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^ Vol. 82 No. 172 CJSPS 045360 8 pages College Station, Texas Tuesday, July 7, 1987
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Department of labor
fines Chrysler Corp.
More than $1.5 million assessed company
for 811 violations of health, safety codes
I WASHINGTON (AP) — In the
largest penalty ever assessed for job
Realth and safety violations, the La
bor Department fined the Chrysler
porp. more than $1.5 million Mon
day for 811 infractions, including
Jvillfully exposing auto workers to
v , _ lead and arsenic.
(C : j Chrysler said it will not contest the
l-line, but it called most of the alleged
^ Violations “relatively minor . . . dis-
■repancies.
< £:JI AH of the violations
C o"
including
38 classified as “willful” or knowing
lefiance of the law — were found
luring an inspection of the compa-
iv’s Newark, Del., auto assembly
slant last January by the depart-
Tient’s Occupational Safety and
Health Administration.
Since then OS HA also has con-
iucted wall-to-wall inspections at
[wo other Chrysler facilities — an
luto assembly line in Belvidere, III.,
Sy ind a stamping plant at Twinsburg,
Dhio — but the results have not
seen announced yet.
“Those are still pending cases,”
OSHA spokesman Terry Mikelson
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said. “There should be something
pretty soon on Belvidere.”
More than one-fourth — 225 —of
the willful violations were for in
stances in which workers in the Dela
ware plant’s paint and soldering
shops were exposed to hazardous
levels of lead or arsenic.
Penalties of $8,000 each — or a to
tal of $1,048,000 — were levied for
only 131 of those violations, based
on the number of employees ex
posed, Mikelson said. The Newark
plant has about 4,000 workers.
Overexposure to lead can damage
the central nervous system and, in
sufficient quantities, cause death.
Arsenic also is a lethal chemical and
a potential carcinogen.
OSHA Administrator John A.
Pendergrass called the fine “the only
possible response to a totally unac
ceptable situation” where Chrysler
“put workers in jeopardy seriously
threatening their health and safety.”
“Lack of adequate safeguards and
protection for workers dealing with
substances as dangerous as lead and
arsenic cannot be tolerated,” Pen
dergrass said. He said the fines
should be seen as “clear signal to all
employers.”
Gerald Greenwald, chairman of
Chrysler’s Chrysler Motors Corp.
subsidiary, said his company had
been caught up in “a new vigor” by
OSHA in enforcing the law and its
focus on Chrysler as one of its first
targets.
Greenwald called most of the vio
lations “relatively minor electrical
and mechanical safeguarding dis
crepancies” and said “a majority
have been addressed.”
He maintained that Chrysler’s
working conditions “have been the
safest in the auto industry and better
than heavy industry in general.”
In January, Chrysler agreed to
pay OSHA a fine of $284,830 — un
til Monday the largest ever collected
by the agency — for health and
safety record violations at the New
ark, Belvidere and Twinsburg
plants.
Grin And Bear It
Sarah Hummert, 1, and “Bear” take a break out
side the Academic Building. Hummert’s parents
Photo by Robert W. Rizzo
are students at A&M and take turns watching their
daughter and going to class.
Bullock: House tax plan won’t balance budget
AUSTIN (AP) — An insurance tax
passed by the House was described by the
senate’s tax-writing chairman Monday as
‘horrible,” and State Comptroller Bob Bul
lock said the plan won’t raise enough
money to balance the budget.
Bullock told lawmakers the 6 percent
sales tax on insurance premiums would
raise $500 million less than previously ex
pected because of enforcement problems
' nd proposed exemptions from the levy.
Bullock lowered his revenue estimate for
the insurance tax collections in 1988-89
from $1.8 billion to just under $1.3 billion.
That would drop the total House tax
ackage, which was written to cover a $38.4
illion spending bill, from $5.7 billion to
about $5.2 billion.
The Senate on Monday refused to accept
the House version of the state budget, and
asked for a conference committee to adjust
differences between House and Senate bills
before the special legislative session ends
July 21.
Committee hearings on taxing and
spending are scheduled to start Tuesday.
Bullock said the insurance tax bill would,
in effect, require the comptroller to collect a
tax from 10 million indiviciual policyhold
ers through a system “very much like what
would be needed to collect a personal in
come tax from each Texan.”
He said the bill lacked sufficient enforce
ment and collection tools, and exemptions
— including for crop insurance; single-pre
mium whole-life policies; and policies held
by the elderly — to raise the original esti
mate.
Also, Bullock reminded legislators, no
state has ever successfully levied an additio
nal sales tax on insurance premiums.
Sen. Bob Glasgow, chairman of the tax
policy subcommittee, said the House sales
tax bill has “horrible technical problems.”
The House voted Thursday to raise the
state sales tax from 5.25 percent to 6 per
cent and to extend it to insurance premi
ums on a temporary two-year basis. An
other bill approved by the House would
keep the motor fuels tax at 15 cents per gal
lon instead of allowing it to roll back to 10
cents on Sept. 1.
