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. ----------