national Battalion/Page 12 March 24,1982 Workers, bosses guilty researchers say Blue collar sexual harassment surveyed United Press International CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — In One of the first studies of sexual harassment in the blue collar workplace, Iowa researchers have discovered that co-workers are just as guilty of harassment as their bosses. Donald E. Maypole, of the University of Iowa’s social work department, said a study of un ion workers in Cedar Falls- Waterloo area factories showed 23 percent of the men and women have experienced job- related sexual harassment. The random sample survey indicated 36 percent of the 243 women surveyed have been harassed on the job. Eight per cent of the 1,561 men reported being victimized. Rosemarie Skaine, who con ducted the survey with Maypole in the summer of 1980, said pre vious polls have been incorrect in attributing all sexual harass ment to male supervisors. “We found that sexual harass ment was perpetrated by co workers in addition to super visors,” she said. “Our findings vvere validated by a recent study by the federal Merit System Pro tection Board. ‘“Co-workers’ power may come from influence with the boss or with the other men. If the woman is in a position of less power, this is more likely to happen. “And, since the workplace is friale-dominated — both in numbers and job position — ■Wdmen are frequently found in positions Yvith little power to protect themselves from bosses or co-workers.” The researchers said their fi gures for the number of people being sexually harassed are con siderably lower than other sur veys. “We found our incident rate was lower than every survey ex cept for the Merit Protection Board,” Skaine said. “We think the reason for this is because we did it scientifically, using a ran dom sample. We feel ours is more valid.” Skaine said sexual harass ment was defined in the study as “any kind of behavior that was unwanted sexual behavior dire cted at a person, that causes a person discomfort and could in clude rape or attempted rape. • .- “The most blatant form is when you ask for sexual favor in return for other favors,” she Said. “It could be squeezing or pinching or dirty jokes. Or it could be subtle things such as Staring. 11 “‘We found that both men and wdmen felt verbal abuse, like dirty jokes, was the most com mon form. With women, the next thing was unwanted touching. But the men didn’t re port that.” Male workers agreed with their female counterparts that it is a form of rape when bosses use their authority to force someone into unwanted sex. But the men disagreed that sexual harass- Complaint cites tree producers United Press International WASHINGTON — The na tion’s largest producers of artifi cial Christmas trees have been accused of violating an antitrust settlement with the government. The Justice Department filed a‘civil contempt action Monday jn U.S. District Court in Harris burg, Pa., against American .Technical Industries Inc. of Pitt sburgh, a producer of artificial trees, and its corporate parent, Papercraft Corp. of Pittsburgh; and Marathon Manufacturing Co. of Houston and its corpo rate parent, Penn Central Corp. of New York. The complaint also named as defendants Joseph M. Katz and hjs son, Marshall, both of Pitt sburgh. The elder Katz is chair man of both ATI and Paper- craft; his son is president of both operations. In its complaint, the govern ment asked the federal court to hold the companies in civil con tempt and to set aside a sales agreement that called for ATI- Papercraft to acquire the artifi cial tree assets of Marathon’s Carey-McFall Division, which manufactures artificial Christ mas trees. The complaint also asks that ATI and Papercraft be pre vented from using any competi tive information they may have acquired during negotiations for the company. ment was traumatic. “Not only did they think it wasn’t upsetting to themselves,” Skaine said, “they also didn’t feel it should be upsetting to women.” The sexes also disagreed on motives. Female workers said harass ment was a way for men to use their power to control women’s behavior, especially sexual be havior. Men, however, felt harassment was purely for sex ual gratification. The study recommended in dustry management take pre ventive steps to curtail sexual harassment. “They can institute a policy within their company that they do not allow sexual harass ment,” Skaine said. “If you can get the employing body to enact a policy, a person who is harassed can go through the channels and get some re course.” Beyond that, she suggested employers educate their work ers about their rights concern ing sexual harassment. She said their study showed few people were familiar with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits sexual harass ment in firms with 15 or more workers. Maypole said all the survey re spondents were union members from large factories covered by Title VII. He said the study was just the tip of the iceberg. “There’s a lot more research to be done in this area,” he said, but added that they did not find instances of women harassing men because they didn’t ask that question. “Our understanding was lit male harassment originaid more from a homosexual nam than from women. “But as women work thci way up the power structure,lit known of cases where that kiii of thing can happen. Those! power tend to take advantaged people below them.” ADVERTISED TOM POLICY I •Hi of thrH vlAfNI •PAC MAN..."FEVER" •OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN ’PHYSICAL'' 'HOOKED Save a shopping trip and money too! DRIVING COSTS ARE UP! ONE STOP SHOPPING AT KROGER! || Call Ahead For Fast Courteous Service Pjrw