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Ann Arbor, MI
PERMIT NO. 13
Ninety- nine years of editorial freedom
Vol. XCIX, NO. 11-S Ann Arbor, Michigan - Friday, August 4,1989TiA 9
NurseO
strike
hearing
continues
BY MICHELLE RABIDOUX
Negotiators for the University of
Michigan Hospitals and the
University of Michigan Professional
Nurse Council (UMPNC) met with
Judge Melinda Morris in the
Washtenaw County Circuit Court
yesterday. After four hours of discus-'
sion a hearing date was set to resolve
the nurses' right to strike.'
On Tuesday, August 8, Morris
will oversee a show-cause hearing,
postponed from yesterday, which
will determine whether a permanent
restraining order is needed to keep the
nurses at work or if the nurses are
justified in striking.
Morris sent the two negotiating
teams back to the bargaining table
today and Monday, while the 14-day
temporary restraining order forcing
the nurses to report to work remains
in effect.
The nurses at the Hospital are
"tense, uncomfortable, and angry that
they are being forced back to work,
told by the courts to go back to "Hey-hey, ho-ho, Frank Lorenzo has got to
work," said Registered Nurse Keith Eastern Airlines picketer, wearing a caricatur
Hampton, spokesperson for owner during Tuesday's protest at Detroit M
UMPNC.
Hampton feels that much of the U
University's concern lies in financial
" "Their pocketbook, all of a sud-
den, is hurting. Ours has been hurt- Y BILL GLADSTONE
ing for years," Hampton said. Grinding poverty, a collapsing economy, and
It was also decided yesterday that a history of underdevelopment, present
the University Hospital is to limit formidable obstacles to the provision of adequate
its patient admissions to only life- healthcare for the people of El Salvador, said
threatening cases, said Registered University Public Health graduate student Luis
Nurse Deborah Stoll, spokesperson Vazquez, after recently returning from a US
for UMPNC. healthworkers delegation in El Salvador.
A court injunction filed Monday Vazquez's delegation found substantial evi-
by the University stated that the con- dence to corroborate reports on the military's vio-
tinuing nurses strike was causing ations of Geneva convention standards. Accord-
"irreparable harm to patients," said -ng to the Geneva conventions, military forces
Michael Harrison, information offi- are obliged to respect field hospitals and the neu-
cer at the Hospital. trality of medical personnel in the field.
"The strike has rendered us unable Vazquez heard reports from people inside the
to provide care for those patients country that the military consistently sidesteps
awaiting surgery and treatments these international laws by interfering with the
which cannot readily be provided for transport of medical relief through areas of con-
at other institutions," Hospital flict and attacking hospitals set up the Farabundo
spokesperson Toni Shears said before Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), who
the injunction was granted. are in opposition to the right-wing National Re-
Hampton said that union attor- publican Alliance government (ARENA).
neys were planning at the show- "We visited one village where the military
0- .C oa* nn am i nn e a rrived- We wereanuickly
Strikers
slow down
Lorenzo
BY PAT STAIGER
Over 1500 striking Eastern Air-
line employees and their supporters
gathered outside the Eastern terminal
at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport
Tuesday to protest a move by airline
owner Frank Lorenzo to restart
flights in and out of Detroit.
"We're not striking for wages or
benefits. We're striking to save the
airline," said one angry employee.
"Lorenzo is nothing but a corporate
raider. You saw the movie Wall
Street? Wall Street is us."
Eastern employees had effectively
kept most airplanes on the ground
since the strike began March 4th.
Lorenzo's attempt to begin flights in
Detroit was part of his promise to
the US Bankruptcy Court to have
390 flights going by August 2nd.
Also as part of his reorganization
plan for the airline, Lorenzo told the
court that Eastern will sell its east
ILL WOOD/Daily coast shuttle and its South American
go," chants a striking flights, and abandon its Miami hub.
T mask of the company But Eastern Airlines spokesper-
etro Airport. son and Vice President for Commu-
nications Robin Matell said last
night, "the airline is not for sale. We
have been rebuilding the airline since
March 4th."
Lorenzo declared bankruptcy after
the strike began, in a move employ-
ees said was to break the union.
At Tuesday's protest angry, non-
violent strikers and their supporters
chanted "Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Frank
Lorenzo's Got to Go," and carried a
casket which read "Lorenzo, Stop
Killing Eastern."
Wayne County police officers
were present, but acted only to keep
the car and bus traffic flowing past
the terminal.
Strikers warned people entering
the terminal that it was unsafe to fly
Eastern, but did not prevent them
from passing.
"The issues we are trying to tell
people right now are safety issues,"
said strike coordinator Tom Barker at
the rally, "The carriers are not safe."
Barker said that Eastern flights
were being run by unqualified work-
See Strike, Page 2
workers under fire
advised by our hosts not to draw attention to our-
selves nor to the clinic that we were to examine,"
said Vazquez,
"If the soldiers realized that a popular clinic
existed in the village they would have returned,
burned it to the ground, and confiscated all the
medicines as has been the case in the past. In all
likelihood they would have disappeared the
healthpromoter as well."
The devastating health conditions are exem-
plified by the high infant mortality rate -
80/1000 live births - and by the fact that 75
percent of children under five years of age suffer
from malnutrition.
Only six percent of the national budget goes
to healthcare whereas 70 percent goes to the mil-
itary.
Due to the lack of professional, government-
sponsored healthcare, there has been a movement
by international healthworkers to provide for the
basic health needs of the Salvadoran people.
"Because they challenge the historical neglect
of theSa C onran government theen wrirkers are
deemed "subversives" and are systematically re-
pressed through disappearances, torture, and often
times, murder," said Vazquez.
In mid-July the military attacked the office of
UNADES, a support network for people dis-
placed by the 1986 earthquake. During the attack,
soldiers confiscated all the medical supplies,
most of which were donated by the "Voice of the
Voiceless" campaign, comprised of religious
workers in the United States, including Ann Ar-
bor Campus Minister Don Coleman.
"Above all else, to have a decent system of
healthcare, there must be an end to the war.
However, to stop there would not correct the his-
toric deficiencies of healthcare in El Salvador,"
said Vazquez. "There have to be mechanisms to
ensure the right to affordable and adequate medical
attention for everybody, not just the wealthy.
Until such a program is in place, the majority of
El Salvadorans, the poor, will continue to suffer
from preventable disease and many children will
not live past their fifth birthday.
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