The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, July 18, 1979-Page 11
Ford, UAW kick off contract negotiations
DETROIT (UPI) - Economically
crucial auto industry contract talks
began in a lighthearted mood yesterday
at Ford Motor Co. in stark contrast with
an angry bargaining session a day
earlier at General Motors Corp.
Without going into specifics, United
Auto Workers (UAW) union officials
gave Ford executives an outline of
demands for wage increases, shorter
hours and improved pension benefits.
Sidney McKenna, Ford's chief
negotiator, appealed for a settlement
without a strike - echoing statements
by top executives at GM, which
analysts say may be picked as the
union's strike target this fall.
CONTRACTS FOR 750,000 U.S. auto
workers expire Sept. 14. Economists
have said a strike could aggravate a
recession this year, while the size of the
Attorneys
LANSING (UPI) - The Michigan
Supreme Court must allow citizens to
vote on increased gas and license plate
taxes in order to preserve the principles
of democratic government, attorneys
favoring the referendum told the high
court yesterday.
In oral arguments on the question, at-
torney Donald Reisig called the right to
referendum "a gun behind the
deer ... the people's right to be
heard."
At issue is the legality of petitions
calling for a popular vote on the in-
creased gas tax and license plate fees,
which went into effect this year.
A GROUP calling itself People
settlement could have considerable
bearing on federal attempts to hold
down wages and prices.
Bargaining begins today at Chrysler
Corp., the last of the Big Three auto
firms involved in the talks.
Both sides plan to offer specific
proposals later.
UNION OFFICIALS, grim-faced and
dour at GM Monday as they accused the
firm of interfering ina union election at
a new Oklahoma City auto plant, were
relaxed and jovial after a brief closed-
door session with Ford's bargaining
team.
"I mentioned to Ford Motor Co. that
this is my last go-round andI want to go
out in a blaze of glory," said Ken Ban-
non, the soon-to-retire head of the
UAW's Ford department.
"I also told them I wasn't going to
plead for tax
Against Higher Taxes gathered
signatures to force a vote on the tax
hikes, approved by the legislature last
year.
The two-cent hike in the gas tax and
30 per cent increase in license plate fees
form the backbone of funding for the
$162 million program.
But those backing the increased fees,
to be used to fund a statewide highway
and mass transit program, claim the
voters are not entitled to a referendum
because bills raising the revenues also
outlined how the additional funds would
be spent.
THE MICHIGAN Constitution
prohibits public referenda on ap-
bring down the house."
UAW PRESIDENT Douglas Fraser,
who has described as defunct President
Carter's anti-inflation seven per cent
wage guideline, said he has no inside
knowledge as to whether new
guidelines will be established before the
auto talks end.
"We don't establish guidelines. The
president does," Fraser joked. "We're
in charge of shooting them down."
Fraser, who met with Carter in
Detroit Monday, said the president
wished him good luck in the contract
talks.
"I TAKE IT from that he wants me to
do well," Fraser said.
Fraser said GM officials flew to the
Oklahoma site to ensure compliance
with a neutrality agreement in the
union organization drive on the eve of
Thursday's union election.
"I just wish they had done this earlier
on," he said.
ALTHOUGH THE UAW says it will
not be swayed by the current big car
sales slump- and economic downturn in
fixing money demands, McKenna
described those conditions as "a reality
that we cannot ignore."
"The last several sets of negotiations
in the industry have been marked by
strikes," said McKenna, who has par-
ticipated in negotiations since 1961.
"We intend to make every effort, both
nationally and locally, to avoid such
disruption, but our intentions alone
cannot control the outcome."
"If the issues are there, surely we
would ask our workers to go out on
strike," Bannon said.
referendum in state court
propriations bills.
"This is not an attack on the diversion
of traditional highway dollars on mass
transportation," Reisig said.
"The Department of Transportation
will continue to function," he said.
"IT JUST WILL not have those ad-
ditional funds until the people, in 1980,
have a chance to reject or accept."
