Thursday, August 8, 1974 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page -1he Thrday Auut8 97 H IHIA AL Pg 1he Area operators t Sr'C2_ ''F stage wildct t 25 strike to proU",test union contract By BARBARA CORNELL An "unauthorized walkout" of more than 200 operators at the local Michigan Bell office yesterday has slowed its non- automated services to a crawl. Customers dialing "O" on the tele- phone hear a recording that "due to an unauthorized work stoppage" operators are only to be used in emergencies. Di- rectory assistance has also been slowed and many of the repairmen and linemen have refused to cross the picket line. COMMUNICATION Workers of Ameri- ca local 4011 President Fred Chase said he Ions asked the picketers to return to work since they riskkacourt injunction ending the walkout.Ise asserted, how- ever, that he will use nothing harsher than words to force the operators to stop striking. The operatorswarepaskingdfor various health 'nd dental benefits, but the cen- tral issues are wages and early availa- bility of the benefits provided for in their tentative settlemnent. A nationwide strike was originally scheduled for Monday, but a settlement AP Photo was announced at 11:30 Sunday night, FRENCH TIGHTROPE walker Phillipe Petit is accompanied by police and only one half-hour before they were to newsmen following his arrest yesterday in New York after he walked a high- walk out. wire cable stretched between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. "I was really disappointed about the Police reported Petit and two photographers hid overnight in one of the towers settlement," said one of the twenty oper- and before dawn, set up the highwire. Petit was sentenced to giving a free ators marching in front of the local demonstration of his talent to the children in Central Park. Michigan Bell office on E. Hoover. Parisian a erialis t walk sets newhight reco "Like, I didn't believe it. I though they had their story mixed up" SHE SAID she had planned to be striking for at least a month and added, "I just don't think they bargained very well. We were prepared for a strike and when they settled at the last minute it had to be a sell out" One striker explained that the money from telephone rate hikes does not go to them, but rather to such expenses as new trucks and office furniture. "If they want a rate increase, we want one too," she shouted. The operators have been working six to eight hors per day, depending on the shift, six days a week for the last two months. They complained that many peo- ple on welfare or ADC are making al- most as much as they are. "The cost of living is rising every month, bot our wages aren't. Ask an op- erator when was the last time they went out to dinner or ate steak or bought a new pair of shoes," one irate picketer said. "We can't be expected to give peo- ple good service if we're underpaid and overworked." Another protester insisted, "What would you do if you had to spend all day listening to people cuss you out and ask for things like unlisted numbers that they know they can't have. It takes a special kind of person to be an opera- tor. Let people be without us for a few days and then decide if they need us or not." The operators plan to continue their strike "as long as necessary" and they will be joined by their co-workers in Plymouth today who are protesting the same conditions. This walkout will put considerable stress on the ell tele- phone system since it is the Plymouth operators who usually take over in the event of an Ann Arbor strike. Ford allegedly makes list of potential VP's CHICAGO (M - Vice President Ger- ald Ford has drafted a preliminary list of 14 potential candidates for vice presi- dent in the event he becomes president, The Chicago Sun-Times said. Heading the list is former Defense Secretary Melvin Laird, the newspaper said in a Washington-datelined story in today's edition. .OTHER LEADING candidates were reported to be Rep. Albert Quie, (R- Minn.) and former GOP Sen. Charles Goodell of New York. Rounding out the all-Republican list were former New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, Sens. Howard Baker and William Brock of Tennessee, Sen. Rob- ert Taft of Ohio, Robert Stafford of Ver- mont, Mark Hatfield of Oregon, Ed- ward Brooke of Massachusetts, and Charles Percy of Illinois; Rep. John An- See SUN-TIMES, Page 5 NEW YORK (R)-A Parisian aerialist dared death yesterday by skipping un- announced accross a steel cable he had strung between the quarter-mile-high twin towers of the World Trade Center. The stunt-which nearly doubled the height record for a tightrope walk-in- volved months of planning by more than a half-dozen confederates who used hard- hat disguises, forged identification and stealth. "THAT WAS the most beautiful place in the world to walk," the elated French- man, 25-year-old Philippe Petit, said when his four 140-foot crossings were over. A street entertainer who beguiles block parties and theater .crowds with his self- taught juggling and unicycle antics, Petit has walked two other notable tight- ropes-between the towers of Notre Dame Cathedral, in 1970, and the towers of the bridge in Australia's Sydney Harbor, in 1973. But the next tightrope he'll walk is the law's: He was arrested on misdemeanor charges of trespass and disorderly con- duct. UNINHIBITED, though handcuffed, Petit performed for television cameras during his booking by balancing a police officer's hat on his nose. Then, with a little smile, he flipped it upright onto his head. Was he afraid? "You don't have time for fear," he said. "I was dying of happiness. The feeling is hard to describe. You could be flying-it's close to flying . . . "I saw the city waking up, which was beautiful." PETIT'S WALK 1,350 feet above an overcast Manhattan bettered by 600 feet the crossing of Karl Wallenda over Georgia's Tallulah Gorge, according to the Guinness Book of Records. Only a handful of passers-by were on hand when Petit began his walk, but enthralled crowds soon gathered as he repeated his feat after an arduous night spent with three friends rigging cable and guy wires. A bow-and-arrow device was used to string the cable between the towers. IT WAS NOT a publicity stunt, he maintained, but a thrill like climbing Mt. Everest. "Don't connect this with looking for a job. I don't need anything," Petit said, seemingly oblivious to the publicity and its likely rewards of endorsements and talk show appearances. "I am a high- wire walker, and that was the most beautiful place in the world to put a wire to walk." Two of his fellow schemers said Petit years ago filed away a photograph of a model of the soaring towers near Wall Street. Then he visited the city in Jan- uary. "I look around and see what New York is like," Petit recalled. "And then, I see these two tall towers ..." Heroin dealer convicted By DELLA DIPIETRO Alonzo "Fat Lonnie" Malone, alleged- ly the biggest heroin pusher in Washte- naw County, was convicted yesterday afternoon of four counts of heroin deliv- ery. Malone faces a maximum sentence of 13 to 20 years. He is scheduled for sen- tencing on Aug. 23. He still faces charges from two addi- tional cases, which include charges of possession of marijuana, possession of a concealed weapon and two federal counts of heroin delivery. According to Assistant County Prose- cutor Lynwood Noah, the heroin con- fiscated was of poor quality. "Mr. Ma- lone was an experienced businessman; he was cutting down on quality to maxi- mize profits," he added. Malone, 36, had been working as a cook for an Office of Economic Oppor- tunity day care center when he was ar- rested last February 20. James "Dirty Red" Amison, consider- ed to be the second biggest heroin push- er in the County, was convicted last July 18 and faces sentencing this Friday. Noah added that the heroin supply in Washtenaw County has decreased be- cause of the County's methadone pro- gram and the cut in Turkey's recent heroin output.