Working Conditions

Corporate America has made an expanded guest-worker program the cornerstone of its preferred brand of immigration reform, and no wonder: It would ensure a steady flow of cheap labor from essentially indentured workers too afraid of being deported to protest substandard wages, chiseled benefits and unsafe working conditions. Such a system would create a disenfranchised underclass of workers. That is not only morally indefensible, it is also economically nonsensical. We've had plenty of bad experiences with such shortsighted answers to a complicated problem.

A sudden movement, a startled cry -- it's Bubba!That's the generic name Baltimore County's 911 dispatchers give the field mice infesting their portion of Towson's county courts building. The rodents are among a number of maintenance woes at the multimillion-dollar center.But while they sometimes joke about the mice, workers say other problems at the center are more serious.They complain that exhaust and urine odors seep into the air system from the parking garage below the 911 center. They say the center isn't kept clean.

In southwest Baltimore, PTP Industries' move into a plant on Washington Boulevard was hailed as a victory: an airy new home in the federal empowerment zone for a local company, a tenant for the old Montgomery Ward complex whose sorry condition was a symbol of the decaying neighborhood, and 250 of the new, low-skill jobs that local residents desperately need."

Hourly workers at the General Motors Corp. van assembly plant in Southeast Baltimore voted heavily yesterday in favor of a three-year labor contract covering working conditions at the local plant.Members of United Auto Workers Local 239 also overwhelmingly approved the national agreement negotiated between GM and the UAW on Nov. 2.More than 90 percent of the workers voted in favor of the two agreements, which the union had classified as fair and equitable.The local contract covers working conditions at the Chevrolet Astro and GMC Safari plant on Broening Highway, including staffing levels, sanitation and job classification.

25 Years Ago* The 25 non-unionized employees at the Goodyear Retread Plant outside Westminster, who walked off their jobs last week, went back to work after a two-day protest. The major grievances -- low pay and allegedly unsafe working conditions -- have not been directly settled but Earl Warner, a spokesman for the employees, said he feels they have made some headway. -- Democratic Advocate.50 Years Ago* The solicitors for the Red Cross of Westminster district have turned over to their chairman, Rev. Edmund Lippy, more than $10,000 that has been collected.

During the first half of this century, some young women chose a job that they thought was easy, safe and more socially acceptable than other work available at the time. They painted luminescent dials on watches.Since they were paid by the piece, they tried to speed up the work and increase their income by pointing their brushes with the moisture from their tongue. As years went by, these women in this "safe" job developed bone pain and cancer from the radium in the paint.Their story illustrates the need to look at safety issues for all women in the workplace.

Declaring that the Social Security Administration in Woodlawn is "understaffed" and has "just awful" working conditions, Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala promised yesterday to try to make major improvements that would benefit the public and workers."

One can only hope that the summer recess will cool the labor strife infecting school systems here and elsewhere in Central Maryland.Two Anne Arundel County school board members who don't support 3 percent raises for teachers received threatening calls, one of which was traced to a telephone in a middle school. The teachers union is threatening a work-to-rule action this fall.The Baltimore County teachers union held its first general membership meeting in 17 years, so enraged is it by the changes being made by new Superintendent Stuart D. Berger.

One can only hope that the summer recess provides a cooling-off period for the labor strife infecting area school systems.In Baltimore County, the teachers union held its first general membership meeting in 17 years, so enraged is it by the changes being made by the new superintendent, Stuart D. Berger.In Baltimore City, the union is fighting an expansion of the innovative Tesseract program.In Anne Arundel County, two school board members who don't support 3 percent raises for teachers received threatening calls, one of which was traced to a telephone in a middle school.

* Bill Pachura, 59, of Columbia, retired engineer:Of course, there should be an effort. If he is dissatisfied with the staff, salaries, or working conditions, sure, work with him. There is a reason he is looking to leave. They should negotiate with him.

With local governments cutting budgets during the recession and teachers unwilling to leave secure jobs, local school districts are hiring far fewer new teachers for the coming school year. Baltimore County will be hiring about 350 fewer teachers than it did three years ago, and Howard County will need half the number of new teachers it hired just two years ago - about 200. Anne Arundel County has hired 140 new teachers, down from 500 the year before and 700 two years ago. Even the city, which traditionally has opened schools with teacher vacancies and has unqualified teachers in some classrooms, will be hiring substantially fewer teachers, and many will come through programs such as Teach for America, which trains recent college graduates for two-year stints in urban school systems.

