LETTERS

...For this, among other reasons, we must be a well-run business...

...Shake Your Booty We would like to provide you with the true facts regarding Dart Industries' political action committee, DARTPAC, which were not expressed in "Shakedown in the Boardroom...

...The tone of Geoffrey Cowley's article on comparable worth does a disservice to this important issue...

...Can't it be more generous in sharing the wealth with advertisers and subscribers...

...While on the surface it may appear to be "fair" to distribute the noise of airplanes throughout the metropolitan area, in fact it is grossly inequitable to an estimated 350,000 residents...

...3.) Bowater Mersey Paper Company, of which the Post Company owns 49 percent, does indeed spray herbicide in its woodlands in Nova Scotia under careful and closely controlled procedures...

...To be fair, the Baltimore Sun is $7.50 and the Atlanta Constitution (improbably) $7.69...

...But everyone who works here will keep trying to give you the best newspaper we can...

...By definition, the objective of a PAC represents the primary reason an individual chooses to become involved—a PAC is a vehicle that provides people of similar occupations or mutual interest the opportunity to join together in the political arena in support of those who share their views and are sympathetic to their cause...

...Graham also suggests that I think the Metro coverage is bad...

...Loretta Tofani, of the Metro staff, won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize...

...We cite the following (taking directly from the article) and provide the facts: Goldberg: "Employees who chose not to invest in their .kids' future, or who invested in smaller amounts (Continued on page 59 ) (continued from page 4) than those laid out in the DARTPAC 'donation guidelines,' have received follow-up letters reminding them that their contributions are being compared to their salaries...

...As for the specific objections on various particulars: Martha Hamilton accuses me of too much "subtlety" in posing the question of whether reporters should feel responsible for the way the Post does business...

...Goldberg: "Approximately 83 percent of Dart's executives contributed to its PAC in 1978...

...Most of us at the Post, including many in management, would be delighted to see that happen...

...But in recent years severe shortages of nurses have not pushed up their pay...

...Council ending as late as 10:30 p.m...

...The Post is a good newspaper, but even with a good newspaper, a monopoly is a bad situation...

...The judge wrote: "This court is of the opinion that these spraying operations can be carried out in safety and without risk to the health of the citizens of this province...

...Let me answer: 1.)The Post is a very low-cost advertising medium...

...The Newspaper Guild represents about 1,350 workers at the Post, of whom about 300 are reporters...

...Benjamin Bradlee is executive editor of The Washington Post...

...As Mr...

...As a state trial judge in Wisconsin, I too am concerned that "social engineers" in positions of authority—be they employed by the executive or judicial branches—are usurping essentially legislative functions in attempting to remake the world in their own images or, worse, by impressing upon the rest of us "idealistic" values that they themselves occasionally eschew...

...Your article said that...

...The cost to a small store of reaching 1,000 readers with an ad in the daily Post is fourth-lowest of the 19...

...Goldberg: "DARTPAC'S statement of principles pulls no punches...

...Additionally, DARTPAC emphasized and encouraged employee participation in the distribution of funds through candidate recommendations and each election cycle a detailed report was distributed highlighting all receipts and disbursements...

...Of course...

...Perhaps Mr...

...There's nothing like a veiled reference to being transferred to Minot, North Dakota, to suddenly kindle the spirit of philanthrophy:' Fact: Contribution guidelines were established cornparable, to those used with The United Way and for a similar purpose, to serve as merely a suggestion...

...Cowley himself points out, proponents are asking individual employers to show that they have and apply consistent standards in their hiring and promotion practices...

...5.) No one has started a big-city afternoon paper in the United States for at least 20 years, with the single exception of the New York News "Tonight" edition...

...Martha Hamilton and Ernest Mercer we Jbrtncv chairpersons of the guild’s bargaining c~otritiiitteca i The Washington Post...

...Because people at the Post ask more from themselves than most people, I hoped that my criticisms might inspire some reflection about how they can do better...

...Does it matter...

...You say you wish all of the people of the area could vote on the "scatter plan ." This has, in effect, occurred in the form of letters, telephone calls, and-petitions to the Federal Aviation Administration and the Metropolitan Council of Governments...

...Reporters and editors are the only employees that he mentions...

...personal contact is the most effective...

...Another thing that Mr...

