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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 22, 1986)
Wednesday, January 22, 1986/The Battalion/Page 17 Union trouble Hormel plant closes for fear of violence Associated Press AUSTIN, Minn. — National Guardsmen with billy clubs and riot gear closed a strikebound meatpacking plant Tuesday to guard against violence, hours af ter the company asked workers not to cross picket lines formed by hundreds of jeering strikers. The Guardsmen lined up shoulder to shoulder in front of the gates at the closed Geo. A. Hormel & Go. plant, which opened eight days earlier for the first time since the strike began in August. ‘Tm not going to have people enter when there’s a good chance of people being injured,” said po lice Chief Donald Hoff man, who made the decision to close the plant after discussions with Guard commanders and county sheriffs officers. Hoffman’s decision was cheered by strikers, who earlier lined the street, taunting and mimicking approximately 500 Guardsmen on duty. Later Tues day, officials ordered another 300 Guardsmen to the scene. Hormel officials vowed to re open the plant Wednesday. “Today’s activities represent nothing more than an interrupt ion in our plans to continue oper ation,” plant manager Deryl Ar nold said. “The company has not made any commitment to keep the plant closed.” Union strategist Ray Rogers said,“The Guardsmen are not our adversaries. They’ve been put in a very difficult position by this company.” Jim Guyette, president of Local P-9 of the United Food and Com mercial Workers, said,“Everyth ing has been peaceful. Everything has been non-violent. “We haven’t had_ any arrests. We haven’t had anyone hurt ex cept the company photogra pher.” The photographer was kicked in the groin and hospitalized briefly Monday; no arrest has been made. Hoffman said police were in vestigating a report that a gun shot shattered a pickup truck window near the plant Monday. In addition, he said, police had several reports of strike-related vandalism, including slashed tires and broken car windshields. “I think a lot of members are overreacting and overzealous,” Hoffman said. “They’re harming themselves.” Strikers jeered and chanted slogans in the pre-dawn sleet and rain Tuesday as they awaited at tempts by supervisors, meatpack- ers, and, for the second day, re- lacement workers to cross picket ines. E, Striking fishermen throw rocks at fish buyers Associated Press NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Po lice with dogs and riot gear Tues day confronted a rock-throwing crowd of fishermen angry at a re negade seafood auction house that they say will undermine their strike. Fifteen people were arrested. More than 200 striking fisher men gathered outside a make shift auction house on the water front about 6:30 a.m. As buyers drove up to purchase fish caught by non-union crews, the crowd began pelting cars with stones, police said. Several windows were broken, but no injuries were re ported. Harvey Mickelson, an attorney for the fish dealers, said he was at the head of the line of buyers when stones began to fly. “I ran in and I turned around and nobody else was there,” he said. “The rocks started coming in the building. There was no way to get out, no phone. Was I scared? Yes.” About 75 police officers, in cluding 30 officers wearing hel- I turned around and nobody else was there. The rocks started coming in. ...” — Harvey Mickelson, attorney for the fish dealers. mets and shields, escorted 14 buyers inside the Yellowbird Trucking Co. building, where 65 tons of scallops and fish were sold. Officers and police dogs from nearby Fairhaven, Dart mouth and Aschunet also were called in to help, officials said. Those arrested faced charges ranging from disturbing the peace to assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. On Monday, when seafood was sold at Yellowbird in the first auc tion since the strike began, two men were arrested on assault charges for allegedly throwing rocks at a car. Some of the fishermen, who have been on strike since Dec. 27, claimed that boat owners had vio lated a 20-year-old city ordinance that makes it illegal to unload fish anywhere but at the city auction house. “Fishermen are mad,” fisher man Kevin Medeiros, 31, said. “There have been arrests on our part. What about arrests on their part? A lot of boats have un loaded and no one’s been ar rested,” Mayor John Bullard said the auction was set up this week on the private property of Yellow bird Trucking so dealers wouldn’t have to cross picket lines. Striking fishermen, members of the Seafarers International Union, have kept a vigil outside the city auction house since their walkout began. A boat captain was arrested Monday for unloading his fish at a fish plant instead of the city auc tion house, and Bullard promised additional arrests. Exposure to AIDS-linked virus lower in recruits Associated Press WASHINGTON — The number of for Dolphins being schooled in language Associated Press HONOLULU — Like Dr. Dolittle talking to his animals, Dr. Louis Herman is teaching a pair of bottle nosed dolphins the meaning of words. And while they haven’t exactly struck up a two-way conversation yet, the seagoing mammals are learning to do what they