An osprey, silhouetted against the November sky, searches for prey.
Photo by Ted Kirk
Wednesday, november 16, 1977 vol.101 no. 42 lincoln, nebraska
daily n
Women say attempt to reclassify was 'power play'
Bv John Ortmann
In continuing testimony in a State Court of Industrial
Relations hearing, two UNL Campus Police officers
said an attempt to reclassify them as civilian clerks was de
signed to weaken the police union.
In testimony Monday, officers Barbara McGill and
Mary Fleming said John Duve, assistant to the director of
Campus Police, and UNL traffic and parking coordinator
told them the move was a "power play" by Campus Police
Director Gail Gade to prevent them from voting in union
elections.
McGill, who is pregnant and Fleming who injured her
knee in an off-duty accident, were to be reclassified as
civilian clerks because they could not continue patrol
duties.
inside vednesdaij
I'm no baby and you ain't seen nothing yet:
Nebraska's delegates pack their bags and leave
to join 20,000 at the National Women's Con
ference in Houston p. 8
Better fat than dead: Latest campus craze, the
liquid protein diet, has been identified as cause
of 10 deaths nationwide p, 10
A bionic joint: What does the future hold? To
day it's the Nebraska Knee -tomorrow the New
Jersey jaw? ".' p. 'U
The hearing involves a petition filed by the union
charging Gade with discrimination and harassment in the
reclassification case.
The women said that in the civilian position they
would lose $2,000 a year in pay and union voting rights.
They also testified they feared they would not be rehired
as police officers because of their union activities.
Presiding Judge Benjamin Wall said the issue of union
voting rights was up to the court and would be decided
in a related hearing. WalLsaid the union may be defined as
including only police officers, or it may be extended to
include all Campus Police employees.
Fleming testified she was injured Sept, 19. She
returned to work on Sept, 22 with a leg brace and a letter
from her doctor advising she be assigned desk duty.
She, was assigned to assist Duve in what she called a
police job which could not be performed by a clerk.
...ShevSaid-on Oct. 5 she was asked ta submit a letter
describing .the extent of . her injuries and estimating the
length of recovery'.''-' ' "
This request caused her to be "scared to death" she
would be fired, she testified.
She said Gade received the letter and advised her he
had three options which had been given him by the UNL
personnel office, These were her immediate termination,
to have her use up all her sick leave and vacation time and
then go on uncompensated leave, or to be reclassified as a
clerk.
She said Gade told her he had decided on reclassifi
cation, pointing out repeatedly that she could have been
fired.
Fleming said she asked for a written guarantee she
would be rehired as a police officer upon her recovery,
which Gade refused to give her.
She then went to Duve, she said, at which time he al
legedly told her the move was a "power play" against
the union.
Both women contend reclassification is unnecessary
because there is a large amount of police work to do in
doors. This work is normally done by commissioned officers,
they said, adding that officers are frequently called in
from patrol to handle it.
Duve, in testimony Tuesday, said he made a "general
statement" to Fleming that "the whole problem came
about because of the union." He explained this remark
meant the union had made employees more aware of per
sonnel problems and was not directed at Gade.
He said he understood the reclassification to be
temporary and not related to union activities.
' He also said the union membership of officer Joy Citta,
union president, was never discussed in staff meetings,
adding that he has no knowledge of any anti-union ac
tivity by the Campus Police administration.
He said the reclassification was seen by the admini
stration as the best course of action for the department
and the employees in question. He added that Gade
"stretched the rules" to provide the greatest benefits to
the women.
He said Campus Police has a policy of assigning desk
duty to officers with short term health problems, but not
for long-term conditions such as those of officers McGill
and Fleming.
The reclassification currently is prevented by a protec
tive order from the court.
The hearing is scheduled to continue at 9:30 a.m.
Thursday in Supreme Court Hearing Room Two at the
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Capitol,
Prize-Winning chemist says
rlono rviirt ki Vr r oai irra
By Mike Patten arid regions, that is why he chose
Americans could be growine their own said he currently is looking for pi
Chemist Meh in Calvin
thoto by Bob Pearson
Americans could be growing their own
oil in the near future, according to a Nobel
prize-winning chemist.
' Melvin Calvjn, director of the labora
" tory of chemical biodynamics at the Uni
versity of California-Berkeley, Tuesday
told about 150 persons at UNL that certain
plants can be used to produce oil, and that
this can be done economically in the near
future,
"v "It's on the edge of being commercial
right now," he said, "and it will be
commercial in the next five years."
Calvin won the Nobel Prize for chemis
try in 1961.
He said an experimental crop of a
Puerto Rican plant has yielded 10 barrels
r of oil per acre at a Berkeley experimental
station.
First planting .
"What you have to remember, is that
this is the first planting of a wild seed,"
Calvin said. "We haven't even begun to
cross-breed or try to perfect the seeds,
Calvin said oil produced from these
plants costi $20 a barrel. Current o'd prices
are $ 1 330 a barrel. !L said if this crop in
creases its production at a rate similar to
Malaysan rubber during WWII the results
could be tremendous. ,
According to Calvin, Malaysan rubber
production was at 200 lbs., an acre in 1945
and equals 2,000 lbs. an acre today.
He said this plant only can be grown in
arid regions, that is why he chose it. Calvin
said he currently is looking for plants that
can be grown anywhere,
"We don't want to compete with the
food-crops for land," he said.
President Carter's decision to depend on
coal to carry more America's energy con
sumption load has problems, he said.
Two constraints
"There are two constraints with burning
more coal," he said. "The level of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing and
it isn't being absorbed by the two great
sponges on earth."
Carbon dioxide is a poisonous gas pro
duced by burning coal. The two sponges
Calvin was referring to are oceans and
green plants on land.
"This constraint is a serious one and
there is no way around the constraint if we
are going to continue to burn coal at the
accelerated rate that we are."
Calvin said the carbon dioxide that is .
not absorbed by plants or oceans creates a
blanket around the earth which keeps heat
from escaping, This causes a rise in the
earth's average temperature which could
have unexpected results, he said.
"It could melt the polar ice regions and
flood New York and San Francisco.
Calvin said scientists have measured a
5 percent increase in the level of carbon
dioxide not absorbed during the last 20
years.
"I would have thought ilie plants could
keep up though," he said.