...Of course...

...His ludicrous examples only divert attention from the real issue—the fairness of hiring and promotion criteria...

...Another paper company, not Mersey, was the defendant...

...Dart Industries had many out-of-the-way locations but not Minot, North Dakota...

...Noah compares Post employees’ lack of fervor in second-guessing a two-year-old management decision (not to start a p.m...

...I think it's reasonable to conclude that only the Post, with its presses already in place, is likely to be in a position even to consider starting an afternoon daily...

...Opponents always like to mystify the issue by fantasizing a quagmire of complicated ratings systems and government monitoring as the inevitable result of comparable worth...

...To unearth this important piece of information, you had to dig into a sidebar buried on page 16 ." Such a claim is baseless...

...But given the way Bredemeier buried this important piece of information, I wouldn't be surprised if most other readers missed it, too...

...the Los Angeles Times, $10...

...I [Martha Hamilton] did suggest at one point that he may.not have understood the limit on the power the union had and has at the Post to influence management’s decisions, citing our inability at the time to even get a contract...

...But in fact, the Post didn't start an afternoon paper— and in the three years since the Star folded, nobody else has either...

...Gary Kopff is president of the Coalition Against the Scatter Plan...

...You may recall the incredible statement of a prominent federal judge as he explained the seeming contradiction of his sending his own children to private schools thereby enabling them to avoid the massive busing school integration plan he had imposed by pointing out that his duties as a parent were distinct from his duties as a judge...

...The values of the Post have not changed since the Star went out of business or since the Post Company went public, or since anything else...

...We also like to see the resources available to us that there are at the Post...

...Instead, Martha Hamilton assures me that the Newspaper Guild has "raised concerns about the toll that too much emphasis on the bottom line can take" without explaining why those concerns don't get translated into action in quite the same way that wage demands do...

...It has always been the PAC's goal to increase participation by the number of active individual employees contributing while the size of their contribution remained secondary...

...In several cities where two newspapers were published for years by companies with long traditions of public-mindedness (Boston, Minneapolis, Des Moines), the companies have reluctantly decided that they and their cities will be better off if they concentrate their resources on publishing one very good newspaper...

...The mayor declined to comment yesterday on his former wife's conviction ." KENNETH BREDEMEIER Washington, D.C...

...Several are 30 percent or more higher...

...Voting with Their Mortgages Your ordinarily dependable powers of rational analysis seem to have deserted you in your discussion of the:National Airport "scatter plan" ["Tilting at Windmills;' January...

...We just find ourselves amazed by some of Mr...

...I hope the "facts" elsewhere in your article were more accurate than those which impugned my coverage of last summer's conspiracy trial of Mary Treadwell, former wife of District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry...

...The final solicitation has been one-on-one, which most PAC managers agree is the most effective fund-raising technique...

...should have better metro coverage...

...He did squeeze it in—after the jump inside, in the 23rd paragraph...

...Most of these people have based their .decision on where to live or established their business at least- in part on avoiding the flight paths in and out of National Airport, which have been well established for two decades...

...Of course...

...Women were encouraged to enter the so-called "nurturing" professions, as teachers, social workers, librarians, and nurses...

...LETTERS Post Mortem Your article on The Washington Post [“The Washington Post: Monopoly Profits and Broken Promises:’ Timothy Noah, January] was excellent, especially as it related to the Post’s coverage of local news...

...But most important is the absolutely false statement that follow-up letters were sent to contributors based on donation vs...

...On an institutional level, the guild has frequently raised concerns about the toll that too much emphasis on the bottom line can take...

...Given that context, some of us were puzzled over the fact that Noah’s questions centered around concerns such as whether the union should have tried to stop the Post from raising its ad rates two years earlier...

...Noah chose to use the,Post figure;used frequently to justify its actions, that the average reporter’s salary would be raised with the pay increase to $43,500...

...GARY J. KOPFF Washington, D.C...

...Noah in part on this...

...to police officers failing to report an assault...

...Noah is right-a strong, competing Washington newspaper would be good for the Post and the community...

...They now publish only in the morning...

...We don’t disagree with that premise at all...

...Reflecting on his reporting and writing from our perspective, he has demonstrated a need to review the meaning of these thoughts and apply them to his own work...

