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4 Picket Local Post Office presentatives and I of three postal _ staged an in­ formational picket outside the McHenry Post office, at 1306 N. Green street, McHenry, last Thursday and Friday in protest of local management policies and for the protesters were John Grace, president of Branch 825 of the National Association of Letter Carriers; Ray Spencer, executive vice- president of the same; Mick Daurio, president of the McHenry County Area local of the American Postal Workers union; and the National Rural Letter Carriers were also represented. Spencer emphasized that the intent of the picketing was to "open up labor- management cooperation." He noted that the action Thursday and Friday was not a strike and that it was not a pretest against the entire postal service. The picketers cited 10 instances of "working conditions and situations to which the McHenry postal employees had been sub­ jected." The instances in­ cluded working 12 hours without a break, sending part-time employees home while there was still first- class mail that needed to be processed, allowing the use of the washroom once during a five-hour shift and for only two minutes at a time, im­ proper disciplining of newly hired employees who hsd not been fully trained and m i s t r e a t m e n t a n d harassment of injured or sick employees. Spencer said there was a system of flexible, part-time employees who work 6-hour days, six days a week. He noted that the management had, at times, sent these employees home at the end of their shifts when there was still msil to be torn due to s "sudden shift of In another instance, a newly hired employee had been disciplined for not performing his job - prior to receiving die proper training for the job. Spencer said the management had not given the employee adequate time to complete the training program. Ken Zeller, a letter carrier, said be had ton a ligament while on the job and that before he could see a doctor he had to All out a form. Zeller went on to say that the -doctor's note indicated that the ligament had been die workman's com- i form, a supervisor wrote in an un- coaoplimentary way about ZeUtr. Zeller speculated that the supervisor did not want him to see the form with the remarks and, for this resson, withheld the form for tweweeks. Another letter carrier, one wtap suffered from bron­ chitis, presented his supervisor with a physician's note which said that the carrier suffered from bronchitis. The note (Continued on page 22) Members of three postal unions march outside ihe McHenry post office early Thursday afternoon in an informational picket. The pickeW* employees by the Iocs! management protested policies sad treatment of STAFF PHOTO-WAYNE GAYLORD THE MCHENRY PLAINDEALER SERVING THE CHAIN-O-IAKES REGION SINCE 1875 fltoarb Winning ihtMpaprr 19 Illinois Press Association Newspaper Contest VOLUME 105 NUMBER 10 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1980 1 SECTION 24 PAGES 25' mm** pfiPCi < Pff! m ~ v ' .'V Edge Of Safety Eager to board the approaching bus for their first day of school, playmates David Mullen and Terry Gaylord stand at the edge of the road for their trip to Landmark school. With summer vacation at an end, thousands of youngsters are travelling by bus, bike and foot to their institutions of learning. They won't be thinking of safety, which places a burden of responsibility on McHenry drivers. STAFF PHOTO-WAYNE GAYLORD "I'm going to give her a big surprise", said the smiling man as he ap­ proached the Plaindealer counter. We were in ihe composing liim at the lime, and as we approached our caller ihere was a glimmer of recognition. Somewhere, Sometime, we had seen him before, but where? The broad smile, the hearty handshake ihey were familiar. Of course, it was Frank Hofka, an ap­ prentice printer at the Plaindealer so mahy years ago. Could it really be 30 years? Yes, it was! For the next hour, the busy, modern newspaper * office on Elm street was forgotten for the cramped quarters that housed the gpee-a-week publication on * porth Green street, back of Unti's lavern. Frank recalled entering .. ihe business office one day and being greeted ' by"Mose", the publisher in the late 'forties. He came in to answer an ad for an ice cream driver. With his down-home, friendly manner, "Mose' asked if he might be a G.I. He was. There followed a few moments of relaxed negotiating and ihe next day Frank Hofka was at work in on-the-job printer training. Frank stayed with the Plaindealer about three or four years, leaving for a larger newspaper. For the last 25 years the former Lakemoor man has been with the Oakland Tribune in California. And when he left for home after our visit, he had lucked under his arm two copies of the 1975 centennial issue of the Plaindealer which he planned to "read from cover to cover