Word: topeka
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That Mess. This summer the city was shocked to find that Topeka State's psychiatric aides had staged, in effect, a one-day strike. They did not call it a strike, but an "administrative takeover," and they stayed on the job for twelve hours instead of the usual eight to show that they were willing and able to give the patients more and better care than the bureaucracy would allow. Later they changed the name of their demonstration, for propaganda reasons, to a "work-in." By whatever name, it stopped Topekans from boasting about their mental-health facility...
...first, Dr. Alfred Bay, superintendent of Topeka State, reacted like a Mayor Daley of psychiatry. He fired the aides, had many arrested and spoke of eradicating disorder "before it spreads to the patients." Other officials called the aides' demands preposterous -a 35% pay increase, 40-hour week, revised job specifications, union representation on administrative bodies, a two-year contract, and an in-service education program to give aides a chance for advancement...
...broke in a week. This just isn't any way to run a railroad. We have moved the aide's responsibilities forward without giving him comparable recognition." The main problem, as Bay saw it, was the huge staff turnover. Except for physicians, one-third of Topeka State's employees have been there for less than a year, and one-fourth for less than six months! The reason for the turnover is simple: poor pay with no hope of betterment...
Musclemen. Emerson Stamps, 44, a Negro and president of the Topeka local of the Kansas Health Workers' Union, has been a mental-health worker for 20 years. To support his family of seven he has to work two full shifts, one at State and one at the local Veterans Administration hospital. An aide at State starting now gets $295 a month, and after six months gets a $14-a-month raise. After 15 or 20 years on the job, he might get $505 to $557 a month as a psychiatric aide Grade 3, but there are only...
...been upgraded to the rank of technicians, starting at $400 a month with an $80 raise at the end of a year. After in-service education, they can advance to positions of recognized responsibility, with appropriate pay raises to a top of $1,048 a month. Several of the Topeka State aides' minor grievances can be adjusted by simple administrative action, if Dr. Bay and other officials are willing. Salaries and civil service grades are rigidly controlled by the state legislature. "We expect more of our aides at Topeka State than they do in less dynamic institutions," says...