The Michigan Daily - Friday, August 10, 1984 - Page 3 AFSCME solicits support in rally By PETE WILLIAMS About 50 members of the University's Local 1583 employees union carried signs that call for higher wages and better work ben fits as they marched in a circle in front of University Hospital yesterday afternoon. Local 1583 is part of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. AFSCME is currently at the bargaining table with the University trying to reach agreement on contracts for the coming year. LOCAL AFSCME president Dwight Newman said yesterday's rally was organized to give rank-and-file union members a chance to feel involved with the ongoing negotiations. "I think (yesterday's action) helped substantially," Newman said. "It gave the union members a chance to show some support for their local bargaining team." Bargaining Chairman Arthur Ander- son was also pleased with the turnout, though AFSCME represents 2,200 em-- ployees of the University. "IT'S GOOD that we are seeing people who are interested in what we are doing," Anderson said. AFSCME International Area Direc- tor Jim Jarmer was one of the guest speakers who addressed the crowd through a portable public address unit. "We are part of a union that is sit- ting on a three-quarter of a million dollar strike fund and if the University wants a fight, then O.K.," Jarmer told the cheering group. ALTHOUGH NEWMAN would not release the exact wage demands, he did say that the negotiators will be asking for increases as well as better sick benefits for AFSCME. "We're looking for some fairness and some equity for all workers," he said. Carl Levine, who works in the Children's Psychiatric Hospital, said he was disappointed with the University's negotiation efforts. "WHAT THEY are telling us is that we are the bottom of the barrell - that we're not worth much," Levine said. "Last time, the University told us that they had the money to pay for our in- creases, but that they weren't going to because we aren't a priority." Levine said that as a union steward he filed about 200 grievances for em- ployees against the University. He also said that many times supervisors will try "to deny people stewards" and set- tle grievances without contacting the A hospital employee displays her list of demands at a union Solidarity rally in front of University Hospital yesterday. union. "That's a violation of the law been through 13 negotiation sessions and our contract," he said. thus far. According to Newman, the "What most people don't realize is union has submitted its total package of that the University of Michigan is one of contract demands and is now waiting the most notorious union busters for a response from the University. around," Lavine said. Negotiations are scheduled to resume AFSCME and the University have on Monday. - Polish opposition leader freed WARSAW (AP) - Jacek Kuron, the most prominent op- his Warsaw apartment about two hours after being released position intellectual jailed during the December 1981 crack- from Warsaw's main prison. down on Solidarity, was released from prison yesterday and "When somebody is released after almost three years and quickly spoke out against the general amnesty that freed begins to speak on the political situation, it's a bit irrespon- him. sible. At first I have to see what kind of country I am living The 50-year-old Kuron, charged with trying to overthrow in." the Communist system, said the amnesty denied him the Kuron called the general amnesty "a continuation of all chance to prove his innocence in court, and said he had been those acts of lawlessness" against him and the three other unjustly and illegally imprisoned for 31 months. KOR leaders who were also jailed. Two of the four have been HE SAID HE planned to meet with Solidarity founder Lech released under the amnesty. The fourth, Henryk Wujec, Walesa, who hailed Kuron's release and agreed a meeting remains in prison. would be "in the interest of the union and of the country." The KOR leaders were charged with plotting to overthrow "Kuron is a great, wise man who will help us find ways to Poland's Communist system by force. Their trial, which achieve our goals," Walesa said by telephone from Gdansk. Kuron and Adam Michnik demanded and the government "Time will show what role he will play, but I'm sure that it sought to avoid, was adjourned last month after two sessions, will be a constructive one." three days before the amnesty was proclaimed. Kuron, leader of the disbanded workers' rights group KOR - the Committee for Social Self Defense - said he could not KURON TOLD reporters he was disappointed he did not immediately comment on Poland's political situation. have the chance to read his testimony, in which he was "I CANNOT make any political judgments because the prepared to offer his own indictment of Poland's Communist only perspective I have is from prison," he told reporters in leadership. Kuron ... attacks amnesty plan GOP platform writers vow to have tax freeze plank WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican platform writers said yesterday they would chisel President" Reagan's vow not to raise taxes into the party's 1984 document, but party conservatives suggested they might fight for a stronger, "ironclad" no-tax-hike plank. "President Reagan is ours. We want a platform he feels comfortable with," said Rep. Trent Lott (R- Miss.) chairman of the 106-member Republican Platform Committee. PARTY moderates, including Senate Finance Committee Chairman Robert Dole of Kansas, have argued against inclusion of a rigid no-tax-increase plank in the platform. But Lott told a news conference that the platform section on taxes, whi~h-he said is still being polished, would contain "definite, categorical no-tax language ... It's going to be clear that Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale wants tax increases and we don't. " Mondale has said a tax hike will be necessary in 1985 regardless of who wins the election. He has charged that Reagan has a "secret plan" to raise taxes. Reagan denies that such a plan exists and says he will veto any bill raising personal income tax rates. THE DRAFT platform language, according to participants in the drafting process, states that, as Republicans, "we oppose any attempt to raise taxes which would harm the recovery and retard economic growth." The proposed plant would not limit the no-tax- increase philosophy to individual income taxes. And it adds that the best way to reduce federal deficits is to further reduce spending. At a rival news conference, a band of House Republican conservatives said the platform language may not be tough enough and that they might fight for a more restrictive plank. "WE WILL focus our efforts on making sure the Republican platform has an ironclad plank against a tax increase," said Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota. "We think we have an excellent chance within the platform committee to win that fight." Lott, however, said he did not anticipate a floor fight over the tax issue and said that further changes in the no-tax-increase plank to make it even stronger were still a possibility. "It's an area where we continue to work," Lott said. The Platform Committee meets next week in Dallas to put the finishing touches on the document for presentation to convention delegates on Aug. 21. MEANWHILE, a group of moderate and liberal Republican senators, led by Sen. Lowell Weicker (R-Conn.) yesterday issued proposed additions to the platform - ranging from a statement that "tax increases may be necessary" to planks opposing government-sanctioned school prayer, calling for a "mutual, verifiable" nuclear weapons freeeze and urging ratification of a. new Equal Rights Amendment. The GOP senators - Weicker, Mark Andrews of North Dakota, John Chafee of Rhode Island, Mark Hatfield of Oregon, Charles Mathias of Maryland and Robert Stafford of Vermont - held their own unauthorized platform "hearing" last weekafter claiming that their views had been shut out of the platform-drafting proces. Lott and other key platform drafters, in separate interviews, said that like the 1980 GOP platform, this year's document would omit any reference to the ERA.