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Page 2 -- The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, March 31, 1987
TAs begin to vote on
By ANDY MILLS
Teaching assistants across
campus began voting this week on
a proposal to call a strike against
the University on April 8. The
Graduate Employees Organization
- the union bargaining for the near
1,700 university employed teaching
and staff assistants - is soliciting
ballots from its 1,100 members
until April 7.
Votes began trickling in
yesterday, but GEO President Alice
Haddy predicts peak return times
will be today and tomorrow. Most,
if not all, of the union members
should have received their ballots,
Haddy said.
Ballots are being mailed to the
union members in accordance with
the GEO constitution to ensure that
everyone knows about the election
and receives a ballot.
The votes will be opened and
counted April 7, after the GEO and
University meet with state-ap-
pointed mediator Edmund Phillips
that day. The April 7 meeting will
be the first between the two sides
since March 12.
If the strike is approved, TAs
will strike only if the University
and the GEO fail to come to an
agreement at the meeting. The
ballot only needs to pass by a
majority of the votes cast, as
opposed to previous votes which re-
quired the endorsement of a major-
ity of the union members in order
to call a strike.
The primary demands of the
GEO, which will hold a rally on
the Diag at noon tomorrow, are a
full tuition waiver for TAs, a two-
year scaled salary increase, paid
training for new TAs, and depart-
mentally set class limits.
The University, led by chief
strike
negotiator Colleen Dolan-Greene,
has continually refused to comment
on the issues on the bargaining
table as a matter of policy. Accord-
ing to the GEO, the University is
offering no salary increase and a
gradual increase in the tuition
waiver culminating in a full waiver
after three years. Currently, TAs
receive a 56 percent tuition waiver.
Support for a strike from union
members, according to Haddy, has
been suprisingly positive. She also
said undergraduates have given
support to the GEO's contract
demands.
Thatcher demands action from Soviets
MOSCOW (AP) - British
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
yesterday challenged Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev to produce deeds
that match his words about seeking
better relations abroad and providing
greater freedom at home.
Thatcher took Gorbachev to task
specifically on human rights and
the withdrawal of Soviet troops
from Afghanistan.
"We will reach our judgments
not on intentions or on promises
but in deeds and on results," she
said of Western leaders.
Gorbachev repeated the Kremlin
position that it wants a political
solution in Afghanistan, where
Moslem insurgents have fought
government troops since a com-
munist coup in 1978. An estimated
115,000 Soviet soldiers are now in
the country.
He said the Soviets are ready to
discuss human rights "openly and
loudly" if the debate includes
unemployment, homelessness, and
discrimination in the West.
"If we're going to talk about
human rights, let's talk about all
rights," Gorbachev said.
They spoke at a state banquet in
the Grand Kremlin Palace in the
third day of Thatcher's official visit.
Thatcher pressed the West's case
for arms control, starting with
elimination of medium-range nu-
clear weapons from Europe and
restraints on shorter-range rockets.
Her attitudes are an important
consideration for Gorbachev because
Britain has its own nuclear arsenal
and she has given strong support to
U. S. defense policies.
Gorbachev accused the West of
including "a package of conditions
and demands on the Soviet Union"
in proposals for an arms agreement.
IN BRIEF
Compiled from Associated Press reports
Dollar makes historic drop
NEW YORK - A historic plunge in the dollar's value put a scare
into bull markets around the world yesterday as investors worried about
an unrestrained decline in the U. S. currency and the outside chance of a
trade war.
The prices of stocks and bonds plunged in Tokyo, London, and New
York in reaction to the dollar's fall. The U. S. currency hit its lowest
point against the Japanese yen since modern exchange rates were
established in the late 1940s.
Traders said they were worried in part by President Reagan's plan to
impose inhibitive tariffs on up to $300 million worth of Japanese
electronic goods to force the Japanese into compliance with a trade
agreement on computer chips.
Marine Corps replace 28
security guards in Moscow
WASHINGTON - The Marine Corps, coopefating with the State
Department, said yesterday it has agreed to replace all 28 security guards
at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow with other Marines as a special
precaution.
The move follows the disclosure that two former guards are
suspected of repeatedly allowing Soviet agents in the embassy late at
night in what has been called a critical breach of security.
Meanwhile, Pentagon sources said Cpl. Arnold Bracy, one of the
former guards suspected of espionage, was reduced in rank from sergeant
for fraternization with a woman while in Moscow.
UAW to get $1.3 million
DETROIT - United Auto Workers union members will receive
$1.3 million in compensation from General Motors Corp. as part of a
settlement that sends 9,000 striking workers back to their jobs today.
The settlement ratified on Sunday by members of UAW Local 594:
in Pontiac calls for GM to compensate union local members 'whose
contracts were violated because GM improperly subcontracted work to4
outside suppliers, the union said.
"We've got compensation for everything that went out," said Local
594 President Donny Douglas.
Members approved the agreement by a vote of 1,314-25, ending a
four-day strike that halted truck and bus production at three Pontiac
plants.
"I don't think there was really much doubt about it," Bob Schroeder,
the local's eduction director, said of the vote tally.
Michigan State Police want
mandatory retirement age
LANSING - Michigan's Department of State Police wants to be
able to force officers to step down at age 56 to keep the corps in its best
possible physical fitness.
The department has asked a federal judge to restore mandatory
retirement.