Glasgow, D-Stephenville, was asked if he
thought the insurance tax was dead in the
Senate, and he responded, “My reaction is
it would be impossible to pass the tax in the
form it came over from the House.
“I think the Senate would be more in
clined to expand the base on sales tax
rather than that horrible insurance load
that the insurance companies have.”
He said he thought the Senate would ap
prove extending the 15-cent fuels tax.
Responding to Senate criticism of the
House tax proposal, Chairman Stan
Schlueter of the House Ways and Means
Committee said senators could ruin efforts
to write a balanced budget if substantial
changes are made in the tax bill. But House
Speaker Gib Lewis said if senators can find
another way to raise money, “I’m all for
them.”
Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby was asked if the
House tax package was enough, in his esti
mation, to pay for necessary state services
over the next two years. “No, I think not,”
he said.
Gov. Bill Clements has vowed to veto any
tax increase larger than $2.9 billion but
Hobby said he doubted the governor would
do so.
Sen. Carlos Truan, D-Corpus Christi,
said about 100 amendments were approved
in the House to the spending bill and some
were merely “intended to be platforms for
re-election.”
k Lewis ‘eager’ to see better methods
> for raising money than insurance tax
AUSTIN (AP) — Speaker Gib Lewis said Mon-
Bday that he is eager to see senators who don’t like
•'■‘•the insurance tax come up with a better way to
r aise the money the state needs.
Also Monday, House Ways and Means Chair
man Stan Schlueter said senators could ruin ef-
;|forts to write a balanced budget if they make sub
stantial changes in the tax bill approved last week
j>y the House.
The House bill raises the sales tax rate, now
5'A percent, to 6 percent and expands it to cover
most insurance premiums. But the insurance tax
faces considerable Senate opposition.
“Well, that’s just fine,’ said Lewis, D-Fort
Worth. “I just hope they can find some other
source of revenue. If they can find a better mech-
nism, I’m all for them.”
Lewis said he has heard little about the tax bill
from taxpayers.
“I know that you all have been subjected to all
this (talk) all this weekend about how the public
was going to just rise up in arms and beat all of us
to a pulp, but I want you to know that I did not
have one person say anything to me about the tax
bill,” he said.
Noting the close House vote on the tax plan,
Schlueter said, “The Senate is running the poten
tial problem of killing the whole tax program by
their hand, which they did in the regular ses
sion.”
He defended the insurance tax as a progres
sive one.
“The more property you have, the more valu
able your property, the more your insurance is
going to cost,” Schlueter, D-Killeen, said. “I’m
one of those people. My insurance is going to go
up $20,000 to $25,000 this next year because of
it. And I’ve gotten a few calls from my parents.
But they all understand the money has got to
come from somewhere.”
Jim Raster, legislative aide to Gov. Bill Clem
ents, said the governor — who has vowed to veto
the kind of tax plan approved by the House — is
awaiting Senate action.
And, despite the growing Senate opposition
and a decreased projection on how much money
the insurance.tax would raise, the sponsor of the
tax bill offered Monday’s most optimistic note.
“I think we’re going to have a bill to the gover
nor’s desk by the end of this week and I think the
governor is going to sign it and I think we’re
going to go home,” said Rep. Dan Morales, D-
San Antonio.
Reagan's knowledge expected topic
North to be quizzed by Congress
1 WASHINGTON (AP) — Lt. Col.
^Oliver North breaks his public si
lence today, facing congressional
Questioning that is expected to home
in quickly on whether President Rea-
Ran knew about the diversion of
Bran arms-sale money to Nicaragua’s
[Contra rebels.
North will speak publicly for the
first time since the af fair broke seven
months ago, answering questions
ffrom chief House committee counsel
|(ohn Nields, who also plans to intro
duce more than 200 documents as
Itvidence during his day-long direct
examination.
| Sen. Paul Trible, R-Va., who is to
be one of the principal questioners at
the hearing, said Monday, “Oliver
North is the man who made things
happen from Iran to Central Amer
ica. He knows what happened. And,
hopefully, he will tell us the full
■tory.”
I Rep. Dick Cheney, R-Wyo., an
other designated questioner, added,
“He’s got a great deal to tell us. I
ihink we’ll be able to look back when
it’s all over, and this will probably
have been the most significant week”
of the hearings.
The session, beginning the eighth
week of Iran-Contra hearings, will
be carried live on the major tele
vision networks.
Rather than questioning North
chronologically about the Iran arms
sales and the Contra aid network,
Nields plans to focus on specific is
sues, House committee spokesman
Robert Havel said Monday.
Near the top of the list is the one
matter seen as potentially the most
explosive for Reagan: whether he
was aware that money from the sale
of weapons to Iran was being
shunted to Central America to arm
the Contras at a time when such aid
was barred by Congress.
