The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 28, 1994 - 5

.'U' students
beamed
into new
Trek club
By JOHN LOMBARD
For the Daily
With phasers on stun, one of the
University's newest clubs is traveling
at warp speed and boldly going where
no club has gone before.
ClaireBranch, an LSA sophomore,
is co-founder of The Continuum, the
University's Star Trek fan club dedi-
cated to the space-age science-fiction
series.
Branch and "Fleet Captain" Sarah
Winfrey, who are both physics and
astronomy majors, decided to form
the Star Trek fan club last winter.
The organization had nearly 50
active members last year and organiz-
ers are excited that 142 students signed
up to join the club at last week's
Festifall.
The main attraction for the Trek-
kers- in Star Trek-speak, Trekkies
refers to Star Trek fans of the original
show-is the weekly viewing of Star
Trek: The NextGeneration. Viewings
are held at members' apartments or in
the dorms. They can attract up to 20
Trekkers.
Besides weekly viewings, mem-
bers attend conventions, sign on to e-
mail (a club favorite), collect Star
Trek books, and buy memorabilia. A
Type I phaser used in a show can sell
for as much as $900.
"It's not the only thing I live for,"

Labor dispute
idles 11,500
'GM employees

MARK FRIEDMAN/Daily
The University's Star Trek club, Dawn Wiley (captain), Laura Nelson (captain), Karl Lewis (captain), Sara Winfrey
(fleet captain) and Clair Branch (fleet captain), from left to right, display their Trek toys memorabilia.

U Strike expected to
have 'ripple effect,'
may force 100,000
layoffs within 2 days
FLINT (AP) - Up to 11,500
workers went on strike yesterday at a
key General Motors Corp. complex,
shutting off the flow of parts needed
to keep many other GM plants run-
ning.
As many as 100,000 other GM
workers could be idled within 48
hours, a union leader warned. A sub-
contractor in Tennessee shut down
within hours and 6,550 workers in
Lansing were told not to report today.
The United Auto Workers walked
off the job at the huge Buick City
complex, complaining of production
speedups, safety problems and sub-
contracting.
Welder Dave Falting translated
that as he walked a picket line: "They
speeded up the lines, and don't have
enough people to do the job."
GM would not speculate on the
walkout's effect, which comes in the
middle ofa production and sales boom
for the world's No. 1 automaker.
"We are disappointed with this
action but remain hopeful that resolu-
tion can soon be achieved," plant
manager Tim Lee said in a statement.
Both sides said they expected to
be back at the table this morning.

The Buick City complex assemble
Buicks and Oldsmobiles and make a
number of parts that are shipped to
GM car assembly and component fat-
tories across the United States and
Canada.
"Within 24 to 48 hours we're go-
ing to shut down most of the assembly
plants," costing GM millions of dol-
lars a day, UAW Local 599 President
Dave Yettaw said. "I don't think you
have to be Socrates to understand
those numbers."
Among the parts made at Buick
City, consisting of about two dozen
factories, are torque converters for
the automatic transmissions that go
into most GM cars.
Without the converters, transmis-
sion plants will close. Without trans-
missions, assembly plants will close.
Parts plants run by subcontractors
that supply GM plants were first to
feel the strike's ripples.
Kingston Warren Corp., which
makes car weather sealing at its plant
in the eastern Tennessee town of
Church Hill, stopped production Tues-
day because of the strike and sent
home all 400 production workers,
company spokesperson Phil Rasnick
said.
Tuesday evening, workers at two
GM assembly plants in Lansing were
sent home early and 6,550 workers
were told not to show up Wednesday,
GM spokesperson John Shea said.

Winfrey said. "People think we're
just people who have a lot of time on
our hands and that we memorize all
the episodes. That's why we have
books."
The books she refers to are: "The
Star Trek Encyclopedia," "The Star
Trek Technical Manual" and "The
Nit Pickers Guide To Star Trek."
Asked why someone would join
The Continuum, Branch said it's fun.