are told. Herman.director of the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory of the University of Hawaii, for six years has been working with two fe male dolphins, Phoenix and Akeaka- mai, who were captured in the Gulf of Mexico. Using pool toys floating in a tank, the two dolphins have demonstrated they can understand certain words. But more important, they have shown they understand that words strung together in different ways can mean different things, the nov elty of language long thought to be an exclusively human attribute. “With training and the devel opment of their knowledge and skill in the laboratory,” he says, “these an imals can go far beyond what many had thought possible.” Through workouts in two con nected, circular tanks, the dolphins have been taught a series of nouns, modifiers and verbs. By combining the words together into commands, Herman tests their “With training . . . these animals can go far beyond what many had thought possible. ” — Dr. Louis Herman, di rector of the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Labo ratory. comprehension by their responses to commands. New commands are created by new combinations of words or rear rangement of words according to grammatical rules. Correct response indicates the dolphins’ understanding of syntax, or how word order affects meaning. For instance, the command “get the hoop, and take it to the frisbee,” means something different than “get the frisbee, and take it to the hoop.” Whether or not animals can create or understand sentences has long been an open question in scientific research. It may take years to determine whether the dolphins eventually will be able to produce language, Her man says, but his dolphins are pro viding the equivalent of “yes” or “no” answers. “We probed to see what would happen if we told the dolphin to jump over the ball, and there was no ball,” Herman says. “The dolphin searched, in both tanks, for 50 sec onds, then slowly returned to the trainer as if to say: ‘It’s not there.’ “That’s a pretty large step in ani mal work, to be able to have an ani mal report back to you on what is out there and what is not out there,” Herman says. “In this way,” he says, “the dol phin is telling us the contents of her immediate world.” With Ake, two small panels were installed at tankside that she can hit to indicate “yes” or “no” answers. A small staff of permanent train ers is complemented by students from the University of Hawaii and volunteers. The work is supported by the Na tional Science Foundation, the Of fice of Naval Research of the U.S. Navy, and Earthwatch, a private re search organization. "- One recent morning, a two-hour session started with visual identifica tion trials with Phoenix, using such things as a toy lawnmower, a laundry basket and a piece of storm drain. An assistant held up an item for several seconds and then took it away. Later the researchers'held up the object again, along with two other items. v , When Phoenix swam over to the original object she was rewarded with a fish. Ake was tested on 24 sentences of' from two to four words each. She got 23 of them right. When the researchers introduce new words to create new commainds, the dolphins’ performance has been only slightly below that for familiar commands, says Dr. James Wdlz, as sociate director of the facility. The research began here shortly after Akeakamai and Phoenix were caught about one mile apart in the Gulf of Mexico on the same surtimer day in 1978 near Gulfport, Miss. The two were about 2 or $ years old at the time. So far, Phoenix and Akeakamai have progressed at almost identical rates. SPRING SPECIAL Casa Blanca Apartments 2 Bed room, 1 Bath $225/mo. Please call 846-1413 CHIMNEY HILL BOWLING CENTER 40 LANES League & Open Bowling Family Entertainment Bar& Snack Bar 701 University Dr E 260-9184 bv Lori * te ,V> S military recruits testing positively • exposure to a virus linked to AIDS fell sharply in November, pos sibly because of testing that may have discouraged high-risk people from enlisting, Pentagon officials said Tuesday. During November, the military services tested 49,172 recruits, of whom only 11 tested positively,on a series of blood exams, Defense De partment spokesman Lt. Col. Pete Wyro said. By comparison, during; the latter half of October when testing began, 40 individuals tested positively out of 34,996 screened. The new results, when combined with the October figures»• produces a positive testing rate of 0.6 per 1,000. By contrast, based on the October results alone, the Pentagon had charted a positive testing rate of 1.14 per 1,000. A Pentagon official, speaking on condition he not be identified, said publicity about the testing may have discouraged high-risk people, such as homosexuals, from enlistiftg in the first place. AIDS, or Acquired Immune Defi ciency Syndrome, is a fatal condition that attacks the body’s ability to resist disease. It has been confined pri marily to homosexuals, intravenous drug users and people who received tainted blood transfusions. The blood screen employed by the Pentagon can do no more than indicate a person has been ex’posed to a virus associated with the disease — not whether he will contract it. 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