he Michigan Daily
Vol. XCI, No. 56-S
Ann Arbor, Michigan-Thursday, August 6, 1981 '
Ten Cents
Twelve Pages
Five jailed as
Reagan fires
air controllers
Doily Photo by KIM HILL
Razing the roof
A pile of shattered slate shingles lies in front of Tappan Hall after construc-
tion workers tore them off of the 88-year-old roof to clear it for new asphalt
shingles. Even after several efforts of concerned faculty and citizens to save
the historic slate tiles, the University stuck to its decision to replace them
with less expensive asphalt.
County ambulance
service may be cut,
Fontana-Taylor says
From AP and UPI
WASHINGTON - The Reagan ad-
ministration began firing striking air
traffic controllers yesterday and
federal judges sent five union officials
to jail for their roles in the controllers'
strike.
The Administration declared itself
determined to police the nation's flight-
paths without them even though the
flying public will have "no cakewalk"
for the next year or two.
NEITHER THE government nor the
Professional Air Traffic Controllers
Organization budged from their hard-
line stands after Monday's walkout by
some 13,000 union controllers. The
union, with comparatively few defec-
tions, persisted with the strike despite.
the jailing of the local officials and the
passage of President Reagan's 11 a.m.
deadline yesterday for a return to work.
The administration then unleashed
notices of dismissal and vowed no
second chances.
Justice Department spokesman Art
Brill said U.S. District Judge Dale Saf-
fels in Kansas City; Kan., ordered four
union officials imprisoned yesterday
for contempt of court. He found they
had violated a temporary restraining
order he had issued against the strike.
BRILL IDENTIFIED the jailed union
leaders as George Fuston, David King
and Donald Tuttle, all identified as of-
ficials of locals of PATCO, and Gary
Eads, central region vice president of
the National union.
The four were taken to the Wyandotte
County, Kan., jail where they will,
remain until they either agree to stop
picketing or are fired from their jobs.
Saffels also imposed a civil penalty of
$100,000 on Local 304 of the union.
EARLIER YESTERDAY, the
president of a union local in Virginia
became the first person to be jailed for
his role in the strike.
Brill said U.S. District Judge Oren
Lewis ordered Steven Wallaert,
president of PATCO Local 291 in Nor-
folk, Va., jailed for 60 days for contem-
pt of court.
Reagan has taken the position that
the controllers, in effect, quit their jobs
when they decided to carry out an,
illegal strike.
"I'M SORRY and I'm sorry for
them," Reagan said of the firings late
in the day. "I certainly take no joy out
of this . . . I was hoping more of them,
would recognize the obligation they
have. Our position has to be irrever-
sible."
The union's president, Robert Poli,
said an afternoon survey by his
organization showed that less than
three percent of the membership was
working despite the administration's
action, which he termed "the most
blatant form of union-busting I have
ever seen." He vowed: "It will not end
the strike."
Transportation Secretary Drew
Lewis said the air traffic control
system can operate "relatively well"
for the year or two it would take to
bring the workforce back to normal
with new trainees. But "there is no
question we are in trouble ... this is no
cakewalk," he said.
LEWIS SAID he knew of 470 con-
trollers who returned to work during
the day and, while conceding he had no
firm figures, estimated that 38 to 40
percent of the entire workforce was on
the job. But that figure apparently in-
cluded supervisory and other non-union
personnel who did not strike in the first
place.
The Federal Aviation Ad-
ministration, meanwhile, said that up
to 72 percent of the regularly scheduled
flights were taking to the air yesterday.
But the agency still was limiting takeof-
fs from the 23 largest airports to half
the normal number.
Many of the planes were only par-
tially occupied as would-be passengers
chose to avoid the delays. Airlines say
the strike is costing them tens of
millions of dollars a day.
Poli maintained that no more than
half of the regular air traffic was
noving.
THE FIRST dismissal letters from
the FAA went to controllers in Hawaii
who failed to show up for shifts starting
at 6 a.m. local time - one hour after the
11 a.m. EDT deadline initially imposed
by President Reagan. George Miyachi,
the FAA spokesman in Honolulu, said
"a number" of letters were sent.
Tom Blank, a Transportation Depar-
tment spokesman in Washington, said
local chiefs of air traffic facilities were
told to send the dismissal notices, by
registered mail, yesterday afternoon.
In Chicago, AFL-CIO President Lane
Kirkland marched the picket line at
O'Hare International Airport with
cheering air traffic controllers yester-
day and warned the strike "cannot be
solved by brutal force."
Kirkland and nearly all of the 27
federation vice presidents attending the
mid-summer meeting of the AFL-CIO
Executive Council took a 40-minute bus
ride from their downtown hotel to
O'Hare in a show of solidarity with
PATCO.
By MARK GINDIN
Daily staff writer
Fontana-Taylor, the ambulance-ser-
vice contracted by Washtenaw County,
has warned county officials that it will
not be able to continue servicing the
area unless it can eliminate costs in-
curred by indigent customers. Nancy
Fontana, owner of the service, said
yesterday that unless the county agrees
to reimburse the service $180,000 for in-
digent and other patient costs or unless
Fontana-Taylor can reorganize its
finances to cut costs internally, it can
no longer fulfill its contract with the
county to provide full ambulance ser-
vice.
THE SERVICE has asked for a
change in its present contract with
Washtenaw County to allow for $180,000
in indigent expenses each year, rather
than the $50,000 stipulated in the
present contract, Fontana said.
The request was made at yesterday's
meeting of the county's Law and
Justice Committee, said David Hun-
scher, Washtenaw County ad-
ministrator. "Fontana-Taylor said they
could not operate under the present
contract," Hunscher said.
The board said that it will not allow
the contract to change, and that it is up
to the ambulance company to recover
its costs through internal restructuring
or by negotiation with its lending in-
stitution, Hunscher said.
IF FONTANA-TAYLOR cannot
maintain the level of present service, it
must notify the county in writing that
service would be affected within 60
See AMBULANCE, Page 9