Page 4
The Battalion
Thursday, October 26,
Union officials join investigation
of fatal explosion at plastics plant
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Special Edition
Brown Bag
Concert
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VERISMO!
A PROFESSIONAL SAXOPHONE QUARTET
Free Admission!
Bring your brown bag lunch and enjoy!
Friday, October 27, 1989, 12:00 noon
Adams Band Hall
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PASADENA (AP) — Officials from the Oil,
Chemical and Atomic Workers union said
Wednesday they will join the investigation of the
blast at the Phillips Petroleum Co. plastics plant
to be sure that there were no safety violations and
that overwork didn’t contribute to the disaster.
“This is a major explosion and it’s a major tra
gedy with a lot of people dead,” Bob Wages, vice
president of the international OCAW’s oil sec
tion, said Wednesday. “It’s symptomatic of what’s
going on in this industry.
“I think companies are concerned about
safety, but I think they have competing interests:
profit and production,” Wages said. “I’m con
cerned about that.”
Three bodies have been recovered and an
other 19 people are believed buried in the rubble
of the plant. Another 124 people were injured
when explosions touched off flammable gas
Monday afternoon.
Joe Misberner, national president of the
Denver-based OCAW, said union officials were
to join Phillips and a team of examiners from the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
in the investigation.
Wages, who met with hundreds of Phillips em
ployees at the local 4-227 center, said employees
are worried that long hours, staff shortages and
an abundance of contract workers has led to un
safe conditions at many of the nation’s refining
plants.
“People don’t feel that there’s been adequate
attention to safety,” Clay Howell, a 14-year Phil
lips employee and union man, said. “We’ve had
too many contractors, people not familiar with
£4
People don’t feel that there’s
been adequate attention to safety.
We’ve had too many contractors,
people not familiar with work areas,
and people working too many
hours.” — Clay Howell,
Phillips employee
Bud Ramirez, a Phillips employee and unio:
member, agreed.
“I am concerned about safety, but I
have a pretty good safety record out there
Ramirez said. “My biggest concern is to see tin
everybody is taken care of and I think the unio:
will stand behind us on that.”
Wages said the union will try to negotiatew
Phillips to get reassignments and otherjobassui
ances for workers while the firm rebuilds
massive plastics refinery.
“We realize the company announced
morning that it will rebuild the facility and sat
our people will be taken care of for two r
Wages said. “But we want to do everything
can to ensure that the workers remain employee
during the rebuilding process.”
work areas, and people working too many hours.
There’s been a freeze on hiring and yet an in
crease in production.”
Howell said although the union and Phillips
had discussed safety problems in the past, “I just
don’t think they’ve realized that follow-ups were
inadequate.”
The union, meanwhile, announced it would
keep its 4-227 local office open around the clod
to provide current information and beginoffa
ing the services of grief counselors for workeo
and their families.
“If you’ve ever been in one of these, it’s
awesome feeling — even if you escape withoutii
juries,” Wages said.
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Hobby offers House worker’s comp solution
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AUSTIN (AP) — In a dramatic
bid to break the months-long legis
lative deadlock over workers’ com
pensation reform, Lt. Gov. Bill
Hobby offered his own plan
Wednesday and won guarded opti
mism from some state leaders.
House Speaker Gib Lewis, whose
chamber has been at odds with the
Senate since January over the issue,
called Hobby’s proposal “very en
couraging ... a positive step toward
ultimate resolution of this issue.”
Gov. Bill Clements, who says
workers’ comp is his top priority and
has called another special legislative
session to address it, also sounded
upbeat.
“I was impressed,” Clements said,
adding that he is anxious to see a
formal bill that incorporates Hobby’s
proposals. “I think it’s a real step for
ward.”
The Republican governor also
said, “I think it will certainly contrib
ute to breaking, the deadlock ... It
was a very constructive and helpful
program.”
Lawmakers return to Austin on
Nov. 14 to resume work on over
hauling the system that pays benefits
for workers killed or injured on the
job.
Hobby noted that the current sys
tem is beset with problems, includ
ing high costs for employers and low
benefits for workers.
Highlights of his plan, outlined at
a briefing in the Senate chamber, in
clude:
• Curtailing skyrocketing medi
cal costs, which Hobby called “the
greatest cause of problems” in the
current system.
