NTR MALL EE NEA AN a wy a A

he conflict between management and
labor is as old as capitalisim itself. On one
side you have the administration, with pencils

and paper and telephone buttons nearby.

Meanwhile, the workers toil in the fields,

factories. producing the necessary goods

vices, always struggling for a little fairer share of
Each side is isolated from the other; work-
ers rarely seeing the inside of an office--adminis-
trators rarely raising the sweat upon their brows.
The whole arrangement is almost taylor - made to
breed misunderstanding, mistrust and division--per-

the pie.

haps by ancient design. :

By this point in time, almost everyone in town has
heard something about the city employees’ attempts
to gain formal recognition from City Hall, in the
form of appeals to logic and reason, all in vain. Fol-
lowing several lengthy debate sessions at City Com-
mission meetings in October and November, the
Commission finally voted 'no" to the question of
recognition of the United Public Employees Assoc-
iation of Lawrence (UPEA) by a 3-2 margin.

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The PUBLIC NOTICE here-
§ by takes a firm stand in the
ee support of the right of mu-
i\t niciple workers of Lawrence to or-
i ganize themselves for the purpose of
“collective bargaining. ..in defense of
their jobs and their integrity. We also support their
demand for a system of binding arbitration, by law,
as set forth by the Public Employees Relations Board
of the State of Kansas, Until city workers have a leg-
itimate voice in the management of their own affairs,
they will remain in a subordinated position, treated
insipidly as upstart children. Until they are recog-
nized as dignified individuals, with Constitutional
rights, there will be no peace in labor-management
relations at City Hall. And so...in keeping. ..the
workers will now speak for themselves...

   
 

HAPPENED’

This was a shameful thing. All of our city employ-
ees are engaged in providing the most vital functions
which any community could demand. We continually
cry for better police and fire protection. We want
our garbage picked up. We want our streets and side-
walks kept in good repair. We want clean and safe
park facilities as well, The men and women who pro-
vide us with these services are dedicated to doing a
good job, An overwhelming majority of the nearly
220 municipal employees involved live right here in
Lawrence. They need services too--and they have

a first-hand understanding of the problems associat-
ed with their procurement-- perhaps better than any-
one else in the community --including the Mayor and
the City Manager. The failure of the City Commis-
sion to unanimously recognize the UPEA is nothing
less than an insult to the integrity of every policeman
and woman, every firefighter, street worker, san-
itation worker, and parks and recreation worker in
Lawrence.

streets o
and ser-

November 6, 1975

AN APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE OF LAWRENCE,
FROM THE UNITED PUBLIC EMPLOYEES ASSOC -
CIATION OF LAWRENCE (Firefighters, Sanitation
Employees, Street Department Employees, Police -
Officers, and Parks and Recreation Dept. Employees)

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

uy f

Inside

Barkley Clark talks about the
Haskell Loop...page 12.

—~
_—

Ever been to the Garden of
Eden? ...page 4.

Home interests...page 2.

How it goes in Ledo, Kan-
sas... page 4.

Need help? Would you like
to help someone? ...pages
6 and 7,

People’s Energy Project:
Energy and you...page 8

LAWRENCE, KANSAS

DECEMBER 1975 VOLUME 1 NUMBER 2

 

 

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THIS IS YOUR PAPER, ALL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PUBLIC NOTICE ARE ENCOURAGED... WRITE BOY 114
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The Game Goes Gn; Something Flas Gone Wrong

HE Sixties rediscovered ec-
i3/ology. We and our environ-

f ment are one, We can't es-
Mes - .
44 cape it, we are ina place, not

 

Another 60's rediscovery: the subtle
effect of form on meaning. Body lang-
uage suddenly told us a total commun-
ication included message plus what a
person's body did when he talked. If

a person crossed his legs when he talked
one thing was meant, if he kept his legs
apart, another. On a group level,
teachers found that interesting lectures
wouldn't guarantee a lively class. The
whole feeling of a group could be changed
by arranging chairs in the room in diff-
erent ways. é

Let's carry these discoveries into an
analysis of what happens every Tuesday
night at 7:00 in downtown Lawrence
Kansas on the 4th floor of the tallest
building in town at 9th and Mass.

City Commission meetings are held
there.

