European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 31, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Clarity would Point the Way in harassment cases Clarence Page re the rules of sexual harassment Chang ing faster than you can keep up with Well help May be on the Way Bunky. A company called management re sources of Newtonville mass., has come up with a Lapel pin that has red yellow and Green lights according to a recent Wall Street journal item. The device looks like a tiny traffic signal so the wearer can signal Welcome and unwelcome remarks. They Call it the harasser  it has been used As an attention getting device in corporate training sessions. But Why Stop there imagine the possibilities people on dates use it As a visual signal for when no Means no or maybe yes members of ethnic and racial minorities could use it to Stop an offensive joke before the punch line. Friars club roasters can use it to avoid the Flap Ted Danson stirred up by showing up at a recent club roast for his Girlfriend whoops Goldberg in blackface makeup. Then again if friars club roasts avoided offend ing anyone there would be no friars club roasts. At least they offend everyone equally. % but alas As the touch iness such episodes touch off illustrates no simple Little gimmick can save us from the complications of an age in which every of sense Large or Small Between ethnic and gender groups can take on political and Legal implications. With that in mind i appreciate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg s apparent attempts to simplify the fuzzy rules that separate a simple offence from Legal harassment. The Case in question involves Teresa Harris of Nashville who has charged the owner of a truck pleasing company with subjecting her to such vulgarities As you re a woman what do you know and let s go to the Holiday inn to negotiate your  when her lawyer Irwin Vonick said at one Point there would be no Case if the sexes were treated equally Ginsburg argued that it was hard to trans pose the two situations for a phrase like you re a woman what do you know Means something quite different from you re a Man what do you know Justice Scalia the court s most conservative voice piped in asking Venick you be never had anyone Tell you that you re a Man so what do you know you must live in a different family environment than i  was Scalia telling women to Stop whining and take their abuse like men deeply imbedded history traditions and habits of mind that tend to put women in an inferior bargaining position to men in such sitar Lions seem to mean Little to Scalia a past foe of most forms of affirmative action. Ginsburg not surprisingly appeared to show More sympathy for such considerations. At one Point argument became Hung up on whether sexual harassment should be defined from the viewpoint of a reasonable woman or a reasonable person a Legal difference Between the alleged victim s perspective and that of some outside objective Standard. Ginsburg Cut through the Haze by asking Why it should not be defined simply As conduct that be cause of an employee s sex makes it More difficult for that person to perform his or her Job. Sexual harassment could be found she said at an other Point if one sex has to put up with something that the other sex does  i d love to be a Fly on the Wall during whatever exchanges Ginsburg might have in this subject with Justice Clarence Thomas who remained As cons Pic Ruth Dador Ginsburg in the Middle of the Issue. Sously silent during these proceedings As sen. Teddy Kennedy was during most of the Thomas hearings with Anita Hill. That s too bad since Thomas brings More experience to this topic than most might think. As head of president Reagan s equal employment Opportunity commission he was responsible for writing Many of the rules that defined sexual harassment As the Issue developed in the 80s. The rules still need defining and clarifying. Since legislators have pretty much left this important task to the courts i Hope Justice Ginsburg succeeds in her apparent Effort to clarify and simplify the rules regarding harassment sexual and otherwise. Confusion can Only put a chill on legitimate relations Between groups undermine Public respect for group protections and encourage those who Don t have much regard for the interests of either women or minorities. Tho Chicago Tribuno going from company Man to complaining Andy Rodney want to love my country my company my wife by kids my school my town but boy they make it hard sometimes. My company i particular. The company i work for lbs i always alienating my affections doing some thing that makes it hard for me to love it  i used to. It won t fire me for saying so because i make Money for it. There Are millions like me who used to lose the company we work for. We were proud of it. The company was our protector. It shielded us from want and in return we gave it our devoted service our loyalty. It gave us a Good feeling to be Loyal. We liked ourselves for it. That s gone. Now the company would let us go in the blink of an Eye if it thought it would improve its profit margin. In the Days when unions were Strong workers would argue the merits of their company Civer its Competition one Day and go out on strike the next. Even on strike their attitude was my company is better than your  there Are few companies left that have that kind of loyalty of their employees. There Are almost no executives who have any loyalty to the employees. The president of Kodak lost his Job recently be cause the Board of directors wanted  increase prof its by firing several thousand employees and he Felt so Loyal to the people who had worked at Kodak for a Long time that he would t do it. Nice Guys Don t last As corporation chairmen. Here s the Deal a company says to anyone looking for a Job. We need you three Days a week no overtime no benefits no medical coverage of pension fund. You Aren t an employee. Well Call you when we need you. Do you want to work or Don you take it or leave it is the new corporate policy in America and it will be interesting to see whether fear of being fired is As Strong a motivating Force As loyalty once was. I Hope not but bad things Are Al ways turning out to be True. When i started to work in television unions were Strong. They had so Many make work rules that i disapproved of unions. If i was sitting at my desk with a camera staring me in the eyes ready to Roll i could t move a Glass of water. I had to have a stage hand move it. He had an assistant. All of a sudden Many unions Are helpless. We be seen unions go from positions of too much Power to none. Unemployment does that. There arc plenty of people who arc out of work ready to take the jobs of anyone who strikes. When a Union contract is up members Don t strike for More because they know the company will be pleased to get rid of anyone with Benefit packages and seniority. Recently members of the newspaper Guild at the new York Post went on strike. Other unions at the paper the printers and the teamsters refused to Honor Guild picket lines and the newspaper came out anyway. Rupert Murdoch the new Post owner told strik ers they were fired. Anyone who wanted a Job he said could line up monday morning and apply for one. All their Bensfi s and seniority were gone. They d have to Start Over. One photographer who had worked for the Post for 40 years lost everything including his Job. Many of those Guild members swallowed their Pride and lined up to beg for a Job the next monday. If they were hired at All and most of them were not it was for a fraction of what they d been paid before their strike. You wonder How Loyal they la he now As employees. Tii Puno Media Sor Vicos. And Rodney is a  sto/3 arid stapes Sci Bolh 31, 10 j3 age 9