® New emphasis on workplace
safety, including a new state division
of worker health and safety to iden
tify hazardous employers and design
safety programs and fines of up to
$5,000 a day for safety violations.
• Objective criteria for determin
ing benefit payments.
• Higher compensation for cata
strophic injuries and death.
• Incentives to settling disputes
without expensive and long trials.
• Incentives for injured workers
to return to their jobs.
A second bill will deal with insur
ance issues, Hobby said, but that isn’t
finalized yet.
Hobby stopped short of predict
ing whether his plan would break
the logjam that has seen two legis
lative failures this year — the 140-
day regular session and a 30-day
special session this summer.
“I hope so,” Hobby said when
asked if his plan could do the job. He
said he had reviewed it with a num
ber of people and, “Nobody’s
thrown me out of their office yet.”
Hobby’s bills as yet have no spon
sor, but it is unlikely that a senator
would refuse to introduce it for the
lieutenant governor, who presides
over the chamber.
One senator who served on the
previous House-Senate conference
committee that negotiated on work
ers’ comp voiced optimism that some
bill would be passed now that Hobby
is writing his own.
“I think that (Lt.) Gov. Hobby has
sent a strong signal that he wants a
bill. Different state leaders have said
that before, but nobody has sat down
and proposed one,” said Sen. Cyndi
Krier, R-San Antonio.
“I commend him for making that
effort, and I think that will have an
impact on the Senate,” she said.
Rick Gentry, a spokesman for the
insurance industry, attended Hob
by’s briefing and called the plan “A
supreme effort to break the
lative inertia over this particular
sue so that we can move forward
Many aspects of the plan “so
very positive. He’s made an attenoi
to be very fair,” Gentry said.
Trial lawyers and labor, who hat
opposed business during the reforj
battle, may see it differently,
lawyer said.
“I don’t think labor’s going to lilt
it,” said Deece Eckstein, a San Ant:
nio attorney who also attended Ho:
by’s briefing. “I don’t think busina
is going to like it. That’ll slow it
a lot more than whether or not
trial lawyers like it.’
One senator who served on the by’s briefing and called the plan “A trial lawyers like it.”
Committee prepares to clean
Texas money laundering stain
WASHINGTON (AP) — The “Only the Federal Reserve Banks Service and Internal Revenue Set
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
House Banking Committee plans
field hearings in Texas to examine
why the Southwest is reportedly
“awash with drug monies” being
laundered through banks in the re
gion, Chairman Henry B. Gonzalez
announced Wednesday.
Gonzalez, a San Antonio Demo
crat, said the hearings would be con
ducted in his hometown Dec. 6 and 7
to examine the growing problem of
money laundering in the Southwest
and whether current banking laws
are adequate.
“We chose San Antonio as the site
of this hearing because it is in the
center of a region that is seeing an
unusually high level of money laun
dering,” Gonzalez said.
“Recent reports show that more
cash is flowing into certain South
west financial institutions than is be
ing withdrawn,” Gonzalez said in a
statement. “Such an influx of cash —
particularly in small bills — is often
an indication that the deposit is the
result of an illegal drug sale.”
Gonzalez cited a story in the Aus
tin American-Statesman that said
the cash surplus in the San Antonio
vault of the Federal Reserve rose
from $900 million in 1986 to $1.6
billion in 1988.
‘Only the Federal Reserve Banks
in Miami, Los Angeles and Jackson
ville, Fla., have larger cash sur
pluses,” Gonzalez said.
Money laundering is the practice
of exchanging or investing money in
such a way as to conceal that it came
from an illegal source.
Service and Internal Revenue Ser
ice, Gonzalez said, as the comm®
attempts to assess the federal gc
ernment’s effectiveness in com
ting money laundering activities.
44
We chose San
Antonio as the site of this
hearing because it is in the
center of a region that is
seeing an unusually high
level of money laundering.”
The role of financial institutios
would also be examined.
“When Congress passed the On
nibus Drug Initiative Act of 1981
the Banking Committee made sun
that the bill contained strong la:
guage designed to prevent our
lion’s banks from being used as Lai
dromats to launder the ill-L
gains of drug dealers,” Gonzale
said.
Henry B. Gonzalez,
chairman
Gonzalez said his committee
would ask officials on the “front
lines in the war against drugs” to dis
cuss the extent of the drug problem
and money laundering in the South
west and how local and state law en
forcement agencies are coordinating
their efforts with federal agencies.
