ustxtxb_obs_1980_11_28_50_00015-00000_000.pdf

t Farmworkers Try Again Despite past defeats and with almost no prospect of success to come, the Texas Farm Workers Union is again attempting to push through legislation granting enforceable collective bargaining rights for farmworkers. The bill will be carried in the House by Rep. Samuel Hudson of Dallas, a legislator who once resorted to a hunger strike because none of his bills were being brought up for votes. A Senate sponsor has not yet been named. The new farmworkers bill, pre-filed by Hudson and announced at a news conference by TFWU leader Antonio Orendain, contains many of the provisions of HB 227, the farmworkers bill from the 1979 legislative session. HB 227, carried by Rep. Tony Garcia of Pharr, was totally squelched by the Clayton House. Speaker Clayton, of course, is a millionaire West Texas farmer who is currently suing a group of farmworkers who had sought minimum wage for hoeing cotton [Obs., Oct. 31]. The 1979 bill never got out of the agriculture committee, where the chairman, Rep. Forrest Green of Corsicana, used strong-arm tactics to prevent fair public hearings. Despite what appears to be an even worse legislature for farmworker interests, Orendain thinks the bill has a chance in 1981. He says the Reagan/ . Republican gains allow the TFWU to “see more clearly who is our enemy.” He also believes the impact of Mexican-American votes demonstrated in the 1980 campaign will force Democrats and Republicans alike to pay more attention to Hispanic issues. Most farmworkers in Texas are Hispanic. And most earn less than $4,000 a year. Theoretically, they can decide to ask for union representation, but growers do not have to recognize their requests. That is why the TFWU wants collective bargaining legislation. That is why the lobbycontrolled, anti-labor legislature will continue to block it. The farmworkers bill was one of more than 85 legislative proposals pre-filed in the House Nov. 10, the first day for such activity. The Senate had an opening day flood of ten measures, including a pay raise bill for state workers sponsored by Sen. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin. No precise figure for pay raises was included in the bill, but it will probably come between the 3.4 percent favored by the governor and the 5.1 percent asked by the Texas Public Employees Association. First bill filed in the House was sponsored by Republican Reps. Bill Blythe, Don Rains and Bill Ceverha and would outlaw all that nasty drug paraphernalia which is dementing the minds of the younger generation. The bill is a manifestation of the so-called drug abuse program being pushed by Gov. Clements and his Dallas ally, H. Ross Perot. Jet Set, White Texans Division Responding to criticism of a planned trip to South Africa [Obs., Oct. 31] the State Bar of Texas’ Board of Directors has appointed a committee to screen future group travel plans. The trip was offered to all members of the Texas Bar in a brochure billing South Africa as a “progressive democratic country.” Although one bar official told the Observer there had been no complaints, he was mistaken. The members of the Individual Rights & Responsibilities Section of the Bar voted at their October meeting to protest the Bar’s sponsorship of the trip, stating that “It would have been the wiser course for the State Bar to boycott South Africa so as to pressure South Africa into changing its racist policies.” In addition, at least one protesting black attorney has received a letter of apology from Tom Hanna, executive director of the Bar. The Austin chapter of the National Lawyers Guild also has complained. According to Tom Watkins, Austin member of the Bar’s new screening committee, the group has not yet met and has no criteria for deciding which trips offered by the Bar’s travel agency will receive official blessing. He did say that the Bar is unlikely to sponsor any more trips to South Africa. The Bar’s public relations officer, Larry Fitzgerald, said 32 Texas attorneys or spouses had signed up for the trip, which is also being offered to lawyers in Oklahoma and Iowa. Fitzgerald wondered why “everybody picks on us,” since the Texas Exes, a UT alumni group, took a similar trip in August. True. Roy Vaughan, executive director of the Exes, said 23 persons had gone on the “Flying Longhorns” trip to South Africa, and that no one had expressed any disapproval of the country. He did note that some persons had refused to go on the Russian leg of a tour of Northern Europe because they did not want to spend American dollars in Russia. However, he said the only reason Texas Exes would not visit a country would be if it were unsafe or if it were so unpopular that not enough travelers agreed to go. Jo Clifton Job with a Future It looks as though we’ll have old Bob Bullock to kick around some more. The comptroller announced his plans to run for a third term on Nov. 3, the day before the general election. Of course, Bullock isn’t up for renomination for another two years, but he’s always tried to make his plans known as soon as possible. Bullock, whose state of health \(he’s topic, said his entry into the 1982 race “will end all speculation and give a lot of county-level politicians who may have toyed with the idea of running a chance to make up their minds.” The feisty comptroller was first elected to his present office in 1974 and easily won a second term in 1978. Journal THE TEXAS OBSERVER 15