Reagan has repeatedly said he
didn’t know about the diversion. But
a weekend poll said a majority of
Americans don’t accept that. The
poll in U.S. News 8c World Report
found that 57 percent of Americans
believe Reagan’s denials are a lie.
However, another of the principal
North questioners, Sen. George
Mitchell, D-Maine, said Monday the
panels should be careful not to place
too much weight on Reagan’s knowl
edge of the diversion.
“I think the White House has, in a
skillful political way, narrowed it
down to that — as though if the an
swer to that is ‘no,’ that’s all there is
to it,” Mitchell said. “The significant
questions are much broader than
that, and they go to the rule of law.
The executive branch must faith
fully execute it, not seek to evade it.”
Also high on Nields’ list of issues is
the November 1985 shipment of
Hawk anti-aircraft missiles from Is
rael to Iran, a shipment carried out
with heavy assistance by the Central
Intelligence Agency but without
written authorization from Reagan,
according to earlier testimony. And
Nields will question North closely
about efforts a year later by top Rea
gan officials to cover up government
knowledge of that operation, Havel
said.
Last November, in the days just
before the situation became public,
Attorney General Edwin Meese III
was assigned by the president to look
into the unraveling affair. Some in
vestigators believe the move was pri
marily a political damage control ef
fort.
It was during those crucial days
that Meese failed to secure docu
ments that North later shredded,
tipped North to what his probe had
found and decided against bringing
in experienced criminal investiga
tors, prior testimony has indicated.
In addition to the central factual
questions in the affair, the question
of North’s own credibility is on the
line as he testifies under a grant of
limited immunity that prevents his
answers from being used against
him in any criminal case.
Direct questioning of North by
Nields is expected to last all day to
day and perhaps extend into
Wednesday, when House minority
counsel George Van Cleve and Sen
ate chief counsel Arthur L. Liman
will pick up the thread.
Members of the investigating pan
els probably will begin their ques
tions on Thursday, with two hours
each allocated to the House and Sen
ate principal questioners. Taking the
first turns for the Senate panel will
be Sens. George Mitchell, D-Maine,
and Paul Trible, R-Va.
U.S. Navy warships
sailing throughout
entire Persian Gulf
MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) —
U.S. Navy ships are cruising the
whole Persian Gulf, including
the northern off-limits zone de
clared by Iraq, as they prepare to
protect 11 Kuwaiti tankers Hying
the American flag, shipping offi
cials report.
The exclusion area extends 70
miles from Kharg Island, Iran’s
main export oil terminal and a
regular target of Iraqi air raids
in the war that began in Septem
ber 1980.
Iran has threatened to attack
the American warships and U.S.
officials will not say where they
are patrolling.
A shipping official based in
the area, who like the others
spoke anonymously, said:
“They’re everywhere in the
gulf.”
Lt. Cmdr. Stephen Honda, a
Navy spokesman, said only that
the warships “operate in the gulf
and the Gulf of Oman in inter
national waters.”
The fleet is called the Middle
East Force and now includes
nine vessels.
One U.S. vessel seen inside
the exclusion zone, where Iraq’s
air force also has concentrated
its attacks on tankers, is the mis
sile frigate Reid, sister ship of
the USS Stark.
An Iraqi warplane hit the
Stark with missiles May 17 about
40 miles south of the exclusion
zone, killing 37 American sail
ors.
Iraq apologized, saying the
Iraqi pilot mistook the Stark for
an Iranian warship.
“We sighted the Reid inside
the war zone and each of us was
asking the sailor next to him,
‘Am I seeing things?’ ” said a
seaman whose tanker was carry
ing Iranian oil from Kharg to
the Far East.
“We saw the Reid through
binoculars and then with the
naked eye when it drew closer:
an Oliver Hazard Perry-class
guided-missile frigate stabbing
through the no-go zone,” said
the seaman, who spoke on con
dition his name not be used.
Gulf-based Arab diplomats
confirmed the Reid and other
U.S. warships, which they did
not identify, had entered the ex
clusion zone in recent weeks.
They said the American ves
sels sailed into the area with
Iraq’s knowledge under an un
derstanding said to have been
reached after the attack on the
Stark.
Reflagging the Kuwaiti tank
ers and giving them Navy escorts
“We sighted the (USS)
Reid inside the war
zone and each of us
was asking the sailor
next to him, ‘Am I see
ing things?’ ”
— unidentified seaman
on a tanker carrying
Iranian oil from Kharg
to the Far East.
is intended to protect the emi
rate’s oil shipments from Iranian
attack.
The first of the U.S.-regis
tered Kuwaiti ships is expected
to return to the gulf later this
month.
Kuwait backs Iraq in the war
and ships owned by or trading
with Kuwait have been prime
Iranian targets since last Sep
tember.
The U.S. Navy’s Middle East
Force was established in 1949 af
ter Saudi Arabia struck oil with
the help of American compa
nies.