UAW talks
with Ford
move ahead
slowly
DETROIT (UPI) - The Ford Motor
Co. responded yesterday to first-round
union contract demands with a plea for
greater freedom to schedule overtime
and longer probationary periods for
new workers.
It was the second industry response
to the United Auto Workers (UAW)
Union in negotiations to renew contrac-
ts expiring Sept. 14 for 750,000 U.S. auto
workers.
General Motors Corp. earlier reacted
with shock to wide-ranging union
proposals for higher wages, shorter.
hours and improved benefits,
describing them as "unbelievable."
IN A MILDER response, Ford's chief
negotiator Sidney MCKenna said there
is "a wide difference in views on the
concept of reality in 1979" between the
UAW and the No. 2 auto company.
McKenna said Ford contractrgoals
also include a push for ways to reduce
absenteeism - a problem UAW Vice
President Ken Bannon said the firm is
overstating.
Ford also told the union it wants to
curb health care costs - a major theme
this year of all the Big Three
automakers - including deferring full
coverage for newly hired workers.
BANNON, A veteran bargainer par-
ticipating in his last round of contract
talks, said the company's demands
"seem more drastic this year than they
have in the past. We'll grind away at it
as we have in the past, and time will
tell."
Both sides agreed the extent to which
workers can be required to work over-
time will be a difficult part of the
negotiations, now in their third week.
Overtime, Ford said, "is still a basic
and essential option for the company to
have available for meeting changes in
production, maintenance or tooling
requirements - no matter what oc-
casions those changes."
ally-Tuesday, July 31, 1979-Page 3
House
vetoes move
to expel
Diggs
From AP and UPI
WASHINGTON - The House
yesterday narrowly defeated a
Republican-led move to expel Rep.
Charles Diggs (D-Mich.), from
Congress because of his conviction
on payroll padding charges.
The 205-197 vote to table the ex-
pulsion motion cleared the way for
the House to go ahead with its
original plan to consider a less
severe punishment - censure -
today.
Major supporters of the expulsion
move said they expect the House to
approve the censure motion today
and that they planned no further ef-
fort at this time to expel Diggs.
BUT THEY said another attempt
could come if Diggs is unsuccessful
in his attempts to get his federal
conviction set aside.
See HOUSE, Page5
Daily Photo
U. S. Rep. Charles Diggs' (D-Mich.), conviction caused Republicans to ask
for his expulsion. The House has recommended that Diggs be censured.
While Speaker of the House Thomas O'Neill (D-Mass.) said the matter was
fairly considered by the Senate Ethics Committee, yesterday Republicans
said the full House should be able t9 decide.
STATE SUPREME COURT DECISION SPLIT:
Public workers denied arbitration
LANSING (UPI) - The Michigan
Supreme Court said yesterday public
employees cannot demand compulsory
arbitration, under the Public Em-
ployees Relations Act (PERA), of in-
dividual grievances.
And, in another case, the high court
vacated attorney Leonard Jaques'
suspension for soliciting survivors of
the 1971 Port Huron tunnel disaster,
responding to a recent U.S. Supreme
Court ruling on the lawyer discipline
issue.
The court's split decision on the ar-
bitration issue came in the case of a St.
Clair County sheriff's deputy who was
not appointed to serve during the
second term of Sheriff Norman
Meharg. Under state law, sheriffs may
decide not to reappoint their deputies -
or can revoke their appointments - at
will.
JAMES BRUIN had been a St. Clair
County deputy since 1957, but Meharg
decided not to reappoint him in 1972.
Bruin had run against Meharg for
sheriff in the preceding election.
Bruin filed suit against Meharg in
circuit court, after the sheriff refused to
respond to his grievance demand -
claiming Meharg's decision was based
on politics and not on just cause.
But Meharg said he dismissed Bruin
for alleged failure to follow jail security
procedures, which resulted in the
escape of three prisoners, and that
Bruin misused his sick-leave time to
run for sheriff.
THE SUPREME Court, in a 5-2
ruling, said the legislature did not in-
tend the police and fire compulsory ar-
bitration section of the Public Em-
ployees Relations Act to apply to in-
dividual disputes.
"The sophisticated provisions of the
police and fire department compulsory
arbitration act ... are directed toward
the resolution of major collective
bargaining impasses and the preven-
tion of police and fire department em-
ployee strikes," the court said.
"They are inapposite to the resolution
of individual employee grievance
disputes, which may involve matters as
trivial as the length of an employee's
hair or the shine on his or her shoes."
FURTHERMORgE, the court said,
state lawmakers amended the ar-
bitration section of the PERA in 1977
"to make clear that it did not apply to
grievance disputes."
Justices G. Mennen Williams and
Charles Levin dissented in the decision,
but said their opinion only applied to
grievances filed before the 1977 amen-
dment.
In the Jaques case, the justices said a
recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling
makes clear a lawyer cannot be
suspended merely for soliciting.
Disciplinary rules can prohibit conduct
which involves "fraud, undue influen-
ce, intimidation overreaching and other
forms of 'vexatious conduct'," it said.
today-
Mac's mutt
McDonalds, like other area restaurants, constan-
tly seeks new customers. But yesterday morning,
two counter employees steadfastly worked to drive
a particularly odorous patron out of the Maynard St.
establishment. The scraggly mutt moved between
the protective legs of waiting customers, who were
becoming impatient with the growing lines. Expec-
ting a sure triumph, an employee strode around the
counter smiling and brandishing a freshly-cooked
french fry. He knelt beside the pup, attempting to
lure him out of the building with the famed aroma.
The dog, however, turned up his nose and crept
closer to the wall of legs. Another employee tried to
coax him out, but to no avail. Finally, a boy walked
toward the door with his bagged order, with the
clearly carnivorous canine on his heels.
His own medicine
The man who was most audible in accusing U.S.
Sen. Herman Talmadge (D-Ga.), of guiding Senate
funds into a private account, pleaded guilty yester-
day to filing a false expense form in 1974. Daniel
Minchew, Talmadge's administrative assistant and
chief advisor, admitted filing a phony claim of
$2,289 and faces a $1,000 fine and a maximum
five-year jail sentence. Both the Justice Depar-
tment and the Senate have investigated Talmadge's
finances, and Minchew has claimed he helped the
senator divert thousands of dollars in expense ac-
count claims and campaign money into a fund for
Talmadge's personal use. The Senate Ethics Com-
mittee is expected to meet this week to decide
whether to punish Talmadge. Minchew's guilty plea
is the result of a bargain between his lawyers and
the Justice Department. Rumor has it a stone
crashed through Minchew's glass house.
Happenings...
... are scant today. Prof. Umar Abd-Allah will
discuss "The Early Development of Islamic Law
and the Notion of Classical Islamic Legal Theory"
at 1 p.m. in Lecture Room 1, MLB ... then at 8
p.m., Stewart Pollens, senior restorer of musical in-
struments at New York's Metropolitan Museum of
Art, will present an illustrated lecture, "The Sur-
viving Fprtepianos of Bartolomeo Cristofori" in the
Cady Music Room of the Stearns Building on North
Campus ... also at 8 p.m., the University Chamber
Orchestra will' perform at Hill
Auditorium.. . FILMS: Ann Arbor Film Co-op -
Unfinished Business, 7 p.m.; The Long Gray Line,
8:30 p.m.; both in Aud. A, Angell Hall.
On the outside
It'll be mostly cloudy today with scattered thun-
derstorms. The high will be in the 80s, the low near
70. It's a sad way to say good-bye to July.
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