LABOR`S PUSH FOR BETTER BENEFITS HELPED FUEL PART-TIME JOB BOOM A federal requirement that companies provide old age survivors, disability and unemployment insurance for all full-time workers drastically changed the bottom line for American business, according to University of Oregon labor economics specialist Larry Singell. "Employers looked at the cost of benefits, and concluded that it made more sense to increase overtime for their existing employees, or hire part timers than to create new full-time jobs," explains Singell. Rational employers are using part-time help as a way to keep costs down. "Firms are trying to be lean, mean and competitive," says Singell. Labor counters with the argument that too many firms are manipulating the situation to gain short-term profits at the expense of workers. Singell agrees that some firms use too many part timers--a policy he calls short sighted, and ultimately bad business. In those cases, according to Singell, firms are trading off higher short-term profits for low morale and high turn-over among employees. Ultimately, he says, that will lead to lower long-term profits. Complicating the equation, Singell says, is that most part-time work is voluntary. SOURCE: Larry Singell, UO associate professor of economics, (541) 346-4672; e-mail, lsingell@oregon.uoregon.edu EDUCATION IS WORKERS' TICKET OUT OF DEAD-END, LOW-PAY JOBS Unlike most American workers, those at the low end of the pay scale have been losing earning power in the past several decades, says Joe Stone, UO economist and arts and sciences dean. While the technological changes that have hurt low-wage workers appear to be slowing, the size of the paychecks for this group remains much farther behind than they were two or three decades ago. Stone, who served on the President's Council of Economic Advisors in 1979, says there is no simple solution to help those workers achieve higher paying jobs. He says education is one answer--if the education is broad based. Vocational education programs lead to jobs, he says, but those jobs offer fragile security at best. Workers need to learn skills that are adaptable to many jobs. "We're in for a period in which the importance of education will continue to increase and the disadvantages that come with having few skills and a poor education will become more severe," Stone warns. SOURCE: Joe Stone, W.E. Miner professor of economics and dean of the UO College of Arts and Sciences, (541) 346-3902; e-mail, jstone@oregon.uoregon.edu 100 SUMMERS AGO MT. RAINIER CLAIMED FIRST VICTIM--UO PROFESSOR Mt. Rainier claimed its 87th victim this summer, just two days past the 100th anniversary of the first climber in recorded history--UO Professor Edgar McClure--to die on the mountain. Like McClure, Reno, Nev.-native Don McIntyre, Rainier's latest victim, was an experienced climber. McClure, a very popular professor and chemistry department chair, fell to his death on July 27, 1897; McIntyre died July 29, 1997. McClure, who helped lead a group of 300 Mazamas, members of a Portland climbing organization, to the mountain's summit, was carrying a bulky barometer in a long wooden carrying case. He used the barometric reading and triangular measurements to gauge the height of America's tallest mountain as he had earlier established the height of Mt. Adams. On the route down, he hiked ahead to check the route, stopped on a ledge, turned and called back, "Don't come this way it is too steep." The three-foot six-inch barometer case apparently caught as he turned back, causing him to slip and slide down a 100-foot drop. McClure, who also had been a UO student before joining its faculty, was 34 when he died. UO Professor Thomas Condon, father of Oregon geology, and UO President Charles Chapman spoke before a crowd of 700 attending McClure's memorial service in Villard Hall. McClure Hall is a residence hall in the Bean Complex. Condon and Chapman now identify two UO buildings . SOURCE: Bernard McTigue, curator, UO Special Collections, (541) 346-1904; or Susan Storch, acting archivist, (541) 346-1899 -30- #T-1034/Day