The Michigan Daily-Tuesday, July 21, 1981-Page 3
POSTAL SERVICE VERGES ON STRIKE
Talks go down to wire
From AP and UPI
WASHINGTON-The Postal Service made a new
wage offer to its two largest unions last night. The
unions rejected it out of hand but remained at the
bargaining table with a midnight strike deadline only
hours away.
President Moe Biller of the American Postal
Workers Union called the latest management offer a
"phony wage proposal."
BILLER AND Vince Sombrotto, president of the,
National Association of Letter Carriers, said the
executive boards of the two unions unanimously
rejected the government proposal.
They said the wage offer, made just a few hours
earlier, contained virtually no additional money.
"It really was no change, just some juggling,"
Sombrotto said. "If things don't change, there will be
a nationwide strike." Earlier, they had said they
would bargain past the deadline if agreement seemed
near.
ASSISTANT POSTMASTER General Walter Duka
declined to give details of the latest offer but said it
contained "new concepts" and was "negotiable."
He repeated his statements that a strike could be
avoided and also advised the public to follow its nor-
mal mailing practices.
The latest offer was made after a seven-hour gap
when there were no talks between representatives of
the two unions and postal management.
THE JUSTICE Department had a lawyer available
at the Postal Service headquarters prepared to ask a
federal judge for a restraining order against the
strike as soon as it was called.
Last week, the department warned it would seek
civil and criminal action if there was a work stoppage
by postal workers, who are barred by federal law
from striking.
Earlier in the day, the two union presidents vowed
they would risk an illegal strike before accepting
management's demand for a three-year freeze in
general wage increases.
THE PENTAGON prepared yesterday to mobilize
more than 100,000 military personnel to move the
mail-or an estimated 90 percent of it-in the event of
a nationwide postal strike, sources said.
The contigency plan does not include door-to-door
delivery at the home, however. Officials said residen-
ts likely would have to go to their local Post Office to
pick up personal mail.
The Army, which has been given responsibility in
the impending postal crisis, would set its plan-code
named Graphic Hand-in motion after a presidential
proclamation declaring a national emergency.
SUCH A PROCLAMATION would be necessary to
permit the call-up of national guardsmen and reser-
vists, who would be expected to make up a large per-
centage of the military manpower and womanpower
used to handle the mails.
Army officials, who discussed the plan on condition
they not be named, stressed that the military would
not take part in "any law enforcement activities."
They said that if striking postal workers attempted to
See POSTAL, Page 13
Daily rhoto by KIM RILL
A 'Poseidon A dventure'
Poseidon carefully guards the fountain outside the Michigan League, but on this day an adventurous soul decided to
pirate a "fdrtune" in the depths of the murkywaters. Like all swashbucklers, he escaped before he could be identified to
seek out other adventures.
FIVE INVESTIGATIONS PLANNED INTO DISASTER:
Kansas City recovering
Council
approves
anti-rape
committee
BY JENNIFER MILLER
Daily city government reporter
The Ann Arbor City Council last night
unanimously voted to form a Citizens'
Advisory Committee on Rape Preven-
tion.
The new committee will pull together
the rape prevention efforts of city and
county governments and various con-
cerned groups, including the Univer-
sity, the Women's Crisis Center, and
the community.
COUNCILMEMBER Lowell Peter-
son, who co-sponsored the resolution
with Mayor Louis Belcher, said, "There
are a lot of people working on rape
prevention in the community. This will
coordinate efforts and put them in the
right direction."
Peterson said the committeewill help
avoid duplication of rape prevention
projects in the city. "Now, when
somebody has an idea for a new
program, everyone who will be in-
volved in it can respond right away.
The Police Department can work with
the Assault Crisis Center, and the
University can coordinate its programs
with both," he said.
The City Council has been in-
creasingly responsive to the sexual
assault problem in Ann Arbor. This
past May the council set aside funding
for a rape prevention and awareness
program through the Police Depar-
tment.
Council last night also approved a
contract with the Ecology Center to
provide a low-cost/no-cost
weatherization program for residents;
Sometime within the next two weeks,
the Council will also vote on an Energy
Plan which will include a mandatory
requirement that all rental property
owners install insulation and other
weatherization measuros.
From AP and UPI
KANSAS CITY, Mo.-As the first victims of the Hyatt
Regency Hotal disaster were buried yesterday, hotel officials
said they would try to reopen within a week or two and might
rebuild the walkways that collapsed into deadly heaps of
steel and concrete.
"Our intent is to open the hotel as quickly as possible," said
Jim Dawson, a spokesman for Crown Center Redevelopment
Corp., the owner of the $40 million, year-old hotel. "The in-
vestigators are still in there. The investigation is the first or-
der of business. Construction crews are working on how we'll
be able to get the debris out of the lobby."
AT LEAST FIVE investigations are planned or under way
into what caused the worst disaster in the city's history
Friday night when two walkways weighing 45 tons each
crashed onto a lobby floor crowded with hundreds of revelers
at a tea dance.
Meanwhile, the death toll in the disasterous collapse was
rolled back to 111 yesterday by authorities who said two
bodies had been counted twice at the city morgue.
The president f the redevelborett company, James Mc-
Clune,~said the hotel might be reopened for business in a
week or two.
"Reopening depends on what the engineers tell us," Mc-
Clune said. "If there has not been any structural damage to
the hotel, we can reopen without doing anything about
replacing the bridges and we will as soon as it is safe.
"I DON'T KNOW if we will replace the bridges," McClune
added. "It is a design we like. We have to look at what hap-
pened, correct it and get back in operation."
Flags wereordered flown at half staff throughout the city
to honor fire department battalion chief John Tvetdon, who
died in the accident. He was among those attending the dance
and his son, John Tvetdon Jr., also a fireman, worked
feverishly through the night to find his father.
Mayor Richard Berkley said a citywide memorial service
would be held, probably Thursday, and issued a statement
thanking those who assisted in the rescue effort. A
spokesman said Berkley was anxious that the city in-
vestigate the tragedy quickly and thoroughly.
IN TOPEKA, KAN., services were held for four members
See HYATT, Pagelti