Wrinkle in Time

Judging Values, Fielding Complaints and Fixing Prices

10 YEARS AGO. Value Judgements — What trait did dry cleaners value most employees? According to the American Drycleaner Wire survey, roughly 42% of managers said “dependability” is a trait they found most helpful in an employee, followed by “being a team player” and “having a positive attitude,” each selected by 20.8% of respondents. Other valued traits were “trustworthiness” at 8.3% and “likeability” and “taking direction,” both receiving 4.2% of the vote. As for undesirable traits? “Not working well with others” got 23.8% of the vote, with “being unreliable” coming in at a close second with 19%.

25 YEARS AGO. Sending a Letter — A bipartisan group of six co-sponsors of the Small Business Remediation Act, also known as the Barton Bill, wrote the U.S. Secretary of Labor on behalf of several constituents concerned about OSHA’s pending review of the permissible exposure level for perc in the workplace. “Although our constituents agree that exposure to any chemical should be minimized, they are aware of no evidence of health problems among workers in dry cleaning plants since the 100 ppm PEL was set in 1998, nor of any need for lowering the current PEL below 100 ppm,” the group wrote in its letter. were received in 1971 by the Better Business Bureau of Chicago, the consumer protection organization reported. Automobiles led the list, and while dry cleaning and laundry complaints were far down the list, that was nothing to be proud of, according to the Chicago Drycleaners Association. In a statement, the organization said that, “it matters not whether the customer is right or wrong. It matters how you treat the customer with the complaint.” general of Oklahoma, called for a test case to clear up difficulties with price-fixing of cleaning services. The attorney general declared that Oklahoma law authorized the state supreme court to decide whether cleaners can set minimum prices. The state board could approve price agreements by counties when petitioned by 75% of the cleaners in the area. In its form at the time, the attorney general pointed out that the law allowed no recourse on price arranging to the public.

50 YEARS AGO. Fielding Complaints — More than 236,000 complaints 75 YEARS AGO. Fielding Complaints — Mac Q. Williamson, the attorney — Compiled by Dave Davis, Editor