Ninety-nine years of editorialfreedom
Vol. IC, No. 107 Ann Arbor, Michigan - Wednesday, March 8, 1989 Copyright 1989, The Michigan Daily

Strike

affects

workers,

students


Eastern
lays off
more
workers
MIAMI (AP) - A federal judge
yesterday refused to order Eastern
Airlines pilots back to work, even
though Eastern warned it couldn't
otherwise survive the 4-day-old ma-
chinists' strike. A spin-off job ac-
tion by pilots nationwide failed to
clog airports as feared.
Eastern earlier sent 2,500 more
non-union workers home, blaming
pilots for leaving it with "no busi-
ness on the books."
"If the pilots do not come back to
work, Eastern Airlines is gone,"
company attorney David Ross said.
He warned during a court hearing
that Eastern was faced with
bankruptcy without its 3,600 pilots,
who have refused to cross picket
lines the Machinists' union set up
Saturday.
U.S. District Judge Edward Davis
denied Eastern's request for a tempo-
rary restraining order less than a half
hour after the three-hour hearing.
Pilots union spokesperson J.B.
Stokes called the ruling "a victory of
principle: a victory of ethics."
"We've obviously made our case.
Basically what this means is that
nothing's changed," Stokes said,
adding pilots will continue to honor
Machinists picket lines.
Ross said the company may have
to file forfederal bankruptcy protec-
tion and couldn't operate more than
48 to 72 hours more without the pi-
See Strike, Page 5

Lack

of polling

site hours irks

LINDSAY MORRIS/Daily.
Eastern airlines workers strike at Detroit Metro Airport; the strike enters its fifth day today.
Students cope with return

MSAm
BY ALEX GORDON
The Michigan Student Assem-
bly's regular meeting ended in an
uproar last night, as assembly
members protested the reduction of
polling sites and polling hours for
the March 21-22 MSA elections.
LSA rep. and presidential candi-
date Zachary Kittrie introduced a res-
olution late in the meeting to in-
crease the number of polling sites
and polling hours on North Campus.
Under present plans, North Campus
will have only one site, the North
Campus Commons, open four hours
each day.
Assembly President Mike
Phillips defendedthe present plan,
saying it was an "administrative de-
cision" made by unbiased people. He
criticized those complaining about
the hours, citing the fact that the
polling places and hours have been
publicly posted at MSA since De-
cember.
Michelle Puntman, who is not an
MSA member, is directing the elec-
tion. Phillips said that those com-
plaining "are making biased deci-
sions" because several are involved
in the campaign.
"The reason you have an election
director is so the candidates don't run
the election," Phillips said. Puntman
was unavailable for comment.
According to MSA's Compiled
Code, there must be a polling site

iembers
for each school, however, the Code
also says that those sites can be lo-
cated at a position students from a
school "most frequent."
MSA elections '39
U MSA candidates announce
election bids.
See story, Page 3
Kittrie said in the next week he
will "look at the rules and figure out
what can be done" before he re
introduces a resolution next week It
"looks like partisan concerns," Kit-
trie said, "but we're really sincere
about this."
Presidential candidates Rob Bell
and Aaron Williams concurred with
Kittrie about the need for increased
sites and hours.- "The poll sites
clearly are not adequate. They are bi-
ased towards Central Campus, and
eliminate many important parts of
North Campus," Bell said.
"One individual manipulated the
assembly," he said, "the true student
body was not being represented."
Williams said Phillips was "just
pissed off' and was "just getting ev-
eryone back" by refusing to add more
See MSA, Page 3

trip delays bee
BY VICTORIA BAUER.
After three days of long lines and arguing with
ticket agents, LSA sophomore Patti Burke finally re-
turned from spring break yesterday.
Burke, who had reservations on Eastern Airlines,
was one of many students inconvenienced by the Ma-
chinists' union strike, which has virtually shut down
the airline since Saturday.
After two days of being bumped from flights and a
night sleeping in the airport, Burke bought a new
ticket for $255 that took her from Orlando to Chicago
to Detroit. And then her luggage was lost.
"The whole ordeal was so frustrating," Burke said.
"I just wanted to come home and get out of there. It

ause of strike
ruined our vacation."
Local travel agents said they had anticipated the
strike and advised students not to fly on Eastern, said
Faber Travel president Bob Faber.
Dan Nowakqwski, office manager of Regency
Travel, said he booked no more than a dozen students
on Eastern Airlines. "(Eastern) has always been a hob-
bling airline. It's been teetering and tottering for
years.
And Charles Goerlitz, a former Eastern Airline em-
ployee of 15 years and Ann Arbor resident, concurs
that the airline has been slowly crumbling since 1985,
when it was bought by Frank-Lorenzo of Texas Air.
See Trips, Page 5