Congress last year passed a law allowing mandatory retirement ages
to be set for firefighters, college professors and police officers. That
opened the door for state police to ask U. S. District Judge Wendell'
Miles to modify a ruling he made in 1983 that removed mandatory
retirement for healthy employees.
The 1983 consent judgment barred the state from retiring officers
before age 70 unless the department could prove occupational problems
such as physical incapability.
11
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Gorbachev
... willing to talk
Thatcher
... demands action
A
Citizens air concerns over collider
FOOD
(Continued from Page 1)
lifestyle." Seibarth said a 40-year-
old forest and an Indian burial
ground would be torn down if the
collider was built on the proposed
site.
University experts testified in
favor of the project. "I would be a
very loud, very noisy, and
enthusiastic supporter" of the
collider being built at the proposed
site, University Vice President for
Research Linda Wilson told the
panel. She added that the collider
would bring about a "strong boost
in the nation's and the world's
understanding of high-particle
physics."
John Mogk, president of the
Detroit-based Michigan Energy and
Resource Research Association,
told the panel that Michigan had a
one in ten chance of hosting the
accelerator. Only five states, he
said, have a better chance than
Michigan.
The hearing was chaired by state
Senator Doug Carl (R-Utica), head
of the state Senate Energy Com-
mittee. The panel also included
Senators Lana Pollack (D-Ann
Arbor) and Norman Shinkle (R-
Lambertville).
The State Senate passed a bill
last Wednesday which appoints a
super collider commission consist-
ing of the state Director of
Commerce, the Director of the
Department of Natural Resources,
the heads of the physics depart-
ments at the University of Mich-
igan, Michigan State University,
Wayne State University, and others
involved with education, govern-
ment, and local industry. The
commission's mandate is to "per-
form all efforts necessary to attract
the superconducting super collider
to this state," the bill said.
THE COLLIDER will smash
beams of protons into each other
with a collision energy of 40
trillion electron volts, and will have
a $270 million annual budget. It
will create no pollution while
operating.
The DoE will formally request
proposals from states this April, to
be submitted in August. Then, a
panel of scientists named by the
National Academy of Science and
the National Academy of Engin-
eering will study the submitted
sites and recommend the top five
sites to the DoE. The collider will
be awarded to a state in January
1989.
The DoE has said it would prefer
a site with a sufficient amount of
land, an appropriate environment,
enough power and water, and
community support and resources.
The Fermi National Acceleration
Laboratory, currently the largest
particle acceleration plant in the
country, is in Illinois. The new
collider would smash particles with
20 times the collision energy
possible at Fermi.
4
EXTRAS
14
I., -I
Profs. find aberration
in physics theory
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(Continued from Page 1)
substance which self-destructs after
about a millionth of a second.
QED, Gidley said, should predict
the self-destructiontime very accur-
ately. Gidley and Rich found a
much shorter decay time than QED
would have predicted.
"Something's wrong some-
where," Gidley said, "and it can't be
just a systematic fluke. The pos-
sibility of it just being a statistical
fluctuation is zero."
Rich said the experiments have
been careful and accurate, but he did
not rule out the possibility of
experimental error. Rich and Gidley
have been performing experiments
in this area for over 10 years.
"I hope this will cause a flurry
of theoretical work," said Gidley.
"Hard-core QED itself is not wrong,
but theorists really have to
resolve... the way we're applying
WEEKEND
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it."
"QED has been very successful
in predicting phenomena to aston-
ishing levels of accuracy," West-
brooksaid. "I don't think I or
anyone else thinks it's breaking
down." He said, however, that he
hoped the discrepancy could lead to
bigger discoveries.
The theory of QED has been
used since about 1947 to describe
and predict the electromagnetic
interactions of atomic particles. The
theory has also spawned other
important scientific and tech-
nological theories.
Gidley said it would take over a
year before the scientists can make
another precise measurement. Rich
said the new experiment "will be
done in a completely different way
- it will be a systematic check.
We think it will be more accurate,
but that's not the issue."
"Much of physics will probably
go on as before," Rich said, "but a
lot of people will begin worrying
about the foundations of quantum
electrodynamics. It's the kind of
discovery that might be explained
away in a couple of months or it
could open new doors or lead to
new ways of thinking about
things."
Snowy-white owl caught
red-handed in pigeon kill
There's a killer owl flying around. According to Bill Thompson, a
physics technician at Randall Laboratory, the snowy-white migrated
from C.C. Little - where people had flocked to watch it last Friday -
to the laboratory later that afternoon. While perching on the edge of the
roof, the owl suddenly jumped off the ledge, toward the roof, in an
explosion of white feathers that looked "like someone had busted open a
pillow." Thompson sensed fowl play. In the invesigation that ensued,
he discovered the remains of an unfortunate pigeon's stomach, or crop.
"He did an excellent job on that pigeon," Thomson said. He added that
owls are regularly four or five times larger than pigeons, and that the
snowy-white is probably migrating north. --By Melissa Birks
Cockroaches invade Lansing
EAST LANSING (AP) - There are some unwanted passengers
hitching rides on Michigan cars heading home from Florida - Blatella
asiana, or flying Asian cockroaches.
But Michigan State University entomologist Gary Dunn says the
nasty critters face an uncertain future in Michigan. It seems that they
like to live outside and may be used to Florida's climate.
Vol. XCVII -No. 123
The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967 X) is published Monday through
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through April-$18 in Ann Arbor; $35 outside the city. One
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The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and sub -
scribes to Pacific News Service and the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.
4
Editor in Chief...............................ROB EARLE
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