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Show 'OVER THE HILL AT 70' Court battles stir retirement age row Orem-Geneva Times May 1, 1975 Copty Nai Unlet By FRANK MACOMBER Copley News Service Should American workers be retired at CO, 70 or even earlier on a mandatory basis? Or should each employe's retirement date be based on his or her ability to stay on the job and continue the competence compe-tence of earlier years? The nation's economy pinch has focused new controversy on these questions ques-tions and on the whole issue of mandatory manda-tory versus optional retirement. Some companies which either had no mandatory retirement age limits or sidestepped them in specialized "merit" cases now are imposing the ground rules more strictly as one way to trim too-costly payrolls. Another significant factor in the imposition im-position of stiff retirement guidelines traditionally has been the pressures imposed on large firms by insurance companies holding their group medical and life insurance policies. As employes grow older and the risk of prolonged illness or death rises, so do the insurance premiums, company personnel per-sonnel officials point out. However, when an employe finally reaches age 65, he or she becomes eligible eligi-ble for government-financed Medicare if illness strikes. And many companies reduce the amount of life insurance protecting holdover workers 65 or older, thereby trimming premiums. All these conditions add up to a rash of court battles over the constitutionality constitu-tionality or equity of enforced early retirement. re-tirement. General Motors, the country's largest auto builder, has been a leader in the growing premature retirement move. George B. Morris Jr., vice president of GM industrial relations, says more than 5,000 hourly workers between the ages of 47 and 64, with more than 30 years of service, retired by option last Oct. 1. That was the date GM pension benefits bene-fits for hourly employes jumped from $550 to $625 a month. At GM, union contracts provide optional op-tional retirement arrangements up to 68 and mandatory retirement thereafter. there-after. Another 2,500 GM workers with 30 or more years of service retired by the end of January, at a time when all auto makers were being forced to lay off thousands of workers one way or another. an-other. , Morris says the heavy trend toward early retirement began at GM in 1965. The average hourly worker retirement ' age at GM now is 61, compared to 65 in 1965. But not all companies provide employes em-ployes with full retirement benefits as early as age 58 if they have 30 years of service. Hence the more common mandatory man-datory early retirement trend is running run-ning into more opposition than favor. While there is no constitutional provision provi-sion or other law that can govern a private pri-vate company's retirement rules, a re cent U.S. Supreme Court decision has appeared to buttress the retirement-at-70 concept but perhaps weaken the out-at-65 policy. The court held constitutional the mandatory government rule that U.S. Civil Service employes retire at 70. The justices merely affirmed an earlier three-judge court decision upholding up-holding the federal law. But a year earlier the high court had taken another tack. It ruled unconstitutional unconstitu-tional a mandatory leave provision in a Cleveland schoolteacher contract which required pregnant teachers to take maternity leave after the fifth month of pregnancy. The court said the school system should make an independent determination determi-nation in each case to decide wh in the teacher could not perform her duties because of pregnancy. In a dissenting opinion, Justice William Wil-liam H. Rehnquist said similar reasoning reason-ing might threaten mandatory -etire-ment programs. The Cleveland ruling, indeed, gave opponents of mandatory retirement a new pad from which to launch legal attacks, at-tacks, even though the decision applied only to a local government policy. Meanwhile, the American Medical Association, without any such retirement retire-ment deadline problems of its own, has entered the arena on the side of optional retirement policies. The AMA got into the controversy before be-fore the Supreme Court's Civil Service ruling, asking the high tribunal to reject the federal government's retire-ment-at-70 rule as harmful to both the individual and society. "The philosophy of the marketplace has brainwashed thousands of Americans Amer-icans into the belief that a person is over the hill at 70," the AMA told the justices. It contended that some people lose their judgment, abilities and even physical dexterity at 40, while others retain these qualities past 80. "The granting and continuance of employment opportunities should be based on the individual's competence and ability not age," the AMA brief contended. "An individual's mental and physical health can be impaired by forced retirement re-tirement through loss of status, lack of meaningful activity, fear of becoming dependent and isolation," it added. "At the same time, society is burdened with the support of many older old-er individuals who still could be productive." produc-tive." Legal experts, looking at the entire retirement formula spectrum, believe it will come down to an eventual series of court decisions allowing government and quasi-government or tax-supported agencies to abide by the mandatory retire-at-70rule and leaving it up to private pri-vate firms to fix their own retirement rules, with only labor unions acting as referees so far as their member employes em-ployes are concerned. Friends Try To Help Victim Of Cliff Fall &fW&X?i GOING? At a time when the price of sixth as much to recruit a mem-everything mem-everything from bread to cars ber of the National Guard as it is skyrocketing, it's nice to know does the active army. Guard that some things are still a units are supported for approxi-bargain. approxi-bargain. It costs less than one mately 40 percent of the cost re quired to support the same of unit in the active service, according to Major General Maurice L. Watts, Adjutant General Gen-eral of the Utah National Guard. In an effort to meet the estimated es-timated $25,000 plastic surgery costs necessary to restore the victim of a cliff fall in Bluff, Utah Thursday, March 29, friends have established the Jerri Whipple Fund at the First Security Se-curity Bank in Blanding Utah. "All donations will be deposited depos-ited in the account to earn interest in-terest as gifts accumulate," said Sandra Ashbury who, with her mother , Maurine Burnett, is launching the fund. "We now have $2,247.00 but nearly 10 times that amount is needed. Young Mrs. Whipple, 18, mother of a two-month-old son, Heath John Whipple, plunged 60 feet while following her husband Howard, up a climb on the north wall of a reservoir in Cottonwood Cotton-wood Canyon. A sandstone ledge loosened by rain and melting snow, gave way under her. Mrs. Whipple retained con sciousness after landing face first on a large boulder, splitting split-ting her palate, crushing most of her facial bones, her jaws, nose and forehead and damaging damag-ing her right eye. One side of her face was pulled down one inch by the impact. She apparently crawled some distance over the talus after the fall, before her husband could reach her side. Rushed by ambulance to local hospitals, she was flown from Cortez to Albuquerque where immediate im-mediate urgent surgery included the wiring of her teeth into her jaws and the setting of a broken wrist, an entire arm and an ankle. There is medical hope that in eight months, the sight may' be restored in the injured eye. "Many years of complicated plastic surgery lie before her, if adequate funds can be found to pay for the work. Her young husband is recently unemployed. They have no 'insurance 'in-surance or medical coverage of any kind," said Ms. Ashbury. Jerri Whipple is the duaghter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Mueller Muel-ler of Mancos, Colorado, and the granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Wilson of Bluff, Utah. Her husband, Howard is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Howard Whipple, Sr., also of Mancos, Colorado. Further information regarding the Jerri Whipple Fund may be secured in Blanding from Mrs. Ashbury or Mrs. Burnett or in Bluff from Jennielean .Nielsen or Anah Barnett (801) 672-2273. Marshall Promoted Great Falls, Mont.-- An of-. ficial at Malmstrom AFB.Mont., has announced the promotion of William H, Marshall to sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. Sergeant Marshall, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph R. Marshall of 458 East 100 South, Orem, is a computer repair specialist with a unit of the Strategic Air Command. Com-mand. The sergeant is a 1972 graduate grad-uate of Orem High School. His wife, Deann, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Allan Burgess of 335 East 900 North, Orem. I 1 :iii&fi:i:8i: letters To Editor xxx:rra':-xw Dear Editor: I saw something F riday that absolutely ab-solutely demands that I say something some-thing about it: The students of Orem High School were dismissed dis-missed from classes to go into the community for cleanup activities. activi-ties. It was truly impressive to see the young people of our community commu-nity exerting themselves to make our environment a better, cleaner place to live. I contrast that with the recently completed walkathon that used up a great deal of energy, but intrinsically in-trinsically did nothing to improve the quality of our life. Think of how much good could have been accomplished with ourSenior Citizens, Ci-tizens, widows and others if that same energy had been directed to specific projects of painting, cleaning up, preparing gardens, etc. I commend those responsible for organizing our youth into productive pro-ductive activities and commend to those who could appeal to the youth for an interest in their humanitarian activities that they could do well to look to this model mo-del for excellent possibilities. It seems to me that it is our responsibility to help our young people learn how to make their efforts count in being their "brother's keeper." Jay Eitner 350 S. 900 E. Orem 1 iJVA " nn L io'vio45 Pi h ft , " m a LtfU frit? j'My Citif B"m.7a 8"cia.878 12"d!a.13 43 OTHER SIZES 4" TO 24" CONCRETE PIPE. IRRIGATION and DRAINAGE. ALL SIZES ALL PRICES ARE PLANT PICK-UP SALT LAKE: 333 So. Redwood Road North Salt Lake, Ph. 532-1 1 1 1 OGDEN: 801 West 12th St., Ph. 399-1171 LOGAN: South Highway 91, Ph. 752-6310 PROVO: Ph. 373-8600 (no toll charge) UTC Notes Enrollment Increase Utah Technical College at Pro-vo Pro-vo has registered a 28 percent increased enrollment for its spring quarter now underway over ov-er the spring term for last year, according to Wilson W. Soren-sen, Soren-sen, Utah Tech president. Final spring quarter totals, said Registrar Mable Olsen, list 1,773 regular day school students stu-dents and 873 in the evening school for a total of 2,646. This compares with the spring quarter a year ago of 1,493 day and 552 evening for a total of 2,045. ; The 28 percent gain over the same period a year ago is a continuation of a steady increase experienced by Utah Technical College at provo for the past half dozen years during which time it has approximately doubled doub-led its enrollment. The spring quarter totals this year are down from the winter quarter just ended, said Mrs. Olsen, a trend experienced each year. Winter quarter for 1975 recorded the highest enrollment in the history of Utah Tech, with 2,019 day and 1,192 evening for a 3,211 total. The enrollment picture at Utah Tech for the entire 1974-75 year has been substantially higher than last, setting records in each quarter and an all-year total greater than any since the school was founded. Mrs. Olsen pointed out an achievement this year which had never happened in the history of the college bofore an increase in winter quarter enrollment over fall TWO BURGLARIES REPORTED Two burgularieswere reported by Orem businesses this week, according to police reports. Mr. G's, 145 E. 800 N., reported re-ported that butter, beer, cigarettes cigar-ettes and chewing tobacco were taken from the business after it had closed for the evening. Lamplighter Mobile Homes, 750 N. 1200 W., reported that a chair, sofa and lamp were removed. ; : :. ft |