Banner Graphic, Volume 9, Number 282, Greencastle, Putnam County, 4 August 1979 — Page 2
A2
The Putnam County Banner Graphic, August 4,1979
CHRYSLER CORPORATION ...at the crossroads
c. 1979 N.Y. Times News Service DETROIT The Chrysler Corp. asked the United Automobile Workers Friday for a twoyear freeze on wages and benefits for some 124,000 Chrysler employees under contract. The union rejected the appeal, but scheduled a meeting of its Chrysler council for next Thursday to discuss what financial relief labor might be willing to give the company. Chrysler reported last Tuesday that it lost $207.1 million in the second quarter and asked the government for $1 billion in cash over the next 18 months to help resolve its financial difficulties. The Treasury Department acknowledged that it was studying Chrysler’s situation, but the Carter administration has not formally responded to the company’s request. Lee A. lacocca, Chrysler’s president, appealed Friday morning for the two-year wage freeze during an unusual appearance at a union bargaining session with Douglas A. Fraser, the UAW president, and a rank-and-file union negotiating committee. The meeting lasted an hour and 40 minutes. “Because of the complexities and short-term uncertainties of the automobile market and the temporary financial situation being experienced by Chrysler,” lacocca said in a statement before he entered the union meeting, “I felt it was in the best interests of all concerned for me to come here personally to outline the details of the company’s present position and our future plans to restore Chrysler to profitability.” Besides announcing that the union had turned down Chrysler’s request, Fraser reasserted his position that the government should make a $1 billion investment in Chrysler through the purchase of stockin the company rather than give direct financial aid. Fraser also strongly criticized Thomas A. Murphy, chairman of the General Motors Corp., for his statement Thursday opposing any special government aid for Chrysler. Murphy said such a move would pose a basic challenge to the free-enterprise system. lacocca had requested a meeting Thursday with the UAW’s Chrysler bargaining committee, including Fraser, to discuss the company’s faltering status. The company and the union were already engaged in negotiations on a new contract to replace a three-year pact that expires at midnight Sept. 14, but the presence of top leaders from both sides of the table during what have been preliminary talks is unusual for the industry. Fraser, giving the impression that he was surprised at the magnitude of the Chrysler request but not that a call for relief had been made, said that the demand “obviously is far beyond anything the committee could seriously accept.” He said a wage freeze would mean an absolute reduction in the purchasing power and standard of living of the affected Chrysler workers of 25 percent, assuming 12.5 percent inflation.
Bayh group asking for specific information on Marble Hill items
HWASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. fllrch Bayh and five other senators have asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for information on construction problems at the Marble Hill nuclear power plant and the commission's monitoring procedures. -The Senate Environment and Works Committee is inlyes tiga ting charges of shoddy Construction practices at the Southern Indiana plant at jfiayh’s request, the Indiana democrat said Friday. senators are seeking 17 [specific items of information [Srithin two weeks from NRC [chairman Joseph M. Rendrie in [ihe wake of numerous probes of jjhe plant which is being built by [£*ublic Service Indiana about 30
Banner-Graphic "It Waves For All" j(USPS 142-020) ; - Consolidation of The Daily Bannar Established 1850 The Herald The Daily Graphic Established 1883 Telephone 853-5151 '■* Published twice each day except Sundays ? |nd Holidays by LuMar Newspapers. Inc. at 100 North Jackson St., Greencastle. Indiana, r «<Cl3s. Entered in the Post Office at Greentastle, Indiana, as 2nd class mail mattes under Act of March 7,1878. Subscription Rates iPai Week, by carrier 1.85 for Month, by mofor route $3.70 i- * Mail Subscription Rates *»* R.R.in Rest of Rest of Putnam Co. Indiana U.S.A. “I Months ‘8.75 9.50 ’1145 *8 Months '17.50 '19.00 *22.90, Year '34.00 '37.00 '45.75 . Mail subscriptions payable In advance . . . •ntjt accepted in towns and where motor route ,Service is available . * Member of the Associated Press - Jhe Associated Press is entitled exclusively to-the use for republlcation of all the locel news printed in this newspaper
He stressed also that any relief in labor costs to the company would hinge on the outcome of the union’s negotiations with Chrysler’s larger competitors, GM and the Ford Motor Co. He said “no definitive decision” could be made about aiding Chrysler until the “design” of the union’s master contract with the industry was determined. But he underscored in his comments t-hat the union recognized the importance of accommodating Chrysler in some way. Last year, Chrysler’s total payroll amounted to $4.1 billion, or slightly less than one-third of its gross revenues of $13.6 billion. The combined wage rate for all classes of workers covered by the UAW contract is just over $9 an hour plus about $5.50 an hour in benefits. Fraser renewed his appeal for the government an equity position in the company. The plan, first outlined several years ago when Chrysler’s losses began to mount, involves worker representation in the management and policy-making ranks of the company. Such a move would amount to partial nationalization of the company, which would be highly controversial in a free-enterprise system. In a working paper issued Friday, Fraser called for a $1 billion investment by the government in a new issue of common stock of Chrysler, an investment that would give the government ownership of about 30 percent of the company. Under the plan, the government would be represented on Chrysler’s board of directors by federal officials, labor, private citizens, consumer groups and environmental groups, among others, who would have 30 percent of the voting power. Provisions might also be made, the UAW plan proposed, for the gradual sale of the government’s voting rights to Chrysler employees “so that workers themselves could have more voice in the operation of the corporation.” Under the plan proposed to the government by Chrysler, the $1 billion injection of cash would be a form of tax credit. In effect, Chrysler has asked the government to give it the benefit now of the tax deductions that the company would be entitled to claim in the future when, if ever, it returns to profitability. Under present tax law, a company is permitted to reduce the taxes on its current earnings by the amount of money it lost in previous years. If the losses are large enough, a company might be able to operate tax-free in a future period until the credits are exhausted. When the tax credits are used up, company earnings are taxed at whatever the full rate might be. The Chrysler proposal calls for the company’s future earnings to be taxed at full rates, with the credits for Chrysler’s present heavy losses to be paid out in advance by the government in the form of cash.