The content of meetings varies (the
Commission both designates National
Beauty Parlor Week and decides the
fate of neighborhoods) but the layout of
the room, the manner of audience par-
ticipation, the presentations by staff
and so forth, in short, the forms of the
City Commission, are relatively static.

The 60's discoveries have not been
applied.

Imagine: The commissioners arrive in
t-shirts and jeans and sit on canvas-
bottomed fold-up stools. Or imagine:

a plexiglass shield is installed between
commission and audience while the
commissioners, topped with powdered
wigs and swaddled in robes, sit behind
oak judgement benches. Setting makes
all the difference in audience participa-
tion.

witnessing before individuals and groups. Then there's the agenda. At his first
You are sitting in the audience. You commission meeting, a new attender
slugged, it's that potent anact. The find something someone says objection- wonders about everything. No hostess
advantage of the arrangement is that able. You may also find the distance to hovers at the door to greet him with a
it allows the politician’s eyes to be read the microphone overwhelming. Your jaw mug of coffee and answers to his ques-
by the audience (remember watching locks. If you are a fool this is to every- tions. No guide to city government is
Nixon sweat on our TV screens?) while one’s advantage--as anyone who attends handed him, no pamphlet explains what
the politicians can monitor the audience. commission meetings and watches the appears on the agenda, or why. Itis
ego freaks who love to hear themselves mysterious as church. No one could
The message back of it allis this: aud- yammer and pontificate, will attest. But describe to the novice the process he
ience is one group, commissioners you can't separate those folks froma _ has stumbled upon, since it is not a
another. How to close the gap? Think microphone anyway, so why disadvan~ conclusion but.a process. A most com-
of the situation of the planning director tage the more modest by forcing them plex one. Commissioners and staff,
showing a site plan map to the commiss- across that gulf? involved for years, forget the awful
ion. Rather than turn his back io the initial ignorance. The spectator plays
audience, block the map with his body catch up ball.
and point things out to the commission
without including the audience (every
little movement has a meaning all its
own), why couldn't those maps be cast
onto the wall with a magic lantern so all
could see? The psychic effect of this
would be that the audience and comm-
ission were joining as mutual spectators,

The commission and audience stare at
each other, Stare in a bar and you're

Part of the bafflement is what the Hell
everyone is talking about. A bond is
no longer something you buy from Uncle
Sam for 25 bucks, no it's a general
obligation (or GO) bond, or a revenue
bond, Understand? I didn*t the first
time I heard those words. What's an
: easement? a planned unit development ?
The bristlers step forward anyway. S0 community development funds? general
do the trained talkers, the polished, the revenue sharing? Language turns into
pros. Others just gulp, or feel the fea- 4 gangster who fogs the room then clubs
thers in their stomach, or whisper to the unaware, who don't know, who just
their neighbors, or do anything to keep don't know, who can't know without a law
from crossing the space to the mike. degree or grad work in political science
or sheer gutty persistence. We are put
to sleep and then we sleepwalk our way
out the door, yawning and wondering
what happened when we reach our house.
We won‘ return.

 

As itis, the impression left is that the
commission members are experts, the
audience hardly worth including in the
discussion. Do they vote? No. Do they
matter? No. That is the unspoken
message.

If they got there, they might not be able
to speak anyway. I once saw a man for-
get everything he prepared to say at

the podium and talk nonsense for three
embarassing minutes. He never came
to another meeting. Anxiety that rips

; é The layout of the room, the format of
out your memory is horrible.

: discussion and the talk itself drives peo-
< 2 ; ple from commission meetings, You
see Oe The arrangement of furniture in the must be greatly ironic or ar to
But focus on what is. room pits staff and commission on one muddle through it, week after week
fact that one addressing the commission side of the room (the staff conveniently Only a few do. The pros. And then
must come forward to a microphone to turned so it faces neither audience nor the enraged come, on an ad hoc basis
do so. commission, but can pivot either direc- Thats it. And intts how it will con- :
tion) against audience on the other. I tinue. until some i
Forget the fact that this form is entirely say "pits against” because that is the effect of Guinea eee
appropriate to a Christian culture that effect of the armngement. They couldn't jence participation emerges; I don*t
stresses the power and necessity of divide it more neatly with a black stripe. expect it will be soon. :

  

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