The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com ,

Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - 3A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
WASHINGTON
Report: Medicare,
Soc. Security to run
out by 2019,2041
Trustees for the government's
two biggest benefit programs
warned that Social Security and
Medicare are facing "enormous
challenges"withthethreattoMedi-
care's solvency far more severe.
The trustees, issuing their once-
a-year analysis, said the resources
intheSocialSecuritytrustfundwill
be depleted by 2041. The reserves in
the Medicare trust fund that pays
hospital benefits were projected to
be wiped out by 2019.
Both those dates were the same
as inlastyear's report. Butthetrust-
ees warned that financial pressures
will begin much sooner when the
programs begin paying out more in
benefits each year than they collect
in payroll taxes. For Medicare, that
threshold is projected to be reached
this year and for Social Security it is
projected to occur in 2017.
Both programs are expected to
come under increasing pressure as
78 million baby boomers start retir-
ing and drawing benefits.
WASHINGTON
Pentagon says it sent
missiles to Taiwan
by mistake in 2006
Shipping by mistake electri-
cal fuses for an intercontinental
ballistic missile to Taiwan raised
concerns yesterday for U.S.-China
relations and triggered a broad
investigation into the security of
Pentagon weapons.
China vehemently opposes U.S.
arms sales to Taiwan. Four of the
cone-shaped fuses were shipped
to Taiwanese officials in fall 2006
instead of the helicopter batteries
they had ordered.
Despite quarterly checks of the
inventory, defense officials said
they never knew the fuses were
gone. Only after months of dis-
cussions with Taiwan over the
missing batteries did the Pen-
tagon finally realize - late last
week - the gravity of what had
happened.
BAGHDAD
Militiamen battle
with U.S. soldiers
over oil capital
Iraq's leaders faced their grav-
est challenge in months yester-
day as Shiite militiamen loyal to
anti-American cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr battled for control of the
southern oil capital, fought U.S.
and Iraqi troops in Baghdad and
unleashed rockets on the Green
Zone.
Armed Mahdi Army militiamen
appeared on some Baghdad streets
for the first time in more than six
months, as al-Sadr's followers an-
nounced a nationwide campaign
of strikes and demonstrations to
protest a government crackdown

on their movement. Merchants
shuttered their shops in commer-
cial districts in several Baghdad
neighborhoods.
U.S. and Iraqi troops backed by
helicopters fought Shiite militia-
men in Baghdad's Sadr City dis-
trict after the local office of Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa
Party came under attack, the U.S.
said.
MIAMI
Crane accident kills
two in Florida
Part of a construction crane
plummeted 30 floors at the site of a
high-rise condominium yesterday,
smashing into a home that the con-
tractor used for storage and killing
two workers, police said.
Five workers were injured, in-
cludingone in critical condition, of-
ficials said. The other four had inju-
ries not considered life-threatening.
One of those killed died inside
the house, and the other died at a
hospital, police spokesman Delrish
Moss said.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
U. S, D EAT
4,001
Number of American service mem-
bers who have died in the war in
Iraq, according to The Associated
Press. There were no deaths identi-
fied yesterday.

GEO forms
picket lines
on campus
WALKOUT From Page 1A
we're willingto bargain."
University spokeswoman
Kelly Cunningham said the Uni-
versity was disappointed in GEO
for walking out.
"We feel it wasn't necessary
for the union to achieve their
goals," she said. "We've been
bargaining in good faith."
By creating a picket line at
construction sites yesterday
morning, GEO members were
able to shut down construction
projects at Michigan Stadium
and the Ross School of Business
for the day. Construction work-
ers at those locations agreed not
to work in a show ofsolidarity for
their fellow unionized workers.
Cunningham said that Uni-
versity administrators had
hoped the work stoppage by GSIs
wouldn't affect the construction
progress.
"It was disappointing for the
workers who didn't cross the
picket line," she said. "But it was
just one day of work, and we will
be able to make up the time."
Yesterday, GEO officials
received a call from the Univer-
sity's bargaining team saying it
was ready to return to the nego-
tiating table. They resumed bar-
gaining at 2:30 p.m.
Cunningham said the two
sides returning to the table was
"absolutely a great sign."
"We are ready and willing to
get something done," she said.
A large blue sign reading
"Undergrads are for G.E.O."
hung from the fagade of Angell
Hall.
According to signup sheets,
about 660 GSIs pledged to join
the picket lines. GEO's walkout
heatlquarters were stationed
at Caf6 Ambrosia on Maynard
Street.
Picketers chanted slogans
about fair wages and held signs
with messages like, "Our work-
ing conditions are your learning
conditions. Respect the line."
Others read, "Why's it so hard to
invest in students, But so easy to
invest in football," and "What's
better than apple pie? A healthy
GSI!"
Vigil said she hopes the walk-
out will help the University
notice that "if we say we'll do
something, we'll do it."
When asked if the University
was doing anything in particu-
lar to try and avoid the second
day of the walkout, Cunningham
said the University's negotiating
team was "just going to continue
to bargain and work toward an
agreement that's a win-win for
everybody."
While many students took the
day off, others crossed the picket
lines and attended classes yes-
terday, despite the GEO's request
for solidarity.
LSA junior Jenny Armstrong
was one of those students,
attending her history seminar at
noon yesterday.
"Since it's a seminar, I might as
well go for the brownie points,"
Armstrong said.

