Office workers face occupational hazards

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that over half the people who worked with video-display terminals (VDTs) suffered from eyestrain and irritation, back and neck pain, chronic headaches, blurred vision, and other ailments.

University of California researchers studied eye patients using VDTs. The researchers stated, "Their ability to bring objects into focus was more than 50 percent below normal for their age."

In another study, 45 percent of the 871 computer operators surveyed reported pregnancies ending in miscarriage, stillbirth, early infant death, premature delivery, or major birth defects. Some scientists believe that the radiation emitted by VDTs may be the cause.

Many of the health problems experienced by clerical workers, and particularly those who use VTs, are related to stress. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has concluded that word processors experience higher levels of stress than any other occupational group ever studied, including air-traffic controllers.

Stress-related problems do not usually cause the same level of immediate distress NOVEMBER 1988 or disability as other work-related injuries or diseases, but they can ultimately lead to strokes, heart disease, or psychological problems. They can also aggravate many other chronic ailments.

According to the Public Broadcasting Service, one out of every three computer workers is electronically monitored through their computer to gauge their productivity. This electronic surveillance is an important source of stress.

High rate of turnover Everywhere that clerical workers are employed they most likely find themselves performing a narrower range of tasks, at a faster pace, with less control over how they perform them, with less of a stake in the final product, and with less skill required of them.

Because the work is less satisfying, more stressful, and less valued by management, there tends to be an increasingly high rate of turnover for office personnel. Experience and training are becoming less important.

These factors have led to a rapid growth in the percentage of workers who are part-time, temporary, or contract workers. These workers are paid less than full-time, permanent workers. They have little or no job security or benefits.

There is little cohesion and a lot of competition among these workers, which makes them less likely to form unions on their own initiative and more vulnerable to scabs, strike-breaking, and union-busting.

The only way that office workers can significantly improve their working conditions and their standard of living is through the kinds of militant struggles waged by industrial workers in the early years of the labor movement.

Millions of clerical workers-the overwhelming majority of whom are women-have a vital interest in the revival of the trade-union movement, its extension to all sectors of the working class, and the forging of strong links between industrial workers and service workers.

Post Office Box 404830 1, NY 11240-4830 IMPACT okly ISUALS 2-966-9619 Affordablo photos, cartoons, caricatures and lustrations for the moverent and the progressive press

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Over 53 percent of the delegates at the FLOC convention were women. that without their participation "we lose the wisdom we can get from the The following is an interview with Baldemar Velasquez, president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC). The interview was conducted shortly after the FLOC convention by Shirley Pasholk in Toledo, Ohio, on Sept. 2, 1988.

Socialist Action: What do you consider the most significant accomplishment of your recent convention?

Baldemar Velasquez: I think it's the fact that for the first time workers have a forum for expressing democratically what their desires and wishes are.

Their participation in the convention was a selfexpression they never had before. They're beginning to run something on their own and demanding the respect that they deserve.

S.A.: What are your relations with the United Farm Workers (UFW)?

Velasquez: They're very good. At this past convention, we reaffirmed a resolution from the 1985 convention to express our affiliation with the AFL-CIO through the United Farm Workers.

We're ready to move forward because we see that what's needed in this country is a national union of farm workers. We want to make that a reality and play our part in it.

S.A.: Could you describe the composition of the convention?

Velasquez: We had close to 300 delegates at this convention-about 100 more than we had at the one in 1985. All delegates have to be farm workers. We want to make it possible for all farm workers to participate whether they're men, women, or young teenagers who are workers.

delegates. Thats ery, portand 53-ase end mem are workers and we have to allow them equal access in terms of leadership, staff, and decision-making.

At the last two conventions, we've had over 100 children. So, we have to provide daycare for them. If the kids stay behind, the women stay behind. That's the way it works in society.

S.A.: What steps have you taken to help ensure unity and democracy within the union?

Velasquez: We've seen that there were certain elements in our constitution that would restrict participation from some members.

For example, there was a requirement in the constitution that in order to be a delegate to the convention you had to have been a member for at least 30 days on a contract farm.

The convention begins the first weekend in August and the cucumber harvest doesn't start until the first of September. Workers arrive from Texas at the last minute.

In cucumbers, you have a 60 percent turnover from year to year. So that new person comes onto a contract farm and is a member of the union, but is restricted from participating in the convention.

So we had to make a change in the constitution where that membership requirement was changed from 30 days to three days to allow everybody to have their voice Convention committees—resolutions, constitution, rules, and credentials-create the whole agenda for the convention. These committees meet for a full month prior to the convention with open meetings so that any member who wants to participate in the meetings can.

