University of Southern California
DAILY ® TROJAN
VOL. LXII NO. 71
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1971
Union election's charges dropped
USC has been cleared by the National Labor Relations Board of charges of unfair election practices in connection with a vote last Dec. 11 by custodians, maids and groundsmen employed in the physical plant department. Operations and Maintenance employees voted against the Service and Hospital Employ-
ees Union, Local 399. Service Employees International Union. AFL-CIO, 177 to 47.
The union accused USC of using supervisors as election observers and threatening and coercing employees if they voted for the union.
Bot^ parties had previously agreed, prior to the elections, that election observers would
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Photo by Bob Zimberoff
WANDERING MINSTREL
Richard Rankey, a wandering songster, happened onto the campus yesterday. He brought his rhetoric, his songs and also his hat. "I'm not after your souls, just your money," he said.
Oil spill study results released
Results of the Allan Hancock Foundation's research into the Santa Barbara oil slick of 1969 were officially released yesterday.
In a news conference. Dr. Bernard C. Abbott, the director of the Allan Hancock Foundation. said that “any assessment of the oil damage has to be made after superimposing upon it other changes in the area due to increasing pollution resulting from population and industrialization."
The area has been subject to oil pollution for millions of years. Over the last 30 years the population of plant and animal life has steadily deteriorated. It was mentioned, however, that the life in the channel, as opposed to the same types elsewhere, may be building up a resistance to an excessive accumulation of oil.
In reference to the USC's accepting a $200,000 grant from an oil company to research a slick and then to come up with a report favorable to the oil company. Abbott said that the foundation tried to get money other places than the Western Oil and Gas Association. Seeking federal funding was unsuccessful because the government plans so far ahead that it is not prepared to deal with an emergency such as a natural -disaster. They also tried to get money from the Water Resources Board and private foundations, but again came up with nothing.
There is no way of knowing the long term effects of the oil spill that happened two years ago. but if something derogatory to the Western Oil came out of the study, the foundation would not 'be muzzled by restraints" put on them
by the oil companies. Abbott said.
Dr. John L. Mohr, a professor of biology, blamed the foundation for hurrying their choice researchers. He said that the team should have been comprised of the same people who were on the fact finding team which surveyed the coastal shelf from Santa Barbara to Mexico some years ago.
Three members of the first expedition that were not asked on the second were Dr. John and Mrs. Dorothy Soule, and Dr. Gilbert F. Jones, all associate professors in the school of Dentistry.
Mohr said that with the aid of the Soules, who. by studying a small aquatic animal could have come to more finite conclusion on damage to plant and animal life.
$1000 needed for lit magazine
By PETER WONG Assistant Editorial Director
The ASSC Executive Council turned down a motion at its meeting Tuesday that would have censured its literary magazine director for excess spending. But instead, council members sharply criticized him for allowing the rising expenditures.
Ken Ziskin. a graduate representative, offered the censure motion against Dan lives, ASSC literary magazine chairman, for his work on “what amounts to a product that is now worth nothing without the expenditure of another $1,000.”
However, the motion was turned down, 6-2, with one member abstaining.
The issue arose when lives, a sophomore, sought an extra $1,000 fo publication of the magazine. At its meeting on Jan. 12. the ASSC Executive Council had accepted the recommendation of its budgetary subcommittee and turned down lives' first request for additional funds. The initial request allocation for the magazine was $1,000.
lives said he was planning to publish a 128-page issue, three times larger than last year's magazine. The issue would include 60 percent of the contributions submitted for publication and would sell for 50 cents.
Some council members criticized lives for not staying within his budget limit. lives had enough money to buy complete page proofs for the magazine but would need another $1,000 to begin printing the 2.000 copies.
After the council blasted overspending by the directors of its programs. Dan Wallace, graduate representative, moved to spend another $1,000 for completion of the magazine. Wallace's motion was approved. 6-3. with one abstention.
Ziskin then presented his motion for censure, which failed.
In other business, council members postponed consideration of the nominations of five members of the Elections Commission until they could talk with them.
Also, the council decided not to act on the nomination of Patrice Edwards as director of the Community Action Coordinating Council until she had been interviewed.
However. ASSC President Sam Hurst said the council will consider appointments to three vacant posts at its meeting next week. The council is to select replacements for two elected officers—Bill Hesse, graduate representative who was graduated at midyear, and Nader Oskoui. international students representative, who resigned in mid-December.
Council members will also pick someone to replace Tom Cas-acky as ASSC treasurer, an appointive office.
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be stationed at both the main campus and the medical center campus voting locations. The union was advised as to the identity of the observers at the preelection conference held on the day prior to the election and raised no questions as to their eligibility at any time prior to the close of the election.
The sole witness in support of the union's objections stated that during a conversation a few weeks prior to the election, one of the group leaders. who served as an election observer, said he had fired a man the day before. The witness then stated, “From my knowledge as a group leader. he would not have been able to fire the employee directly but would have gone to a foreman.’'
The investigation that followed showed that on the date in question, the group leader found that one of his crew was intoxicated and reported this to his foreman. The foreman went to observe the employee's condition and then fired him. The investigation failed to disclose any single exercise of supervisory authority by any group leader.
NLRB regional director Abraham Siegel said, “It does not appear that further proceedings on the charge are warranted inasmuch as there is insufficient evidence of a violation of the (National labor Relations) Act. I am. therefore, refusing to issue a complaint in this matter."
Elton D. Phillips, vice-president for business affairs, replied. “We are pleased that we have always tried to live within the letter of the NLRB regulations and to permit our employees to determine their own course of action by secret ballot."
Siegel said that O & M group leaders are not supervisors within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act but are employees eligible to serve as election observers.
Cummings named trustee
The election of Theodore E. Cummings of Beverly Hills to the Board of Trustees was announced yesterday by Justin Dart, chairman.
Cummings, who is director and chairman of the executive committee of Pacific Coast Properties. Inc.. will attend his first board meeting as a trustee in April.
Born in Vienna. Cummings came to the United States in 1920. became a citizen, and settled in Los Angeles in 1931. Until 1968. he was engaged in the retail food business as an employee, owner and finally president and chairman of the executive committee of Food Giant Markets. Inc.. a New Jersey corporation. The firm had about 100 outlets at the time of his resignation as president and director in June. 1968.
He is a senior vice-president and a director of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He has also served the hospital as a member
of its board of governors and on many key executive and development committees. He received the annual Caduceus Award from the Mt. Sinai Hospital and Clinic in 1960.
He is a Founding Member of the Music Center of Los Angeles, and formerly was a director of its Center Theater Group. He has also served on the executive committee of the Jewish Federated Council and is a trustee of the Jewish Community Foundation.
Cummings is a public member of the California Commission on Judicial Qualifications. and received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University of San Fernando Valley College of Law in June. 1968.
Cummings is on the governing committee of the Jules Stein Eye Institute at the University of California Los Angeles Center for the Health Sciences.
THEODORE CUMMINGS