While one of her lectures was
cancelled, Armstrong said she
also planned on going to a mini-
course lecture-later in the day.
"I support the GSIs," she said.
"I just play by the rules."
Other professors chose to
cancel their classes in support
of GEO. Some professors held
classes at off-site locations so
students and professors wouldn't
have to cross the picket lines.
Some held classes in neutral sites
like the Michigan Union, while
others held informal discussion
sections at local restaurants like
Amer's Caf&
- Charles Gregg-Geist
contributed to this report.
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daily.com

CONTRACT
From Page IA
agreement, but negotiators will
present the tentative deal to GEO
members on Monday.
Frumkinsaid the threat of anoth-
er day of work stoppage helped
push the University to returnto the
negotiatingtable.
"Of course it was important that
we go back to normal operations
tomorrow," he said. "But that's
always important."
The proposed compromises that
the University brought to the table
today led GEO to call off today's
strike, Woods said.
Woods said GEO's negotiating
team understood the University's
desire to avoid another disruption
of classes.
"After they walked away from
the table (Monday night), it was
clear that they wanted to prevent
a second day of this walkout," she
said. "We thought that this was the
best deal that we could get and we
didn't want management to walk
away from the table again."
Both parties agreed that the
openness of the discussions and
their eagerness to reach a settlement
helped get the contract finalized.
"The administration moved a
lot closer to our wage proposal and
some other outstanding issues that
we had and we made some conces-
sions as well," Woods said.

Last night's deal didn't come
from the resolution of one single
sticking point, Frumkin said.
Instead, he said, the resolution
came from the two sides agreeing
on a comprehensive package deal.
"I think it was a combination of
being able to have candid conversa-
tions that gotus to a point of under-
standing with respect to the salary
and benefits issues," Frumkin said.
"And that's what happens in bar-
gaining, when you really get down
to finalizing the deal it's a matter of
mutual understanding and a little
give and take."
One of the key parts of the ten-
tative deal is a salary increase'of
6.2 percent in the first year of the
new contract for GSIs followed by
increases of 3.5 percent in the sec-
ond and third years of the contract.
In earlier negotiating sessions,
GEO had proposed a nine percent
increase. The University coun-
tered that by proposing a three
percent increase.
Still, Woods referred to the sal-
ary increases laid out in the final
agreement as "historic."
Frumkin said that despite the
fact the University increased its
offer significantly from its previ-
ous proposal, it was happy with the
final numbers.
Another big part the deal agreed
to last night was expanded health
care coverage for GSIs.
The tentative contract allows for
any GSI to get health care, regard-

less of the number of hours they're
appointed for.
"All GSIs will have health care,"
Woods said. "We have asked for
full healthcare for a long time now
and to have all three of those gains
plus a full."
Included in that health care cov-
erage is a clause that would either
raise the cap on mental health care
visits for GSIs from 25 to 30 per
year or set up a fund of $30,000 that
GSIs can draw from if they exceed
the 25-visit cap. The two sides have
yet to work out the specifics of that
part of the agreement.
"The University was very, very
resistant to increasing access to
mentalhealth care," Woods said. "It
was the last thing that negotiations
came down to essentiallyrtonight."
Woods said she was proud of the
policies the negotiating team was
able to win for low-fraction GSIs -
those that work less than 20 hours
each week. Low-fraction GSIs will
now be paid on a scale that gives
them an hourly wage equal to that
of those who.work at higher-frac-
tion appointments.
Also, all GSIs who work for
7.5 hours or more each week will
receive a full tuition waiver.
Woods said that after a difficult
day for her union's members, she is
satisfied with the deal.
"I'm happy for our members,"
she said, "This has been a five
month process, so I think we're
happy to have a contract."

Experts:
Kwame case
not as simple
as it looks
DETROIT (AP) - Legal experts
said Tuesday that the heart of the
perjury case against Mayor Kwame
Kilpatrick - steamy text messages
that seem to contradict his sworn
denials of an affair with an aide
- might be less open-and-shut than
many believe.
Kilpatrick's attorneys want to
keep the intimate and sexually
explicit text messages out of a trial,
and at least one outside defense
lawyer says the admissibility of
such high-tech communications is
an unsettled legal question.
Even if they are admitted,
experts say the defense will exploit
any ambiguity in the messages, in
the questions the mayor and for-
mer Chief of Staff Christine Beatty
were asked under oath, and in their
answers.
"If the questions were not clear,
and that's going to be used to prove
the case, then that's another avenue
in trying to establish a reasonable
doubt," former federal prosecutor
Matthew Orwig said Tuesday.

F

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