Corporate America has made an expanded guest-worker program the cornerstone of its preferred brand of immigration reform, and no wonder: It would ensure a steady flow of cheap labor from essentially indentured workers too afraid of being deported to protest substandard wages, chiseled benefits and unsafe working conditions. Such a system would create a disenfranchised underclass of workers. That is not only morally indefensible, it is also economically nonsensical. We've had plenty of bad experiences with such shortsighted answers to a complicated problem.

MANY WORKING Americans find themselves stretched for time in an economy that requires companies to do more with less to stay competitive. So as workers are left with more to tackle, some study the office habits of colleagues to identify who is being efficient and who is slacking. How do the frequent break-takers get anything done, and aren't they slowing everyone else down? Are the workers who look too busy to say hello the top performers? Maybe not. The image of a productive employee being someone who works long hours and is chained to a desk is not always the best test for who is getting the most done, experts say. Improving job performance relies more on organizing your life, getting enough rest and making sure you have good working conditions than on constant back- or mind-breaking work, they say. "We think of productivity as the ability to do more with less, and that's really a short-term solution to being productive," said Rachna Jain, a licensed psychologist and job coach who is based in Bethesda.

Providing teachers more planning time, compensating them for attending additional meetings and maintaining a reliable computer system are among the suggestions that a group of educators will propose to Carroll County's school board tomorrow in an effort to improve working conditions. In response to a growing chorus of complaints that teachers were being asked to do too much with too little time and resources, Superintendent Charles I. Ecker gathered 17 award-winning educators to find solutions.

They want to be paid for more of the time they spend preparing for the school day. They want to decide how to use planning time on afternoons when students are dismissed early. Carroll teachers also want the school board and district administrators to butt out of school decisions on spending, curriculum and student discipline. These recommendations were among the 47 proposals submitted yesterday to Superintendent Charles I. Ecker by a task force appointed to suggest ways to improve working conditions for Carroll County public school educators.

After meeting for 2 1/2 hours yesterday to discuss ways to improve working conditions for Carroll County public school teachers, members of a task force appointed to consider teacher complaints reported making progress. Members shared little else, however, about the session at the school district's administrative offices yesterday afternoon. "We worked on identifying teacher concerns and issues ... and we've made some progress," said Gregory Bricca, the school system's assessment and accountability supervisor and task force co-chairman.

After meeting for 2 1/2 hours yesterday to discuss ways to improve working conditions for Carroll County public school teachers, members of a task force appointed to consider teacher complaints reported making progress. Members shared little else, however, about the session at the school district's administrative offices yesterday afternoon. "We worked on identifying teacher concerns and issues ... and we've made some progress," said Gregory Bricca, the school system's assessment and accountability supervisor and task force co-chairman.

The union representing Carroll County teachers will not support a countywide work-to-contract job action, union officials said yesterday after the membership failed to vote to expand protests in place at several schools. In announcing the results of the vote, union leaders said a committee of teachers and school administrators would begin meeting next week to explore issues raised by teachers who have launched work-to-rule protests at at least 12 Carroll schools. Sixty percent of the teachers polled by the 1,450-member Carroll County Education Association said they would support an expansion of the job action, in which teachers are boycotting extracurricular activities to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with working conditions.

The union representing Carroll County teachers will not support a countywide "work-to-contract" job action, union officials said yesterday after the membership failed to vote in sufficient numbers to expand protests already in place at several schools. In announcing the results of the vote, union leaders said a committee of teachers and school administrators would begin meeting next week to explore issues raised by teachers who have launched work-to-rule protests at at least 12 Carroll schools.

The union representing Carroll County teachers will not support a countywide work-to-contract job action, union officials said yesterday after the membership failed to vote to expand protests in place at several schools. In announcing the results of the vote, union leaders said a committee of teachers and school administrators would begin meeting next week to explore issues raised by teachers who have launched work-to-rule protests at at least 12 Carroll schools. Sixty percent of the teachers polled by the 1,450-member Carroll County Education Association said they would support an expansion of the job action, in which teachers are boycotting extracurricular activities to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with working conditions.