Tuesday, January 28, 1986/The Battalion/Page 7
00.
World and Nation
Union meatpackers fired
in Texas, Nebraska, Iowa
Associated Press
AUSTIN, Minn. — Hormel fired
union meatpackers Monday in
Texas, Nebraska and Iowa for refus
ing to cross picket lines set up by
workers who have been on strike
against the company’s flagship plant
for more than five months.
“We have contracts in place at
those plants, and we expect our peo
ple to honor those contracts,” said
Chuck Nyberg, senior vice president
of Geo. A Hormel 8c Co., which is
based in Austin.
The president of the union local
in Austin said the firings increased
the stakes in the dispute that began
in August when 1,500 workers went
on strike over wages and other is
sues.
"The fact that the company has
fired those people puts us m a posi
tion to bargain. Tne company will
have to bargain with us all,” said Jim
Guyette, president of Local P-9 of
the United Food and Commercial
Workers union.
Nyberg said a substantial portion
of the 800 union workers at Hor-
mel’s Ottumwa, Iowa, plant were
fired when they honored Local P-9’s
picket line.
A few workers were fired at the
company’s Dallas plant, and about
60 were fired at a plant in Fremont,
Nyberg said.
In Austin the Hormel plant was
open Monday, but pickets walked
outside and National Guardsmen
continued to patrol against violence.
Ray Rogers, a strike strategist
hired by Local P-9, said pickets will
be sent to other plants this week as
well as to a stockholders’ meeting
Tuesday in Houston.
The union also called for a na
tional boycott of Hormel products.
The firings came a day after a
neutral fact finder appointed by
Gov. Rudy Perpich called on union
members to vote a third time on a
contract proposal suggested by a me
diator.
Arnold Zack, a Boston-based la
bor attorney, said fears that the me
diator’s proposal would allow Hor
mel to spread a 36-hour work week
over seven days were unfounded.
The strike began Aug. 17 after
Hormel cut wages by 23 percent and
dropped the base wage from $10.69
to $8.25 an hour.
Union workers at other Hormel
plants accepted the concessions and
now earn $10 an hour. Local P-9
members fought the cut and, be
cause of an arbitrator’s ruling, were
making $9.25 an hour before the
strike. The mediator’s proposal
would provide a base rate of $10 an
hour at the Austin plant.
/
Shuttle flight delayed
Broken bolt gives wind time to strengthen
Associated Press
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The flight of school
teacher Christa McAuliffe on space shuttle Challenger
was postponed today because of strong winds that
built up during the more than two hours that techni
cians wrestled with a hatch bolt.
“We are going to scrub for today,” said NASA
spokesman Hugh Harris, announcing the third post
ponement for the flight in as many days.
Officials reset the launch for 9:38 a.m. EST Tues
day.
By the time the repairs ended, the winds had
strengthened and gusts of 30 mph whipped across the
runway where Challenger would land if there were an
emergency after liftoff.
Winds of more than 17 mph are considered danger
ous for a landing.
Launch director Gene Thomas called off the effort
about 12:30 p.m., the third weather postponement for
the flight.
The seven astronauts, including 37-year-old McAu
liffe, the first private citizen named to a space flight,
had grim looks on their faces as they returned to their
quarters.
The problems began when microswitches failed to
confirm that the shuttle’s hatch was closed properly.
Technicians put a ring of tape around the circular
opening, and an engineer climbed in the cabin to ver
ify that the door would shut.
The workers then were unable to remove a “frozen”
bolt that holds a hatch handle that is not needed in
flight.
They called for a portable drill and a hacksaw, but
only a drill was sent, and it took 35 minutes to reach
the launch pad.
When the technicians tried to use the drill, they
found that its battery was dead.
Ten minutes later, the hacksaw and a second drill
with a spare battery pack arrived.
But tne bolt was too hard and it chewed up the drill
bit.
The bolt was finally cut away with the hacksaw after
two hours of frustrating labor.
U.S. to use satellites to send messages
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Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Reagan
administration plans to use satellites
and cable television to get its mes
sage across to the non-communist
world.
Last April, the United States In
formation Agency, moving away
from what one of its officials calls its
“backwater” status, embraced TV
technology and started televising
two hours a day of programming to
European cable television systems.
USIA claims it now reaches more
than one million Europeans through
a number of cable companies.
By the end of next year, USIA will
extend the service to Latin America,
Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
USIA calls its TV service “World-
net.” The centerpiece is a daily 30-
minute magazine show called
“America Today,” a combination of
news, features and interviews.
A weekly “Science World” show
offers documentaries produced by
USIA with the help of American
corporations.
Chrysler Corp. cooperated in one
of them, showing off its compute
rized auto assembly line. On an
other, TRW told how it was able to
capture an errant satellite and put it
on its proper path.
The Soviet Union is not pleased
by the celestial broadcasting opera
tion. A Moscow commentator said
last year Worldnet is being “used by
Washington to impose its foreign
policy line upon other countries.”
The trans-oceanic experiment be
gan in November 1983 when the ad
ministration, stung by foreign crit
icism of the U.S.-led invasion of
Grenada the previous month, ar
ranged a satellite interview featuring
top U.S. officials and 40 journalists
based at five U.S. embassies in Eu
rope.
A month later USIA achieved an
other breakthrough when it ar
ranged an extraterrestrial news con
ference with the crew of the shuttle
Challenger.
Nixon gets hospitalized
flu
Associated Press
MIAMI BEACH — Former Presi
dent Richard Nixon was hospitalized
Monday after coming down with the
flu during a Bahamas vacation.
“We don’t anticipate any prob
lems. He should be fine,” Dr. Louis
Elias said, who admitted Nixon to
the Miami Heart Institute on Mon
day afternoon after examining him
at the request of a mutual friend,
restaurateur Cye Mandell.
Nixon, 73, was suffering from
mild dehydration, a temperature 1
degree above normal, fatigue and
lethargy, Elias said. His patient was
receiving glucose, a saline solution
and antibotics intravenously, Elias
said.
There were no cardiovascular or
neurological difficulties involved,
Elias said. He said he expected to
keep Nixon in the VIP suite here for
about three days.
His wife, Patricia, was with him,
“We don’t anticipate any
problems. He should be
fine. ”
— Dr. Louis Elias of Mi
ami Heart Institute.
hospital officials said.
Nixon had been visiting his friend
Bebe Rebozo on exclusive Cat Cay in
the Bahamas when he became ill Fri
day, Elias said.
Nixon flew here aboard a private
helicopter early Monday and had
planned to fly on to New York after
his examination, Elias said.
“I just felt he wasn’t quite up to
make a trip to New York,” Elias said.
“He was in such a hurry to get back
to New York that we thought we
could treat this faster at the hospital
than as an outpatient.”
Elias said Nixon was in good phys
ical condition and reported walking
three miles a day and playing a
strong game of golf.
Nixon had been vacationing in the
Bahamas since Thursday, according
to a statement read by Dolores
Dynes of the former president’s New
York office.
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