European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 19, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 16 the stars and stripes thursday May 19, 1977 Jesse l. Jackson its just at Yout until you set it successful strikes depend on morality strikes and unions Are justifiably powerful and necessary. They arc indispensable for Many work ing men and women. Strikes and unions Are the Only clout Many have for getting economic parity. I be marched on picket lines. I believe in Union Power and collective bargaining. So did the Rev. Martin i usher King or. That s Why he was in Memphis and i with him on thai Day when the Assassin s Bullet struck him. We were there in support of a striking Union. Memphis sanitation workers. But As do All forms of Power Union Priwer has its traps and defeats. And no Union s Power must be handled More care fully and judiciously than that held by organized Public employees. When Trade and Craft unions walk out they strike managers and owners. When firemen and police walk out they strike those they serve and protect not just mayors boards and commissions. When teachers go out. They strike parents taxpayers and children s minds not just boards of education and superintendents an historic Assumption in Union action is this a Union s gains ultimately Benefit the greater Public because both abuses and awards affect All who work in the same system in this Assumption rests a Union s moral authority its Community Man Date. Thus the strike and the picket sign Are not the real Power. That is the spirit of Unity Between Community and worker. For Public employees the decision to strike must also rest on the Assumption that the work or service he will withhold in a strike has been fairly and productively provided to the people who pay for it. Sadly that s an Assumption some Public workers unions can no longer make. For a Case in Point there Are fewer sadder examples than some of the Public school teachers unions. The mural authority of the teachers Union is based on its Community mandate. And thai mandate is based on the strength of the co operation thai exists Between parents and teachers. Today that mandate is eroding. The questions i m raising Here about teachers unions Don t have anything to do with collective bargaining or the Nghil to strike i support both although they Are outlawed in Many places. What i question is More important. A whole series no moral questions must be answered if Organ de teachers Are to pre serve their moral authority their Community mandate. Before they strike they must consider How Clear is their right to strike if their Union s preoccupation is guaranteed employment but not guaranteeing education How Clear is the right to strike when a Union seeks contract Protection for incompetence and so undercuts the competent How Clear is the right to strike for More Muneji when the1 employer a taxpayer Parent holds tax receipts in one hand and test results in theother thai prove he s paying Mure und Mure Lor less and less1.1 and How Clear is the right to strike when the Union does t calculate Ruil it will Cost a child a Louse teacher walked out of the classroom 1 would t the answer pm Clear for example if teachers walked out of nearly 100 schools leaving in doubt the whole educational year of 51.000 children Afler tin teachers stayed out More than 40 Days thai s what happened in Kansas City this Spring where local Union president Norman Crosby led teachers for the Secund time in three years out of classes in mid year. The Kansas City teachers were seeking More Money and. Among other things the right to live in the suburbs. Their commitment to a drive for Excel Lence and education for cooperation and mass organization of parents was less obvious than their commitment to win More Money. Afler 40 Days the issues in Kansas City were More clouded and less settled than when the strike started March 21. In Addi Tion More than Iso teachers had been arrested some fined and some even jailed. Kansas City s children May have welcomed the unexpected Holiday but Wail till they gel the Bill for their Lack of education and if Kansas City s schools try to compensate by going late into the summer who really thinks it la make up for an abrupt and disruptive break and the Cru Cial continuity of learning even doctors need and have the right to organize. Bui to strike in the Middle of an operation would kill the patient and the Public s patience. Kill the students year and run a Chance of killing the parents patience. Who was struck in Kansas City the Board of education the superintendent of schools or was in the children especially those on the fringes of society and learn ing those who May not come Back or was it working parents stuck with quitting work or leaving children unattended would the teachers have lost if they a waited until fall for a showdown delaying rather than destroying a school year would they have lost if they d walled to test the new superintendent in Kansas City in particular and in american education in general the ques Tion More and More in t one of Legal rights to strike but of moral rights. And clearly it is moral rights that Are the foundation of successful strikes or causes. The prudent use of Power is its Best Protection. Telo and i Timet James j. Kilpatrick a Little More bureaucratic bloat now and t11kn a Case history comes along that perfectly illustrates the Bureau cratic lunacy that afflicts our Federal government. Such an example is now at hand in the pending youth Camp safety act. 11 has everything. The pathology is Well known. The Dis ease begins with a Small problem that has Large political Appeal Here the Small prob Lem is that every year a few Youn stars Are killed and a few More Are injured in Acci dents at summer Camp. Tragic As these accidents Are. Their number is remarkably Small. By any rational Standard the risks associated with camping Are infinitesimal. Proponents of this legislation have been hard put to dredge up any convincing statistics that the other Summit might support Federal regulation. Nevertheless the idea of protecting litle children has a Fine emotional Appeal. It is the very sort of idea that captivates weep easy. Do goobers and suburban mamas with time on their hands. Given the Small problem and the Large Appeal the next step follows As the night the Day. The next step is to say. We gotta have a a Federal Law. Thus for the third time in the past five years congressional liberals arc rolling their eyes and wringing their hands for the poor Little neglected children who might stub a toe at some summer Camp. In the 93rd Congress such a Bill passed the House and died in the Senate. A couple of weeks ago a House subcommittee voted 8 1 in favor of this year s Model legislation. File one committee member who had the guts to vote against this Sappy proposition is Republican Bud Shustur of Pennsylva Nia. Lot s hear it for Shuster we could use 434 More like him. The pending Bill is in the classic pattern it would create a new office of youth Camp safety within the department of health. Kudu cation and welfare. The office would be staffed by Job hungry bureaucrats Nice nellies and various simpering nitwits whose first task would be the draft ing of rules and regulations to implement the act. They would have plenty of room to turn around in. The act would apply to All Day Camps residential Camps troop Camps travel Camps and trip Camps every where in the nation. The act would fix Stan Dards. The act would require reports. The act would provide fines for violations the whole panoply of bureaucracy Here unfolds like a colossi Pup tent Slitter provides a couple of specific examples of the foolishness with which the Bill abounds the act would require that a detailed itinerary be filed with the Federal government in duplicate every time a boy scout or girl scout troop goes on a under some proposed regulations worked up by the hew folks in 1975 regulations that need Only to be dusted off if the Bill is enacted a boy scout would be subject to a Fine if he camped out alone overnight in order to fulfil an Eagle scout requirement it is part of the typical Case history that new bureaucracies duplicate the work of old bureaucracies. So it is with die Federal regulation of summer Camps. Such Camps already Are subject to an astounding array of state and Federal Laws having to do with food milk and Waler Purily sanitation safely and the like. The owner of a Camp in North Carolina has counted up nine Federal agencies 10 stale agencies and four county agencies to whom he is now responsible. One Mure Pup tent the sponsors estimate that their Little bureaucratic Babysitter would Cost Only $7.5 million the first year. Such first car estimates As every political Palho Loisl knows Are wholly meaningless. The Rule of any bureaucracy is to Start Small and to grow Large. There always will be expand ing parameters Hal must be implemented and thai which is not immediately implemented must be prospectively prioritized need Wise Agar ghz this proposal in Brief precisely echoes the very things that Jimmy Carter campaigned incessantly against. A thousand times he denounced Washington s bloated what we have Here no matter How attractive it May appear is a . L Lou. Of the Atit tort and Are in nos Rerp Tel no Itie View of tar i