...Nicholas Goldberg, December 1983...

...People were angry and resentful over the Post’s unwillingness to bargain, angry and resentful about the more than a year we had been in negotiations (compared to the weeks it takes to settle most contracts) and concerned about being left without a contract...

...Many employers already use code numbers and ratings to set pay scales...

...This is just not true...

...2.) If we're going to talk about circulation prices, let's talk about the price most Post subscribers pay: $8 for four weeks, home-delivered...

...Just to cite a brief example: many papers don’t have enough staff to allow them to take reporters away from daily coverage long enough to do fine series such as Neil Henry’s on how D.C!s unemployed fare as migrant workers or Sandra Boodman’s on involuntary confinement in Virginia...

...For Better or Worth I enjoyed Geoffrey Cowley's perceptive article, "Comparable Worth: Another Terrible Ideal' in your January issue...

...4.) I like our Metro coverage...

...Through an error in editing, the word "senior" was omitted from my reference to the 83 percent of Dart's senior executives who contributed to DARTPAC in 1978, and I apologize for any confusion that resulted...

...Seventyfive percent of comments to FAA as of January 9 were in opposition, and 87 percent of comments to the council as of January 6 were in opposition...

...and should have started an afternoon paper when the Star folded...

...Finally, I did err when I said Kenneth Bredemeier failed to mention that Mary Treadwell was Marion Barry's ex-wife in his story about her conviction...

...We think the people we represent should be able to keep up with the increase in the cost.of living-something we haven’t been able to do in the past ten years...

...DONALD E. GRAHAM Washington, D.C...

...Goldberg made references to DARTPAC that are blatantly false, misleading, and undocumented...

...and in 1980 the average contribution was $1,030...

...In theory, this is a legitimate worry...

...The Chicago Sun-Times, $12.92...

...They are actions of different magnitudes...

...This differential results from sex discrimination...

...How’s that for a cop-out JERRY KNOLL explanation...

...Those who argue that the "marketplace" will adjust the differences choose to ignore the fact that the marketplace went awry 100 years ago...

...If that failed, supervisors invited subordinates to solicitation meetings...

...It was dumb of me to miss that...

...Since this was an extension of their nurturing nature, they could work for love, selfsatisfaction, perhaps, and didn't need to be paid as much...

...management, but none of us was ever asked anything like that...

...The gist of Timothy Noah's article seems to be that the Post charges too much for its advertising and circulation...

...This was stated in every DARTPAC publication...

...rather, it was to show how standards even as high as the Post's can be partially undermined by such factors as monopoly, pressure from stockholders, and union and management greed...

...A further theme is that our values have been corrupted...

...Nearly 30 percent of the people we represent earned $18,200 or less before the recent pay increase...

...There is no evidence whatsoever that comparable worth supporters want a national wage system—or even a crosstown one...

...DARTPAC funds were not raised by a three-step process, as suggested, and a one-on-one interrogation approach complete with threats to finally convince individual employees to participate was never contemplated, let alone ever used...

...1 think any union that can establish an average salary for reporters at $43,500 a year must have considerable muscle...

...As for Dart's claim that employees were never solicited for PAC contributions by their supervisors and never one-on-one, I wonder why Justin Dart sent a letter to supervisory personnel at the company that said, "[we] are looking for you to present the case [for contributing to DARTPAC] to your people in your own way,' and why DARTPAC stated in a letter to a consulting firm that "All techniques [for solicitation] are used...

...Now we have a system that pays librarians and nurses, with years of education and experience molding our minds and caring for our health, far less than the man who paints our house or fixes our leaky faucet...

...There are 19 daily newspapers published in the ten largest metropolitan areas in the U.S...

...Noah approached...

...Noah seems to have.misunderstood is how diverse a group the union represents...

...Should we tolerate it because it is directed against an entire occupation rather .than a single job...

...The fact remains that in the Machinists lawsuit I cited in my article, Dart's own lawyers agreed that the 83 percent figure is correct when "senior executives" is defined as the company's president, CEO, executive vice presidents, and all vice presidents-18 out of 22 people...

...The problem is, the employee who turns over $1,000 to his corporate PAC has no control over the purposes to which it is put, and some of those purposes may be contrary to his beliefs!' Fact: It is correct that the PAC's objective is clearly stated so as to leave no doubt in a contributor's mind as to how their funds will be disbursed...

