ustxtxb_obs_1985_05_03_50_00010-00000_000.pdf

Car o l & Simp son c Comparable worth is just a disguised attack on our free enterprise system. It flies in the face of the values that made this country great! Luckily, the directions at the top of the survey had advised us “So as not to prejudice your responses, please do not read the Republican positions listed at the end of this survey until you have completed your answers.” A contribution was then sought “to prevent the liberal Democrats and pro-appeasement lobbyists” from defeating the President’s defense initiatives. V The National Law Journal, in its April 15 issue, published a list of 100 lawyers the Journal considers to be the most powerful in the country. “One theme links together the men and women who stand out from the crowd as this country’s most powerful lawyers: the ability to wield force, authority or influence. The ability, in a phrase, to produce results,” the Journal wrote. Seven Texas-based lawyers made the list of the high-powered hundred: John Connally \(now with Houston’s Vinson of Houston’s “Racehorse” Haynes \(of Houston’s Powers \(former executive assistant to Gov. Mark White, now with Fulbright Robert Strauss \(former chair of the Holding the Line V And now it’s official. The Justice Department has decided to oppose plans to equalize pay between men and women for jobs of comparable worth. The incomparable William Bradford Reynolds, head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said that it was the Department’s “considered judgment that neither Title VII [of the Civil Rights Act of 1964] nor the Equal Pay Act is violated by a showing of salary differences for traditionally male and female jobs that are dissimilar but said to be of ‘comparable worth.’ ” Plus, he said, the “concept flies in the face of free marketplace economics.” The Justice Department is preparing to do battle on the issue when a controversial Washington state ruling supporting the notion of comparable worth reaches the Supreme Court. In the case, AFSCME v. State of Washington, U.S. District Judge Jack Tanner ordered the state to compensate 1500 female state employees by giving raises, back pay, and improved pension benefits. The judgment could cost the state up to $1 billion. V Gov. Mark White came back from his April foray into Honduras with advice for the Pentagon in regard to Central American affairs. White told an Austin press conference April 11 that it was a good idea to send our Spanishspeaking troops into the region and that he would make that suggestion to the Defense Department in case of future Central American military ventures. But write in soon, Governor! Pentagon planning is surely under way already. V Here is how it has gone for farmworker advocates who have tried to get the Department of Labor to require drinking water and toilets in the fields: For 13 years the Department resisted the issue in the courts, but in 1982 finally agreed that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration would set the sanitation rules by February 16, 1985. But in February, OSHA announced that Ceroi -A-.5165e-v the rules would not take effect until April 16. In April OSHA suddenly announced that the rules would not take effect at all. Now the issue is likely to wind up back in the courts. OSHA now takes the position that safety and public health issues are the province of the states and that the proposed federal regulations might weaken the already existing regulations in at least 13 states. Texas is one of the states with field sanitation standards \(TO the regulations are weak and ill-enforced, according to Jim Harrington, legal director of the Texas Civil Liberties Union. The standards have been in effect since June 15, 1983, but according to Troy Lowry of the Texas Department of Health no fines have ever been levied against growers in Texas. The proper role for OSHA, according to Robert Rowland, the agency chief, is dealing with “the most serious health and safety issues asbestos, lead and various chemical carcinogens.” This, depite studies showing that the nation’s estimated 1.5 million farmworkers are 3 to 5 times more likely to suffer chemical exposure and 7 to 26 times more likely to contract parasitic diseases than the average American worker. In Texas, where 80 percent of all farmworkers live below the poverty line, the incidence of diseases such as tuberculosis, hepatitis, and pneumonia is 100 to 300 percent higher than for other Texans. Installing proper sanitation facilities costs growers about 55 cents per worker. Sanctuary, Northeast V The city council of Cambridge, Massachusetts, has declared the entire city a haven for Latin American refugees. The city resolution instructs employees not to cooperate with federal efforts to deport immigrants. Berkeley, California, passed a similar resolution in February. Pho to by Mike Sm it h Turning the Screws V The day before the Senate vote on aiding Nicaraguan counter-revolutionaries, Sen. Lloyd Bentsen proposed that the Reagan administration establish an economic embargo and a trade boycott against Nicaragua. Bentsen’s resolution seeks to do for Nicaragua what the United States did for Cuba in the 1960s. 10 MAY 3, 1985