S. Department of Justice has recently modified its policies regarding the circumstances required for federal involvement in such cases.
For a trial period of one year, the Department of Justice will drop two previous requirements which were felt by many to restrict the activity of the Department in apprehending kidnappers.
Being dropped as requirements for federal involve-
Librarians Demand Pay by the Book
A group of librarians employed by the government of Fairfax County, Virginia, filed charges on May 16 with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in Washington, D.C., claiming sexbased wage discrimination by the county. The attorney representing the group said he expects the case to become a "keystone legal move" in the growing national debate over pay equity for women.
Pay equity means women and men should be paid equal wages if they prefer different jobs which are of comparable value, i.e., require equivalent skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions. "Wage discrimination based on sex by the county clear,' said Winn Newman, co-counsel for the Fairfax County Public Library Employees Association and the 51 individual librarians who joined in the filing of formal charges with the EEOC. "The library science profession was conceived and established in 1887 as a 'women's profession' in order to get labor at cheap, discriminatory wage rates, and Fairfax County, along with other employers across the country, have perpetuated it as such through wage discrimination." Newman pointed out that 92 percent of librarians
Equal Protection Wins in Oregon
By a stroke of her pen, newly appointed Oregon Supreme Court Justice Betty Roberts gave equal protection under the law to the women of her state. As in many other states, Oregon's ERA supporters had poured all of their resources into the national ratification effort. Though Oregon was the only state to pass the ERA twice during those efforts, Oregon women lacked equal rights at home.
After June 30, 1982, sixteen Oregon women's groups formed a coalition to begin work to achieve a state ERA through legislation, while realizing that activist time and money would be needed once again ́on the national level: Then, on November 16, Justice Roberts handed down a ruling holding unconstitu
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ment are the provisions that the child must be in a condition of physical danger, abuse or neglect, and the stipulation that the Criminal Division must have authorized the filing of a fugitive felon 'complaint. The Justice Department will still require probable cause to believe that a violation of the Fugitive Felon Act has occurred, and that the state law enforcement agency is committed to extraditing and prosecuting the offending parent. In short, during the trial period, parental kidnapping cases will be handled on the same basis as other fugitive felon cases.
The effect of this policy change will be an increase in the number of cases in which fugitive felon warrants are obtained by U.S. Attorneys and fugitive investigations initiated by the FBI.
-The Women's Advocate May, 1983
employed by Fairfax County are female, a percentage even higher than the national average of 80-85 percent.
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Elizabeth Butler, president of the library employees association, said the county had been on notice since at least 1972 that it was unlawfully discriminating in compensation for librarians, and the library employees had now exhausted every civil means available to them. In 1973, a report by the Fairfax County Commission on Women noted "a subtle form of discrimination which has a tendency to 'lock' women into low-paying jobs..." Two years later the Fairfax County Library Board requested upgrades for the lowest level of librarians, citing an "historical tendency to regard librarians at lower rates than other professionals in the county government." The county refused the request.
Butler pointed out that both male and female librarians in the county suffer the same discrimination in compensation because the salaries are based on the traditional female identification of the profession. Three male librarians in Fairfax County also filed discrimination charges. According to Butler, discrimination in compensation against librarians is part of a pattern of discrimination against Fairfax County employees on the basis of sex. Other femaledominated professional job classifications, social workers and mental health therapists, also evidence discriminatory wages and salary scales.
tional a worker's compensation statute which discriminated against males in certain circumstances. The ruling is based on a section of the Oregon Constitution which reads, "No law shall be passed granting to any citizen or class of citizens privileges, or immunities, which, upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens." The court held that. this provision requires that gender-based laws be viewed as "inherently suspect and subject to strict judicial scrutiny" (something the U.S. Supreme Court has consistently declined to do under the federal equal protection clause).
Though time and further test cases will be needed to demonstrate the exact contours of this case as a legal precedent, it appears to protect Oregon citizens against gender discrimination in the same way they are protected against racial discrimination.
-National NOW Times March, 1983
Seneca Falls
Women's Peace Camp
In 1848, the first women's rights convention was held at Seneca Falls, New York, giving shape and voice to the 19th century feminist movement. Once again women are gathered at Seneca Falls, this time to challenge the nuclear threat at its doorstep. The Seneca Army Depot, situated on a native American homeland, nurtured and protected by the Cayugas, is now the storage site for neutron bombs and the storage and departure point for the Pershing II missiles to be deployed in Europe in 1983.
Plan to attend the Women's Peace Camp (July 4 to Labor Day) on your vacation; come for a day, a week, a month. The camp will be set up on land next to the army depot. Women should come as selfsufficient as possible and expect very simple camping facilities to be available. There will be a variety of activities throughout the summer, from daily leafletting of the workers at the base to meeting with people of the surrounding communities.
Other actions are also planned. Workshops will take place on the history of women in struggles for peace and freedom around the world, and the economics of the arms race and its impact on women, and concerts and performances will be presented.
According to the Vision Statement of the Women's Peace Camp, "The existence of nuclear weapons is killing us. Their production contaminates our environment, destroys our natural resources and depletes our human energy and creativity. We say 'No' to the arms race, 'No' to death. We say 'Yes' to a world where people, animals, plants and earth itself are respected and valued."
District 925 Victorious
District 925, a national labor union for office workers, has won a critical summary judgment from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in its two-year struggle to force The Equitable Life Assurance Society to bargain collectively with a group of claims processors at the company's Syracuse, New York Group Benefits office. The NLRB judgment, issued May 4, finds the company guilty of unfair labor practices under the National Labor Relations Act and orders the insurance giant to begin negotiating with the union within 20 days. In the event Equitable continues what union officials call its "legal delaying tactics” to avoid bargaining à fair contract, the union intends to continue a nationwide AFL-CIO sanctioned boycott of Equitable.
The union filed charges with the NLRB last summer after the company steadfastly refused to bargain with the group of 83 employees in Syracuse. The group earlier in the year voted in an NLRB-sanctioned election to have District 925 represent them, becoming the first clerical employees of Equitable ever to vote for a union.
If Equitable does not present evidence of compliance to the NLRB within 20 days, the Board is required under the National Labor Relations Act to take the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals to enforce the judgment..
June, 1983/What She Wants/Page I,