miles upstream from Louisville, Ky., on the Ohio River. The committee is now conducting a staff investigation and has not announced plans for hearings on the matter. “It is the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s responsibility to monitor these (nuclear) plants all the way from the ground up,” Bayh said. “Residents of Indiana want to be assured that the NRC is doing its job, and can catch defects in design and construction before the plants goes into operation. The furor over Marble Hill’s construction work was stirred up by a former worker at the plant who claimed he was ordered to cover up deffective
Peru, Marion strikes over
By The Associated Press Peru policemen and Marion street and sanitation workers have agreed to end their job actions in the two north central Indiana cities. Police in Peru returned to work Friday after the city council agreed to meet their demand for improved insurance coverage in their next contract. The council agreement came in a special meeting after a court hearing on the police sickout before Miami Circuit Judge T. Michael Smith. In Marion, striking street and sanitation workers voted to return to work Monday after negotiations with the city were rescheduled, a union spokesman
concrete work on buildings which will contain the plant’s nuclear reactor. An inspection by the NRC turned up more than 100 air-pockets in walls that could leak radiation in the event of an accident at the plant. Concrete pouring at the plant was stopped twice and the tyRC is in the middle of a wide-rang-ing inspection of the facility. Committee chairman, Sen. Jennings Randolph, D-W. Va., and Sens. Gary Hart, D-Colo.; Wendell Ford, D-Ky.; Robert Stafford, R-Vt.; and Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., joined Bayh in asking for the information, which includes: The extent to which the NRC reviewed the quality control
said. “Indications are that there will be movement (in negotiations) and that the strike is over,” said Hershell King, a representative of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The workers had earlier rejected the $525 across-the-board pay raise voted by the Marion city council. The 33 workers are seeking between SI,BOO and $2,000 a year in raises. Annual pay now ranges from $8,298 to $9,500. On Thursday, Marion firefighters donated S2OO to the striking street and sanitation workers in a show of support for their walkout.
The DC-10 flap Debate over need for mechanical locks continues
By RICHARD WITKIN c. 1979 N.Y. Times News Service CHICAGO The manufacturer of the DC-10 jumbo jet said Friday that it saw no justification for adding mechanical locks to the plane’s front wing flaps to prevent the type of uneven positioning that was a critical factor in the crash here of an American Airlines DC-10 on May 25. The assessment by the plane’s manufacturer, the McDonnell Douglas Corp., was made public in testimony at the hearing being conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board into the causes of the crash, which killed 273 persons and was the nation’s worst aviation accident. A concurring opinion was given in an interview by Charles R. Foster, the Federal Aviation Administration’s deputy administrator for safety. Foster said the agency had been “very concerned” after the accident about the possible need for locks for the leading-edge flaps, or slats. But he said the concern had been alleviated by simulator tests that showed a pilot could readily control a DC-10 if the right and the left wing slat position became asymmetrical, or uneven, in a critical part of the takeoff. The FAA official was referring only to a takeoff with all three engines operating. In the May 25 crash, the uneven slat condition occurred when an engine and its mount, or pylon, was ripped away. Under those circumstances, coupled with the failure of crew-warning systems and the one-engine-out climbing speeds called for by airline procedures, the crash was virtually inevitable, officials and other safety experts said. The left pylon, holding the turbofan engine cantilevered beneath and forward of the left wing, was torn away just as the plane was leaving the ground. This destroyed numerous mechanisms in the forward part of the wing, including the slats, whose function is to produce high lift and cut stalling speed in takeoffs, when a plane’s speed is comparatively low. The result was that the left-wing slats retracted without the crew’s being aware of it. The stalling speed for that wing thereby jumped above the speed that the plane had attained while the right wing, with normal slats, continued to have sufficient lift. The plane, having climbed to about 300 feet, veered sharply to the left and crashed less than a mile from the end of the runway. Investigators have concluded that the initial event leading to the loss of the pylon was the use of a controversial maintenance procedure that severely
Hawks, Doves hover over Salt II ratification
WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House is being asked to help bridge a gap between Senate hawks and doves over defense spending and thereby enhance the chances for ratification of the SALT II treaty. In recent days, the focus of the controversy over SALT II has shifted from details of the treaty itself to differences between two Senate coalitions on defense spending levels. One calls for U.S. defense spending to be sharply increased under SALT II to counter a growing Soviet drive for nuclear superiority. The other insists that the line
. procedures of Public Service Indiana, the NRC’s past and present assessment’s of the utility’s ability to manage construction, the NRC’s assessment of the construction company’s capabilities and qualifications. The hiring practices of Marble Hill contractors and any affadavits in the NRC’s possession from construction workers relating to construction problems. The NRC’s inspection practices along with those of the utility and the contractors. All documents relating to criminal allegations of construction deficiencies at the plant.
