The Carolinian [March 25, 1993]

              >mi>nmmmmtm "■»" •»em
Inside
Campus Briefs 2
Campus Safety 3
Classifieds 16
Features 10
Opinions 4
Personals 16
Sports 6
apBEi;:vSG:©^
mfe fflarafinfem
In
Opinions—
Columnist Karin
Garner speaks out
regarding violence
in the pro-life move-ment.
See story on
pageS.
Volume72,Number21 The University of North Carolina at Greensboro Thursday,March25,1993
VOt. 7i
ARA workers in
fight to unionize
By SALLY THOMAS
Staff Writer
A group of between 100 to 130
ARA workers who provide dining
services at UNCG have been cir-culating
flyers which claim they
deserve more "respect"from their
employers and are trying to form
a union to protect their rights as
employees.
ARAFood Services, headquar-tered
in Philadelphia, Pa., is the
company through which the Uni-versity
contracts its dining ser-vices.
"We've no other place to go ex-cept
to another job like ARA,
where salaries are low and ben-efits
few, if any," the flyer says.
"We're trying to better our-selves
by getting benefits," said
John Johnson, who has worked
at the Caf for ten years.
The workers say that they do
not receive pension plans or high
enough wages.
According to the flyer, which
appeals for student support, on
Feb. 26 the Communication
Workers of America (CWA) filed
a petition with the National La-bor
Relations Board on behalf of
the workers, requesting a union
election.
The employees are being ad-vised
by the CWA A hearing on
the matter was held last week.
One spokesman for ARA
claimed that the legal process of
establishing a union would be a
waste of taxpayers' money.
In response to employees' com-plaints
of low wages, the com-pany
says it feels it pays its em-ployees
competitive wages, ac-cording
to Harry Belinger, speak-ing
on behalf of ARA.
According toJohnson, however,
workers receive araise ofbetween
ten and 25 cents per year.
The flyer claims that because
ofsuch low wages, many of them
cannot afford health care.
SHKKI THOMAS/CarafeiiM
Students take advantage of the recent warm weather by
hanging out at the Plaza Fountain. The warm weather was
a welcome change to the cold of the "Blizzard of93."
At this point, the workers on
campus are awaiting a decision
from the Labor Board as to who
has jurisdiction in this matter,
the state or ARA
A decision is expected around
the first of April, at which time
the workers will vote on whether
or not to form a union.
There are also no retirementor
pension plans ibr non-manage-ment
employees under the cur-rent
system, the flyer says.
The workers say that their
wages are little more than $4.25
per hour in most cases, and that
they cannot afford health care
since most are single parents.
"Most of us are single parents
who are the sole supporters in a
family," the flyer says. "A few of
us have as much as 22 years of
service andin mostjobs we would
be looking toward retirement. But
we can't because ARA doesn't of-
See ARA, page S
SHKKI THOMAS/ Cnltalu
ARA employee Mary Sue Cornwall hands Sophomore Walter
Burke his dinner. Many of the ARA employees at UNCG are
fighting to establish a union in order to protect their rights.
The group recently passed out flyers in the board cafeteria as
an appeal for student support.
Dr. Solow comments on
Clinton's economic plan
By MATTHEW BYRD
Managing Editor
One of the Clinton
administration's most important
steps in revitalizing the U.S.
economy should be to ask exactly
what unemployment rate we
should aim for in the future, ac-cording
to Dr. Robert M. Solow, a
Nobel Prize-winning economist
who lectured at UNCG Tuesday
night
"Mostconservative economists
will tell you six percent. Areason-able
economist will tell you five
and a half percent," said Solow,
not letting his audience forget
that he is a supporter of the
Clinton economic package. He
stressed that too low an unem-ployment
rate can accelerate in-flation
rates.
Soloes speech was part of the
annual Kathleen P. Bryan lec-ture
series and was titled, The
Clinton Economic Strategy: How
Low Can Unemployment Get?"
Solow claimed that President
Clinton's plan
for the
economy is not
perfect, but
would move
the country in
the right direc-tion.
He said
that he hoped
his speech
would help
people see
"where the uncertainties of eco-nomics
lie."
He compared Great Britain's
unemployment situation to that
ofthe United States. Hesaid that
some economists in Britain be-lieve
a good unemployment rate
is around nineanda halfpercent,
probably due to the fact that their
Solow
current rate is around ten per-cent.
"I have afeeling thatacountry
that has a certain unemployment
rate for a long time gets used to
it," he commented.
Junior Christi Cook voiced
someconcern forSplow's idea that
unemployment should be kept as
high as five and a half percent.
"I would agree with him more
if his unemployment rate was
lower," said Cook, a communica-tions
majorwhovotedfor Clinton.
Solow also speculated on how
successful he thought Clinton
would be in convincingthe Ameri-can
people to support his pro-gram
through the next presiden-tial
election.
"He is not going to be able to
campaign on achievements. Heis
going to have to make people be-
See Solow, page 3
-^