LABOR: The Right to Marry

For 15 years pretty Dolores Mann worked hard and well as a one-woman office staff for Local 2227 of the United Steelworkers in the tough steel town of West Mifflin, Pa. But last week, bundled in long underwear and layers of sweaters, coats and scarves, Dolores trudged up and down in biting winds and swirling snow before her employer's shabby office bearing a defiant placard: "On Strike." Her complaint was that the union would not let her keep her job if she married a construction worker named Victor Bosnak.

The issue arose when the steelworkers refused to write a "sickness clause" permitting maternity leave into her union's contract during collective bargaining. This was the same as prohibiting marriage, said Dolores, for what was marriage without children? Embarrassed steelworker officials explained that if the union hired a replacement while Dolores was off on maternity leave, the replacement would become permanent after 60 days, leaving the local with two secretaries after Dolores returned.

At midweek the harassed steelworkers went to court, asked for an injunction to force Dolores to return the keys to the union's files. They also indicated that they would forgive and forget if Dolores would come back, even offered to hike her weekly wage from $80 to $92.

But Dolores kept on picketing, was picking up support from the rank and file. Wrote the secretary of a steelworkers' local: "It's a pity your employers preach unionism but don't see fit to practice it."