The resolutions committee is the largest because it involves the shaping of policy. We had meetings where over 100 members debated which resolutions would come to the floor. Their participation in that process is key in democratizing the organization.

We are now moving toward a plan where every farm will have a committee of members to administer the contract. As it is right now, the field staff makes sure the growers abide by the different parts of the contract, but it's better to turn that over to the people right on the farms who are there all the time.

S.A.: You've also sent organizers to Florida and Texas to follow the farm workers back home. How has that worked out?

Velasquez: That's part of the normal process of having the organizers travel with the workers. They continue their follow-up with the workers in Texas and Florida in order to have the participation of the members in the union.

March with Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta Support the United Farm Workers in their campaign to end the use of dangerous pesticides on table grapes BOYCOTT BOYCOT GRAPES GRAPES Sponsored by UFW, S.F. Central Council, Mobilization for Peace, Jobs and Justice ro.. women have."

I feel that democratizing the union is a very key factor in our ability to have the resources and the people power to go out in future organizing drives. This union belongs to the people and they've got to take responsibility and ownership of it.

S.A.: How many farm workers do you have under contract?

Velasquez: We have 3000 workers under contract. We're negotiating for another 1000 workers-and as many as 2000 more—which we hope to have covered by the end of the year. That would give us about 40 percent of the workforce in Ohio organized.

We're growing very rapidly. We've just signed-up five new farms in the last week. We have majority cards on close to 20 additional farms.

S.A.: Could you go into some of the contracts you've been successful in winning?

Velasquez: I think the important parts have to do with the new initiative that we have here in the Midwest to bring together multiparty collective-bargaining agreements.

This prevents huge corporations from shifting production from one place to another or one grower to another to get away from an organizing campaign.

In this part of the country, we're dealing with the so-called small family farmer. These growers have been able to keep their operations above water because they've had cash crops and the availability of our cheap labor.

What we do is pull in the large conglomerates that really dictate the environmental situation that both growers and farm workers are victims of.

So we're able to bring Campbell's Soup to the bargaining table. Not one penny of the benefits we've won has come out of the growers' pockets. It's come out of the companies' pockets.

The growers are beginning to see there's an advantage to organized collective action. If they're signed under a contract for a three-year period, the company cannot take their contract away from them for that time.

S.A.: What are some of the concrete gains you've achieved for the farm workers in these agreements?

Velasquez: Wages. On most farms, the tomato workers received over a 50-percent wage increase the first year of our contract with Campbell's. We were able to gain the first hospitalization insurance for these workers.

The cucumber workers are going to get up to an 8SOCIALIS Velasquez says experiences only percent wage increase on everything they've earned all summer. We're dealing with a piecework share-farming system in cucumbers so we're able to get the wage increases on the basis of incentive pay at the end of the year.

We were able to have a grievance procedure in all the contracts. Before, if a worker complained, he or she was fired. Now we have a way to process grievances without the fear of being fired.

We've also been able to get a dues check-off from the growers. We were able to get the company to add on a percentage for the dues on top of the wage increase so the companies are essentially footing the bill for the dues.

We have committees set up with the company and the growers to negotiate further benefits such as daycare and housing and to investigate the pesticide issues.

This year we're going to build at least 20 new housing units which will be models to wipe out the one-room shanties which are presently being used for whole families.

We're negotiating for a couple more daycare centers so that all the children will have their daycare needs met next year.

We have to be wise in terms of when we cooperate and when we stand firm. I feel if we constantly surround ourselves with the workers who are out there on a day-to-day basis, we more than likely will make the right decision.

S.A.: What has been your experience as far as harassment?

Velasquez: Over the years it's been pretty intense at times. We've had our staff attorney beaten and his skull fractured. We've been arrested and dragged off to jail.

We've experienced the Ku Klux Klan, cross burnings, and midnight terrorist tactics like taking the guts and organs of farm animals and staking them to the front doors of union members and supporters.

But we sense a change in these rural areas as the growers begin to accept that the union is here and they might as well deal with it since they've seen that the union can get the big corporations to the negotiating table and get something out of them.

The harassment we still get to this day is in individual and isolated cases on particular farms because the unified opposition that was out there has been pretty much broken. These guys are just dinosaurs and they can't intimidate us anymore.

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Sat., Nov. 19, 11 a.m. Folsom and 22nd St., S.F.

Joseph Ryan/Socialist Action Joseph