"I think mainstream has aproblem
accepting us. Here is something to-
tally light hearted. We're not like
Klingons or death." English majors
can enjoy the literaty aspects, every-
one can enjoy the social commentary
- TV's first interracial kiss featured
Lt. Uhura and Captain Kirk - but
most of all everyone likes a good
space yarn, Branch says.
Branch said she enjoys Star Trek

because it gives her something to be-
lieve in.
"There are a lot of gloomy images
for the future," she said. "Star Trek
offers an alternative vision of a world
where there is no nuclear annihila-
tion, hunger, or poverty. Humanity
can survive."
U The Continuum's mass meeting
will be held next week.

Both sides cli victory in gov. dbt

LANSING (AP) - Gov. John Engler and
Democrat Howard Wolpe only debated for an
hour, but the debate over who won the debate
lasted long into yesterday.
Political analysts split over whether Engler or
Wolpe won, but agreed the debate was not a
knockout for either one.
"I rated the debates 7-6, with Engler ahead,"
said Gerald Faverman, political science professor
at Michigan State University.
"I thought that it was good for Wolpe because
people thought he'd be left for dead and the fact
that he wasn't left for dead and gave a decent
account of himself, I thought that was a plus for
him."
Faverman called the Monday night debate,
hosted by WOOD-TV, lackluster.
Craig Ruff, president of Public Sector Con-
sultants Inc., was more impressed.
"I thought that (after) watching 20 years' worth
of gubernatorial debates, I would rank this among
the very best," he said.
"I thought both candidates put pretty close to

his best foot forward. Both were bright, in a sense
they were energized and excited. Both were cap-
tivating in a way.
"Clearly, they were two people who respect
one another personally but are willing to firmly
and withevigor draw lines of distinction between
each other."
Since there was no clear winner, the edge goes
to Wolpe, Ruff said.
"Howard probably improved his fortunes as a
result of last night's debate. That would be true of
almost any challenger who doesn't make a major
mistake and is seen on the same platform with the
incumbent," he said.
Wolpe effectively pushed his theme that things
are not as rosy as Engler wants people to believe,
even though he offered little hard evidence of that,
Ruff said.
"I think Wolpe was playing to that cynical
center of the electorate, people who are kind of
automatically suspicious of people in political
power," he said.
Where Wolpe was weak was in spelling out

what he'd do differently, Faverman said.
"I think Engler clearly has a program, a vision,
and a message," he said.
"Wolpe needs to do a job, where time is very
limited, to demonstrate why people should vote for
him and what is the message and vision he has for the
future."
Engler was strongest in discussing his accom-
plishments, but weakest when he repeatedly referred
to Wolpe as a liberal, Faverman said.
"In calling Wolpe names, it sounded like the old
kind of muscular, macho cant, and didn't come across
well and I thought (it was) not especially persuasive,"
he said.
Ruff said the governor can't get any more political
mileage out of that.
"The governor has the support of conservative
voters. I think he has made the label stick to Howard
Wolpe and now it's time to move on to other things,"
he said.
Faverman said Wolpe needs stronger perfor-
mances in the final two debates, set for Oct. 9 and 19,
while Engler needs to avoid a gaffe.

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Parks testifies in assault

DETROIT (AP) - Civil rights
pioneer Rosa Parks described in court
yesterday how she tried to protect
herself from an intruder in her house
and screamed for help as she was
beaten.
"He was hitting me on the face,
and I put my hands over my eyes and
all I could do was scream, even though
I knew no one would hear," the soft-
spoken 81-year-old woman said. She
raised her hands to show how she
tried to defend herself.
District Judge Richard Halloran or-
dered Joseph N. Skipper of Detroit to
stand trial on three counts of breaking

and entering an occupied building and
unarmed robbery, and one count of
breaking and entering an occupied build-
ing with intent to commit larceny.
All four cases involve elderly
women. The three other women had
testified two weeks ago during the
preliminary hearing. Parks' testimony
was delayed until yesterday, because
she was recovering from minor sur-
gery to repair her pacemaker.
Parks said that on the night of
Aug.30 she was getting ready for bed
when she heard a loud noise down-
stairs. Moments later she heard a man
say: "I'm in your house."

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