Lawyers for the other side said the
Constitution clearly states that all
highway revenues must be used for
transportation programs. And that,
they said, is an automatic ap-
propriation and protects the gas and
weight taxes from a vote of the people.
"Regardless of how much revenue
comes in from the gas and weight
taxes, every dollar, every penny is
spent for transportation purposes,"
said attorney Tom Downs, whose firm
represented pre-highway groups
fighting against a popular vote.
HIS PARTNER, John Pirich, said
that even though the legislation did not
detail exactly how the new revenue was
to be spent, the constitutional provision
makes it an automatic appropriation
and therefore not subject to a referen-
dum.
"If it appropriates, it doesn't matteF
how little - it's exempt from referen-
dum," Pinch said.
STUDY SHOWS IT FAILED AS DETERRENT TO CRIME:
Jackson prison cancels
LANSING (UP!) - An inmate-run
program at Jackson Prison aimed at
scaring young offenders away from
crime has been suspended. A study
showed teen-age participants returned
to crime more often than non-
participants.
A study by the Corrections Depar-
tment said the program - similar to a
New Jersey prison project portrayed in
the television documentary "Scared
Straight" - had no major effect on
crime rates.
IT ALSO showed the incidence of
juvenile offenders who participated in
the program being involved in sub-
sequent crimes was slightly higher than
that of offenders who did not par-
ticipate.
The Michigan program is called
JOLT - an acronym for Juvenile Of-
fenders Learn Truth - and was started
in May 1978 by the Jaycees chapter at
Jackson Prison.
UNlike the New Jersey program,
however, JOLT was only for male of-
fenders.
JUVENILE offenders between ages
13 and 17 were taken on 2%/-hour tours
of the prison. Each was fingerprinted,
searched and locked in a cell for
several minutes before meeting with
inmates who described prison life.
The Corrections Commission, during
a weekend meeting at Marquette, or-
dered the program suspended for 60
JOL Tprogran
days after hearing a report that said a
study of 227 juvenile offenders "the
JOLT program had no discernible ef-
fect on those young people who par-
ticipated in it."
A department analyst said a com-
parison of the 227 juveniles referred to
JOLT in 1978 with a comparable group
of offenders who were not referred to
the program showed 20.3 per cent of
those who went through the program
committed at least one crime within the
next three months compared with 18.9
per cent of the non-participants.
A Corrections Department
spokesman said the study does not con-
clude the program actnally causes an
increase in crime. However, one prison
official said he feared that the program
might inadvertantly have precisely
that effect.
"There's a mystique about prisons,"
said Charles Utess, director of resident
programs at Jackson. "Maybe these
kids, after they see this place, say,
'That ain't so bad.' It might be kind of a
macho thing that makes them a big
man.
Tony Bercheny, one of 26 inmates
who conducts the JOLT program, said
he was "disappointed" in the findings.
President's Cabinet
offers resignations
(continued from Pase i) assistants, including such White House
in the next few days." luminaries as Powell and key Carter
THE DEVELOPMENT was adviser HamiltonJordan.
reminiscent of former President
Richard Nixon's 1972 demand for stan- ALSO OFFERING to leave were a
dby resignations from all his appoin- number of officials who normally meet
tees,'including Cabinet members, after with the Cabinet, including United
he won a landslide re-election victory. Nations Ambassador Andrew Young
In the end, four Cabinet resignations and Middle East peace negotiator
were accepted by Nixon. Robert Strauss.
According to sources, Carter was James McIntyre, director of the Of-
given the resignation offers Tuesday fice of Management and Budget, said
morning during a two-hour Cabinet he, too, had offered to resign. "Yes, it's
meeting and at a separate hour-long true,"hesaid.
session with his senior White House The staff of Carter's wife, Rosalynn,
staff, also submitted resignations, but Vice-
The offers were submitted by ,all President Walter Mondale's staff did
*-presidential .assistants .aid -special Wt;'.
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