Join Register-Guard employees on May Day
Labor supporters and others concerned about negative bargaining tactics of The Register-Guard are encouraged to send a message to the newspaper’s owners at a May 1 rally outside the company’s Chad Drive offices. The 5:30 p.m. rally — two years to the day after expiration of the newspaper’s contract with its largest union, the Eugene Newspaper Guild — will feature speakers, entertainment and information about our community’s vital role in urging The Register-Guard’s owners to live up to their “Citizen of the Community” standards and bargain responsibly.
The newspaper has hired a union-busting Tennessee lawyer to direct the current round of negotiations with the Newspaper Guild, which has represented newsroom, circulation and advertising employees for more than 55 years (contributing greatly to past stature achieved by the paper). The company not only is demanding wage rollbacks for many employees and minimal raises for others, but it is insisting on contract language that would weaken the union’s ability to stand up for workers’ rights.
The Register-Guard owners were recently found guilty of several unfair labor practices and ordered by a judge to begin negotiating with the Teamsters on behalf of distribution department employees. Rather than comply with the judge’s order and accept the will of employees who petitioned for union representation, the owners have indicated they will appeal the ruling and delay a just resolution.
Please join us on May Day. Tell The Register-Guard what it is to be a citizen of this community.

Joe Mosley

executive board member/action
committee chair


Eugene Newspaper Guild

Don’t give me the bird
Why does the ASUO think they are better than everyone else on campus? On Wednesday, I went to the ASUO office to take care of some business at about 5:30 p.m. when the office was closed. Since I only had to pick up a form, I was hoping they could open the door and hand it to me.
Someone who was working in the office came to the door and pointed out a sign that said they were counting votes. I nodded my head in acknowledgment and waved to the man. To my surprise, a woman with dark black hair flipped me off as I was leaving.
My question is this: If there were so many ballots to be tabulated, how come I counted four people just standing around in the office? And when they decided they didn’t want to help me, why do they feel it’s necessary to flip me off? (They get very brave behind locked doors.)
One mission of the ASUO is to have greater communication with the student body. Let me give you guys some advice. Locking people out and flipping them off isn’t the way to go about that.

Nick Larsen

sophomore


pre-journalismon

Confederate flag is a symbol of racism
In Aaron McKenzie’s article regarding the Confederate flag debate (“Never meanin’ no harm,” ODE, April 12), he states that opponents or “potentially productive people” are barking up the wrong tree, because although the confederate flag is a symbol of bigotry, slavery and repression, having it fly atop the state capitol is OK because the issue is “inconsequential nonsense” anyway.
McKenzie said protesters are overlooking the fact that the U.S. flag also represents various racially motivated acts, including the horrendous treatment of Native Americans and of Japanese Americans in internment camps.
However, McKenzie overlooks the fact that the U.S. flag is also a symbol of social change that has very much benefited minorities. The confederate flag has no redeeming symbolic implications and is a stagnant remnant of bigotry which can only continue to represent a racial division.
McKenzie claims that to really combat racism, opponents should go after policy-makers in Washington, D.C., not good ol’ boys in South Carolina. John Ashcroft, who has a history of making blatantly racist decisions and openly endorsed a confederate magazine, just so happens to hang out with good ol’ boys from South Carolina.
McKenzie fails to see this connection and claims the debate is a “one-dimensional squabble,” yet the fact that the debate evokes so much emotion from both sides proves that there is more to it than “abstract symbolism.”
Society (and its many dimensions) will recognize that racism, and symbols of racism, should not be tolerated.

Joshua Crockett

senior


Spanish/international studies