Construction at the new city hall site resumed Friday after Grant Circuit Court Judge A. Morris Hall issued a temporary restraining order forcing picketing sanitation workers away from the area. Work at the site was interrupted when Bowman Construction Co. workers refused to cross the lines set up by the striking sanitation, workers Thursday. In Peru, Judge Smith had ordered the police back to work earlier and directed that all policemen served with the order appear before him Friday afternoon.
damaged the rearmost of three mechanisms by which the pylon is attached to the wing. Numerous remedies have been adopted since the crash. The maintenance procedure has been outlawed by federal edict. All of the nation’s 138 DC10s are subject to repeated stringent inspections. American Airlines and several other carriers have revised flying procedures so that crews will not cut* speeds so low after loss of an engine. In view of these steps, officials are confident that there is virtually no chance that the pattern of disaster in the May 25 accident can be repeated. Those remedies also explain in large part why McDonnel Douglas and the FAA see no need for mechanical slat locks. The Boeing 747 and Lockheed L-1011 jumbo jets do
be held on spending while every effort is made to achieve deep reductions in the nuclear arsenals of both the Soviet Union and the United States in SALT 111. Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Friday the White House can help resolve the differences. Church said if a “tremendous” price is demanded for SALT 11, then many senators who would like to vote for a strategic arms limitation treaty will be driven away from it. “But if a formula can be worked out that will adequately
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Remember Back In the 'sos when you had your Silly Putty and a Davey Crockett coonskin cap? But maybe your prized possession was that hula hoop you could keep going around your waist for at least three seconds of frustration. Well, meet
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American Airline DC-10 turns on its side before crashing May 25
protect our nuclear deterrent, things can be worked out,” Church said. At the White House, press secretary Jody Powell said Friday the administration is willing to discuss demands for greater spending, “but cannot make defense decisions in terms of trading for votes.” Powell said the administration welcomes discussion of defense needs as “healthy and constructive” and hopes it can provide “a consensus for an adequate degree of support” for ratification. The treaty, the product of seven years of negotiations un-
der three presidents, sets equal ceilings on Soviet and American long-range missiles and heavy bombers. Church and Javits announced their backing of the proposals Friday but asked that news of the development be withheld until Sunday. The Washington Post, however, published details in today’s editions. v The four reservations and understandings would declare: —The United States understands that verbal reassurances by Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev on the Backfire bomber are binding. —Temporary restrictions on
Louise Saaheen, a 16-year-old from Detroit, who can rotate four at once. The feat earned her the Michigan State title and a trip to the world finals in Atlanta this fall. (AP Wirephoto).
have such locks to prevent unwanted movement of slats, and that is why the issue was raised by some safety experts soon after the accident. McDonnell Douglas thinks its system, which is designed to keep slats in position hydraulically and has considerable redundancy, is safer. Its position was made clear in testimony by Charles Dundore, chief of program design. Asked whether mechanical slat locks were planned, he replied, “They are not justified. ’ ’ A moment later, Dundore said: “They are much more complicated, so that they would lead to another set of failure possibilities. We feel they could produce slat asymmetry, or they could deny a pilot the ability to extend slats under some circumstances.”
cruise missile technology contained in a separate protocol will in fact expire on Dec. 31, 1981, as scheduled and will not become a precedent unless agreed on by a two-thirds Senate vote. —The United States will not permit any Soviet interpretation of the treaty to prevent it from transferring weapons technology to its European allies to modernize their nuclear or conventional arsenals. —The so-called “agreed statements and common understandings” attached to the treaty have the same weight as the treaty itself.
One-issue groups hurt party: Gov. INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The future of the two major political parties is endangered by the emergence of single-issue special interest groups unwilling to compromise. Gov. Otis R. Bowen says. In a speech Friday to a Monticello service club, Bowen said, “In my view, the emergence o( such single-issue groups is at least a contributing factor to what has become a major concern of both parties an unwillingness of individual Americans to declare affiliation with either party.” Political parties. Bowen said, operate through consensus and compromise, two words which are anathema to most single-is-sue groups. He did not identify any groups, however, by issue or by name. “The single-issue group tends to gravitate to whichever party promises unswerving dedication to that group’s particular thing,” Bowen said. “It matters not to these people what the other issues are, or the candidate’s position on them - r Bowen said both the Republi* can Party to which he belongs and the Democratic Party have allowed themselves to be back* ed into positions by single-issue groups from which there is no chance to compromise. :] This, he said, could lose large blocks of support from othfer voters, who do not share the single-issue groin’s view.