and show the boys on the Tribune". But some of that reading couldn't wail. For just a few minutes we opened to the section devoted to - you guessed it - pictures and stories about the good old (Continued on page 22) Strike At MCC Ends Robert Riner, spokesman for the McHenry County college Faculty association, said Friday morning that the strike had ended. A meeting of faculty members and board was held at 6:30 that morning to discuss and ratify the tentative! agreement reached the previous night. Classes began at 9 a.m. Friday. Riner said it would be official when the contract is ratified by the board at the next meeting, but he could not say when that would be. There was an agreement between the two sides that no specifics of the contract would be revealed until ratification has taken place. High School Contracts Salary Holds Up Agreement As the school yoor of McHenry Community High School ontors its second week, there is still on impasse In negotiations between the teachers and board. Another negotiations session is scheduled between the two sides Wednesday everting, Sept. 3. This is the third in the mediation process. In response to the board's statement of Friday, Aug. 29, in the McHenry Plain- dealer, Tony Stumbris, head chairperson of the teachers' negotiation team, said, "The teachers' team never refused to arrange a negotiation session with the board. At the last negotiations session Aug. 11, Stumbris said the federal mediator indicated that negotiations were at a deadlock and in* formed the board the tsachfcswtuttmeeti they had e salary ) over their last offer. That night the teachers team reserved Friday, Aug• 22 with the mediator in case any new developments did arise. David Benrud of tfce board negotiating team called the association team, but Stum­ bris denied that the teach- SCHOOLTEACHERS ers rejected a bargaining meeting. Instead, he claimed, the teacher negotiators told him they would meet Friday, Aug. 22, the night the mediator could work with them. Benrud was informed of this Sunday,. Aug. 16, and was to get back to the association' team for con­ firmation. He failed to do so, ac- rding to Stumbris, but stead sect a letter to each was no need board's offer, steaehesshad turned It down twice, and after receiving the letter, turnedJfc down again. There iS also no confusion, he said. The teachers are not accepting the board's proposal. The faculty was extremely upset about the board's attempt to bypass the negotiation process by SCHOOLBOARD mailing salary schedules directly to the teachers. Stumbris commented further. "Anyone who belongs to a union will recognize the serious im­ plications of management failing to specifically bargain with the unions' elected negotiators. The association members unanimously recognise their elected team as the sole bargaining agent for the association." A spokesperson for the association added, "The members are disanoouUed in the way negotiations have progressed; Our team was the last side to make a lower counterproposal to the board on the siriary issue. We have repeatedly stated to the board that we are willing to again lower our request, if (Continued on page 22) The District 156 board of education Negotiations committee reports that negotiations with the Teachers association are scheduled to resume Wednesday evening, Sep­ tember 3. This session will be the third meeting held in the mediation process. Lew Moore, on the staff of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation service in Rock- ford, will continue his at­ tempts to stimulate a con­ tract agreement between the two sides. While mediation that the return to the bargaining table will have positive results. The chief conflict in the negotiations remains the salary issue. The board's offer of a 10 percent salary increase has not yet been accepted by the associstion. Tentative agreement has been reached on several items. Among those items tentatively agreed to are: increased mileage reim­ bursement for school related travel, increased pay for internal substitution (when s teacher subs for another during time reserved for planning) < snd Increased summer school salaries. All of these items will increase board expenditures during the 1900-61 school yesr. While the contract Issuss remain , unsettled, district adminlkcfttiirs indicate tbit the schMl yesr has started without incident. Teachers returned for institute days Aug. 25 and 26, and classes began Wednesday, Aug. 27. The full educational program is in operation and running smoothly, according to a board spokesman. Year 2000 Plan final Vote On Transportation The Chicago Area Tran­ sportation Study (CATS) Policy committee will be asked to take final action Thursday, Sept. 4, on the proposed Year 2000 Tran­ sportation System plan. Policy committee en­ dorsement will make the document the region's of­ ficial long range tran­ sportation plan. The scheduled vote will be the final step in a more than year long process of public review and comment on the plan which covers transit, highways, aviation and freight. The plan was adopted by the Northeastern Illinois Planning Com­ mission (NIPC) Aug. 21 after a series of public hearings held throughout the six-county (Lake, DuPage, Cook, Kane, McHenry and Will) region. The CATS Policy com­ mittee is the metropolitan planning organization for northeastern Illinois. MPO approval is required when federal funds are sought for a project or program. The Year 2000 Plan, designed to meet the problems caused by an uncertain energy future, calls for investing some $10.8 billion in federal and local funds in the region's transportation system over the nefct 20 years. Most of the money would be earmarked for preserving and in some cases expanding the existing system. The Policy committee also will be asked to ratify a "Special Implementation Agreement" pledging that spending on transportation for the disabled will amount to more than 2 percent of federal operating assistance for transit through fiscal yesr 1962. The agreement was requested by the federal Urban Mass Transportation administration which contends that the region failed to meet its goals in (Continued on page 22) Area Man Killed In Collision A Spring Grove man was killed early Monday mor­ ning, Sept. 1, after a collision ana a fire on Richardson road, near Spring Grove. Charles L. McGinnis, 21, of Spring Grove, wss pronounced desd at the scene by Dep. Coroner John Freund at 3:07 a.m. According to the preliminary investigation, (Continued on page 22) FANNY THOMPSON DIES Mrs. Robert (Fanny) Thompson of 3603 W. Main street, McHenry, died early Tuesday morning, Sept. 2, in McHenry hospital. She was a granddaughter of George Gage, founder of the Main street business district and for whom it was named Gagetown. She Has The Will . . . They Found The Way I People who met Ruth McHugh on the University of Wisconsin- Whitewater campus always seemed to have the same reaction, according to Ruth. They just couldn't believe that she was doing what she was doing. But she was. At the age of 34, and the mother of six young boys, Ruth was at­ tending school full time and working 40 hours a week as a nurse at the Lakeland hospital in Elkhorn. On top of that, the family raises animals on a 40-acre farm near Walworth, Wis., just north of the Wisconsin- Illinois border. From there Ruth commuted daily to the UW- Whitewater, a 25-mile drive. While four of her children attended school near the McHugh home, she took her two younger sons to Whitewater to spend their hours at the university's Child Care center. After returning to her home, making dinner, and getting her children into hed, Ruth got back into the car and travelled to Lakeland hospital, where her exhausting daily scheduled started all over again in the 11 to 7 night shift. Ruth did this for three years. Her sons now range from 5 to 12 years of age. Her husband, Vince, is a Social Studies teacher at Parkland school, McHenry. A working mother is one thing, but why would anyone make so many sacrifices to go to college? "I've always wanted to be a doctor," said Ruth. "My husband said either do it, or shut up. So I did it." Ruth enrolled in pre- med at UW-Whitewater three years ago, and was notified that the Medical school at UW- Madison had accepted her for the Fall term. Even though Ruth was still only a junior, she passed up her bachelor's degree to go directly to Madison in September. "I'd gone as far as I could go in nursing", said Ruth. Last Spring she became night super­ visor at Lakeland, and if she wanted to continue to advance, it would take her farther and farther away from patient care. "I'm not interested in paperwork," said Ruth. Her long journey didn't end, of course, when she finished her final exams at UW- Whitewater last Spring. There's still the matter of medical school (four years) and an in­ ternship (three years). How does she plan to attend school and still take care of her family? "I'll get an apartment in Madison," said Ruth, "and take three of the boys with me. They have a Child Care center in Madison, too. I'll go back to Walworth on the weekends." Ruth says she'll quit work when she starts in Madison, and borrow the money she needs. Up until now she said (Continued on page 22) When you carry IS college credits, hold down a fall-time job, and have six children to care for, you're usually en the go. That's the way it is with Ruth McHugh, fomerly at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater who will begin studying at the UW-Madison Medical school this fall at the age of 24. Her husband, a counselor at Parkland school, McHenry, since Its opening nine years ago, admits to being a "great cook" and adds that the six boys, ranging 12 to S, are a big help.