Judges Labor Relations

A federal judge has bowed to his conscience--and a public outcry--and halted a work slowdown he used to protest Congress' refusal to give him a 50% pay raise. "I didn't sleep too well as it began to dawn on me that I was going after the wrong people," said U.S. District Judge Carl B. Rubin, who ended his slowdown Monday. "Maybe I was letting my anger affect my judgment. "I was getting bothered," he said. "When you're having an argument with yourself and you keep losing, that tells you something.

I used to work nights, and I didn't like it. When I was on the 3 p.m. to midnight shift, I missed dinner with my family and my social life was pretty much limited to drinking with the guys after work. On another shift, from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., I felt like I was afflicted with permanent jet lag. The worst part was how others--family and friends--regarded me. They seemed to feel that anyone who worked nights couldn't be doing well on the job.

Proposals to dispose of trash by rail transportation to landfill sites in the Southern California desert make more sense than others previously mentioned, including local incineration, waste separation and recycling. There is virtually an unlimited capacity in the desert for such disposal, and the fact of an ever increasing amount of trash, and the running out of local landfill sites make the adoption of this plan both imperative and inevitable.

Proposals to dispose of trash by rail transportation to landfill sites in the Southern California desert make more sense than others previously mentioned, including local incineration, waste separation and recycling. There is virtually an unlimited capacity in the desert for such disposal, and the fact of an ever increasing amount of trash, and the running out of local landfill sites make the adoption of this plan both imperative and inevitable.

When Congress rejected a 50% pay raise for top federal office-holders earlier this week, the action was expected to prompt mass resignations of judges seeking higher salaries in the private sector. But no one anticipated that some judges might simply decide to work less, as Carl B. Rubin has done.

I used to work nights, and I didn't like it. When I was on the 3 p.m. to midnight shift, I missed dinner with my family and my social life was pretty much limited to drinking with the guys after work. On another shift, from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., I felt like I was afflicted with permanent jet lag. The worst part was how others--family and friends--regarded me. They seemed to feel that anyone who worked nights couldn't be doing well on the job.

A federal judge has bowed to his conscience--and a public outcry--and halted a work slowdown he used to protest Congress' refusal to give him a 50% pay raise. "I didn't sleep too well as it began to dawn on me that I was going after the wrong people," said U.S. District Judge Carl B. Rubin, who ended his slowdown Monday. "Maybe I was letting my anger affect my judgment. "I was getting bothered," he said. "When you're having an argument with yourself and you keep losing, that tells you something.

When Congress rejected a 50% pay raise for top federal office-holders earlier this week, the action was expected to prompt mass resignations of judges seeking higher salaries in the private sector. But no one anticipated that some judges might simply decide to work less, as Carl B. Rubin has done.