Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 18, 1993 TAG: 9311180083
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DONNA ST. GEORGE KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long
That same day in Seattle, a family therapist who doesn't get involved in politics was penning her first-ever letter of protest. "I am incensed," Margaret Delaney wrote to her friends across the country, "that our system is so unbalanced and unfair."
How could corporate leaders contribute thousands of dollars to rescue Oregon Republican Sen. Bob Packwood from 28 women's charges of sexual harassment? she and others demanded.
Their rage echoed from Idaho to Rhode Island, as scores of ordinary people reacted to a newspaper article detailing how Packwood has collected thousands of dollars for his legal defense from staff lobbyists and chief executives for at least 15 large companies.
The companies included Turner Broadcasting, Southwest Airlines, MCI, Amoco, Arco, Dole Food Co., Boise Cascade, Cigna, Seagram Co., Hallmark, Eli Lilly, Salomon Bros. and Bell Atlantic.
The quiet flow of cash to Packwood includes 243 contributions in all - money from labor groups, politicians and friends, in addition to corporate support - for a defense fund of $275,000. By comparison, the women accusing Packwood have raised no more than $25,000.
The 9to5 National Association of Working Women was "deluged with calls about it, at chapters all across the country," spokeswoman Maripat Blankenheim said.
"People were asking, `What can we do for these [28] women?' and, `Is there a longer list of companies who gave to Packwood?' " Blankenheim said. "All of them without a doubt said they were going to think twice about patronizing those companies in the future."
The blue-chip list infuriated Eric Mueller, who owns a small industrial filmmaking company in the Detroit suburb of Southfield.
On Monday, Mueller decided that he no longer needed his Amoco credit cards. No longer wanted MCI. And, for that matter, no longer wished to fly on Southwest Airlines.
"I perfectly understand that Packwood is entitled to a defense," Mueller said. "But I just don't want to do business with somebody who's contributing to a man of his moral fiber."
Mueller called the companies to let them know they were losing his business. He said he was first told that newspaper reports were wrong, and then told the contributions were "personal" gifts by employees.
Those employees were lobbyists - who are the very face of the company in Washington and the people appointed to make pitches on behalf of any legislation that affects the company.
"As far as I'm concerned," Mueller said, the lobbyists are "the company itself."
In New Jersey, Frank Quaile of Marlton called MCI with the demand: "Unless I see an equal amount donated to the 28 women, I'm going to cancel my service."
In Minneapolis, the women who work for the city's nonprofit Victims' Services agency wrote a letter to Amoco.
"It's just ridiculous that companies would support that kind of behavior," said Wendy Schlueter, 25. "I asked everyone in the office to stop going to Amoco."
In Indianapolis, John Cordell, a telephone company worker, decided to cancel MCI as his long-distance company because "it just really gets under my skin that companies would give to someone like him."
In Austin, Texas, similar sentiment inspired a formal poll at a golf-club components company, Golfsmith International.
Carl Paul, the company president, circulated to his 11 top managers a copy of the newspaper story that told about the Packwood contributions. Paul also distributed ballots asking what reaction the company should have.
Interestingly, all eight men in management voted to give money to the legal fund for the women accusing Packwood. The three women managers voted to keep the company out of the controversy.
"The great majority of customers are men, and we [the male managers] felt they would feel like we do about it," Paul said. "But the women managers expected an adverse reaction from our male customers."
For workers at companies linked to the contributions, news of the donations made them wonder about their firms' commitment to promoting diversity and ending harassment.
"Amoco has had quite a number of programs that have pushed the company as a good place for women to work," said one employee, "and this contribution has a lot of women, and men, concerned."
A manager at MCI said the reaction in his office ranged from mild irritation to outrage. "I worry about what kind of message this sends as far as MCI condoning that [sexual harassment]," he said.
Many consumers who complained about the Packwood donations said they felt they were not getting straight answers.
An MCI spokeswoman told John Cordell, for example, that the Packwood donation came from a busing firm rather than the telecommunications giant, he said. Another man said he was told the story was wrong. And a Philadelphia woman said MCI said the story "is not true, and we're working with The Associated Press to get a correction."
At MCI headquarters in Washington, D.C., spokeswoman Melissa Robinson attributed the misstatements to "something getting lost in the transmission" between the company's stated view and what its service representatives are saying.
MCI says the contribution by its Washington lobbyist was a personal gift from a man who had once worked for Packwood. "We didn't know about it at the time," Robinson said.
by CNB