...More important, try to find a report on a meeting of the D.C...

...BENJAMIN C. BRADLEE Washington, D.C...

...Noah says, “Neither side wanted to talk about the larger question: whether the Post’s nobler ideals were really served by having its reporters and corporate cxecutives fret more about whether they were being paid better than their friends at other companies than about whether their company was upholding its responsibility to the people whose lives are affected by the Post but who aren’t on the payroll...

...The author replies: My main purpose in writing this story was not to prove that the Post's sins are worse than those of other corporations, or even other newspapers...

...JOY PICUS Los Angeles, California Joy Picus is a city councilwoman in Los Angeles...

...On August 15, 1978, a letter signed by Justin Dart, chairman and CEO of Dart Industries, and Tom Mullaney, the company's president, went out to certain Dart employees that said, "We hope that in this year's drive you will increase your contribution [to DARTPAC] to the level of the suggested guidelines, or higher...

...His specious reasoning should not go unchallenged...

...Further, it was made clear beyond a doubt that an employee's contribution was an individual decision and had no effect upon employment...

...Thereafter, meetings were organized to update employees on the PAC's activities and other public affairs events...

...The lowest-rate newspaper is but 8.5 percent lower...

...When DARTPAC was first established, group meetings were conducted within the company for the purpose of introducing and explaining the PAC to eligible executive employees...

...He called at a difficult time-immediately before and after a decision by Post management to abandon the collective bargaining process and unilaterally impose its contract proposal on workers rather than continue to negotiate...

...As for the "marketplace" argument for wage-setting, a shortage of qualified personnel is • certainly one criterion for wage-setting...

...The reaction is overwhelmingly in opposition to the plan...

...Washington, D.C...

...However, the investigation did not implicate Barry in any way...

...no mention was made in the Post's front-page story that Treadwell and Barry not only had once been married, but had together founded the housing project's umbrella group, Youth Pride, Inc...

...Hamilton also raises the practical concern that if the Post started an afternoon paper it might keep out an independent competitor who might want to enter the market...

...Finally, I never suggested in my story that employees had been overtly threatened...

...But I tried to acknowledge that, at its best, it is very good...

...Studies by many researchers—including the National Academy of Sciences and numerous state and local governments—have found a differential between men's and women's earnings of 50 to 55 percent—after all other contributing factors are figured in: seniority, experience, training, hours, union membership, age, absenteeism, education, required skills, productivity, and economic contribution to employers...

...And Donald Graham assures me that the herbicide 2,4,5-T, though illegal in the U.S., is legal in Nova Scotia (I never disputed this) without explaining why the Post's environmental standard is dictated not by what is right but by what the law will allow...

...Women soon were segregated into a limited number of occupations that were low in status and pay, simply because the jobs were held by women...

...I can't resist adding that my allusion to "a veiled reference to being transferred to Minot, North Dakota" was obviously a joke, and that Dart & Kraft's fussy denial that it has a branch office there betrays the same literal-mindedness that it brings to the question of whether it shakes down employees for PAC contributions...

...Should ratings be updated to take into account new technologies and duties...

...No section of the Post has increased more in staff and space since the Star ceased publishing than Metro...

...These spraying policies were contested under Canada's environmental laws last year...

...Since the letter implies that the recipient didn't meet the level of the suggested guidelines in the previous year, it seems reasonable to conclude that somebody had sat down and compared the PAC donations of Dart employees with the guidelines (which were based on salaries) and then targeted the stragglers for this special appeal...

...After promising to correct the practice, Donald Graham recently wrote to me, saying that consistent, regular coverage and distribution was not possible because “. . .the presses simply don’t run at the same speeds every night...

...Fact: We would be proud to claim 83 percent participation but in truth, only 20 percent of the eligible management employees solicited contributed to DARTPAC...

...Noah’s assertions that he offers as “proofs” of that premise...

...the Philadelphia Inquirer, $9...

...Similarly, almost all of the residents of Cabin John and.other places that are beneath these flight paths knew very well of airplane noise there when they made their investments in their homes and businesses...

...As far as I know, no one has started a privately owned streetcar line or a commercial oceanliner service either, for similar reasons: no one wants them badly enough to pay what they cost...