Moslem students
speak on Verses
BY VERA SONGWE to present the Moslem point of view."
TheUniversity's Pakistani Student The first speaker, graduate student
Association organizes an annual lec- disrespect for the whole Moslem corn-
ture series in which they bring schol- munity.
ars from around the United States to The Moslems are fighting for sen-
come speak to the Pakistani student sitivity while the West fights for free- x
population, as well as to educate other dom of speech, saying "'so what' to
students on their culture. Moslem sensitivities."
About 200 Hytham Younis, a University
people gathered alumnusspoke after Muhktar. To him
yesterday in the struggle of the Moslems is not just
Rackham Audi- a 20th Century phenomenon. There
torium tolisten to has always been an attempt to portray
Abdulaziz Sa- Moslems as people without reasoning
chedenaspeakon or tolerance for the rest of the world,
"The Satanic he said.
Verses - Free- After portraying many instances
dom of Speech or where Moslems have been misrepre-
Freedom of Reli- sented, Younis said he hoped "that out
gion." Due to air- of this misunderstanding a more co-
line mishaps, he Yo herent and tolerantdiscussion between
could not make it, so two University the West and the Moslems could be
graduate students gave speeches on achieved."
British author Salman Rushdie's con- Most of the audience agreed with
troversial book. the speakers but felt that freedom of
"Almost overnight, it became the ' speech was more important than any-
Khomeini threat rather than the thing else and should be protected.
Rushdie words which were more "I very much endorse everything oat h a m ess
important," said Imran Mehdi, you have said but I do not think the 
dent of PSA and a graduate student in First Amendment should be called to Advertisements found insi
electrical engineering. "We would like See Verses, Page 3
Group fights for new

City deficit
causes fire,
Police dept.
vacancies
BY KRISTINE LALONDE
The Ann Arbor City Council ap-
proved a plan to eliminate its esti-
mated $2.8 million deficit late
Monday night. Much of the money
the city will save comes from un-
filled vacancies in the police and fire
departments.
The fire department currently has
13 vacancies, including eight fire
fighter positions. The police depart-
ment holds five "uniform" and three
"non-uniform" vacancies. These va-
cancies will reduce this year's city
payroll expenditure by $690,434.
City Administrator Del Borgsdorf
said the easiest way to reduce the
city's budget is by leaving vacancies
open. "There's this real reluctance to
use lay-offs when there are vacan-
cies," he said.
Borgsdorf said the vacancies in
the fire department may mean taking
a piece of fire equipment out of ser-
vice. "What we take out of service...
will have the least impact on the
quality of service."
But Borgsdorf admitted the va-
cancies will reduce city services,
"There isn't any question that there
will be service reductions and some
of them will be in areas of high pri-
ority."
Vacancies in other departments
such as the Parks and Recreation,
administration and engineering also
exist.
Al11 ,. ...- -...:. -.. . _ i

JESSICA GREENE /DailyI

I

de the Daily usually find their way to the floor b oIl the wastebasket.
housing

' - '

BY JOSH MITNICK
For seven weeks, 10 people dedicated to the
creation of low-income housing have gathered
together on icy Saturday mornings in a parking
lot on Ashley St. to bring their message to the
people of Ann Arbor.
At the center of the demonstrations is LSA
senior Renuka Uthappa, member of the Home-
less Action Committee (HAC). Uthappa said the
1 weekly protests will culminate April 15, when

high schools in an effort to "drum up" support
for the April 15 sit-in. In addition, the group
plans to enlist the support of the Latin American
Solidarity Committee and the United Coalition
Against Racism.
"We need 100 people - 78 to occupy the
spaces, but 100 to make it an effective demon-
stration," Uthappa said. "Our idea is to interrupt
business as usual so people have to pay attention
to what is going on."

City Council member Jeff Epton (D-Third
Ward) echoed this sentiment. "Without the work
they are doing, it [the issue of low-income hous-
ing] would have a lower profile than it now
does."
Although Epton couldn't explain the council's
failure to take action on a 1985 recommendation
by the Affordable Housing Task Force to create
1,000 more affordable housing units, he said
council member Larry Hunter (D-First Ward) isa

No justice in Bhopal
Ste Opinion, Page 4
Fani dancer Josephine Baker
appears, sans leopards in two
films at the Michigan Theater.
See A rts,.Page 9
The Michigan inenxs gymnastics
team had its ups and downs dur-.
';""trr irr v ux I, fti x Ye~n .

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