...merely that the pressure, verbal or tacit, is there, and that employees can't help but feel it...

...However, the meetings were always held between the DARTPAC officers and eligible employees to insure there was no supervisor to subordinate pressure...

...We don’t have the advantage of knowing how Mr...

...JAMES O. LINDBERG KRISTI A. GILLET Los Angeles, California James 0. Lindberg and Kristi A. Gillet are chairman and treasurer, respectively, of Dart and Kraft PAC (formerly DARTPAC...

...Donald Graham is publisher of The Washington Post...

...MARTHA M. HAMILTON ERNEST MERCER Washing to 11, D.C...

...The Chicago Tribune, $12...

...Noah was too subtle for us...

...On the other hand, the guild is happy to see the Posf prosper...

...Would pay scales vary in different parts of the country...

...The couple was married during part of the time when, according to the jury, Treadwell engaged in the conspiracy and made the false statements to HUD...

...Goldberg often refers to responsibility, accountability, and clear ideas...

...We want to put out the best, most newsworthy, most accurate, most interesting, most everything-else newspaper we can publish, every morning of the year...

...Peters, in his column, elsewhere in the same issue, answers Mr...

...at the same time, an oversupply of doctors in some metropolitan areas has not made their pay go down...

...IRMA BROSSEAU Washington, D.C...

...I would like to add a postscript to “The Night Baseball Box Score Test”: the erratic coverage in and distribution of the several editions applies to the Style section’s theater and concert reviews and some news stories...

...If, for example, the guild is so upset at the pay that those on the lower rungs are receiving—the ad sales people, clerks, researchers, and the like—it could help things by redistributing some of the reporters' salaries to these people, and then challenge management to follow their example...

...Could men use rating criteria to argue for equal treatment...

...RALPH ADAM FINE Milwaukee, Wisconsin Poking fun at a serious matter like comparable worth is the coward's way of dealing with a significant issue...

...The author replies...

...Since my article appeared, the paper reported that operating income of the Post Company's newspaper division shot up 39 percent last year, from $57 million to $79 million...

...I’ve got to tell you that that piece by Timothy Noah makes less sense than anything I’ve read in your distinguished magazine in years...

...More than 50 percent earned $26,000 or less...

...Cowley's "examples" of these complications are largely irrelevant...

...Since our journalistic aspirations are impossibly high (and will remain so) we will often fall short...

...Rather than battle for needless cost-of-living raises, why not realize its enormous moral authority to get the Post to behave more responsibly...

...And some of us were concerned that if the Post started an afternoon newspaper it might keep out an independent competitor who otherwise would be attracted to the market...

...Sometimes a review appears the next day, sometimes two days later, sometimes on both days, and sometimes not at all...

...It seems fantastic, however, that Mr...

...A test of our sincerity is available for 25 cents a day...

...My article clearly states, "Treadwell's second husband was Marion Barry, another co-founder of Youth Pride and now mayor of the District of Columbia...

...How did this happen...

...As for Graham's comparison of an afternoon newspaper to a streetcar line or oceanliner service, those are things that society has no use for, as opposed to an afternoon newspaper, which would be an obvious benefit to the citizens of Washington, D.C...

...Still no response...

...Last fall several of us at The Washington Post received calls from reporter Timothy Noah, who said he wanted to ask some questions about labor relations at the Post...

...I mentioned two stories by Blaine Harden (and I should have mentioned Tofani's series...

...But she understood me well enough to answer that the union has little power over management decisions...

...salary...

...Donald Graham can boast that the Post has a low advertising cost-per-thousand and that circulation prices are cheaper than that of comparable papers, but the fact remains that the Post is still realizing huge profits...

...Throughout the article, Mr...

...My point was that Metro should be better, and probably would be if it had a competitor to keep it on its toes...

...The Boston Globe, $10.50...

...They prevailed after a trial...

...The principle of comparable worth means that employers should have objective rationales for their treatment of employees— hardly an unreasonable request...

...should not allow an affiliated newsprint company to spray herbicide in its woodlands...

...Other members include advertising sales people, circulation clerks, accountants, researchers, data processors, and others...

...Some other prices: The New York Times, $16...

...Do children "taunt each other in the sandbox" and executives "knock back martinis" discussing these ratings...