Witnesses would also be called
from the Border Patrol, Drug En
forcement Administration, Customs
Rep. Albert Bustamante, D-Sa
Antonio, whose district includes)
stretch of U.S.-Mexico border,
increased enforcement in Fiona
has moved a lot of smuggling actio
to the Southwest.
“And we’ve been getting report
that not only are we getting lie
drugs, we’ve been getting a bunebrf
the money,” Bustamante
Wednesday. “I think that there
speculation that there’s a lot
type of money in many, many
areas, and not only on the bordff
but the inland areas.”
Polls, politicians predict Democrat
will win Iceland’s congressional seat
HOUSTON (AP) — Judging by polls and political
observers, it’s not a question of whether a Democrat will
replace the late Mickey Leland as representative for
Houston’s 18th congressional district — it’s which Dem
ocrat.
“This is considered to be one of the most Democratic
areas of the state, if not the nation,” Sherry Johnson,
chairman of the Harris County Republican Party, said.
“It was drawn that way as a guaranteed seat. In the last
election, something like 70 percent voted for Michael
Dukakis.”
A special election to replace Leland will be held Nov.
7,
Leland was killed in a plane crash in August while on
a famine mission in the jungles of Ethiopia, a trip that
was part of Leland’s longtime effort to focus national
attention on the problem of world hunger.
Before Leland, the district created in 1971 sent Bar
bara Jordan to Washington, where she became one of
the nation’s leading statesmen.
District 18 is a disparate conglomeration of down
town oil company headquarters and slums in central
and northeast Houston.
It includes most of the city’s black population and
many of its Hispanics. In 1980, 41 percent of its resi
dents were black and 31 percent Hispanic.
“I don’t believe there is any question that it is a Demo
crat’s seat,” Jack Carter, chairman of the Harris County
Democratic Party, said. “The question is, which Demo
crat?”
Seven of the 11 candidates vying for Leland’s unex
pired term in the special election are Democrats. Three
others are Republican and one is Libertarian. The four
front runners — all Democrats — already are elected
officials.
State Sen. Craig Washington, City Councilman An
thony Hall and state Reps. Ron Wilson and A1 Edwards
lead polling in the race. Other Democrats in the run
ning include Shirley Fobbs, Timothy John Hattenbach
and Lee Arthur Demas Jr.
Republicans vying for the term include Beverly
Spenser, Manse R. Sharpe Jr. and Byron J. Johnson.
Gary Johnson, no relation, is the Libertarian candidate.
Washington and Hall are considered the most likely
to emerge from the vote for a runoff election. A candi
date would have to garner at least 50 percent of the spe
cial election vote to win the seat outright.
Washington, 47, a defense attorney, served 10 years
with the Texas House and has served another six in the
Senate. He has a reputation as a champion of liberal
causes, including abortion rights, gay rights and AIDS
health care and social issues for the poor.
4 4-1-
I his is considered to be one of the
most Democratic areas of the state, if not
the nation.
Here’s how
Texas cities
ranked in poll
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Here is how Texas metropo!
itan areas ranked among 333
metropolitan areas nationwide
and their overall rating as judged
in the Places Rated Almanac.
— Sherry Johnson,
Republican chairman
“I think this job requires one to have the courage to
stand up and make hard decisions,” Washington said.
“I am afraid of politicians who have no ideas of their
own, but merely regurgitate what other politicians say.
You may not always agree with me, but you always
know where I stand.”
Hall, 45, also an attorney, has served on the Houston
City Council the past 10 years and as a state representa
tive from 1973 to 1978. He credits himself with drafting
a minority and women business enterprise ordinance
for the city, negotiating the city’s anti-apartheid law and
sponsoring a bill that brought Texas Southern Univer
sity a “special purpose” status in the state. In addition,
he has helped establish anti-drug “Just Say No” youth
clubs.
Another front runner, Wilson, 36, has been a state
representative since 1977. He was a teen-age aide to Le
land in 1973.
Story on page 1
Abilene, 245
Amarillo, 176
Austin, 196
Beaumont-Port Arthur, 277
Brazoria, 274
Brownsville-Harlingen, 258
Bryan-College Station, 268
Corpus Christi, 257
Dallas, 40
El Paso, 222
Fort Worth-Arlington, 137
Galveston-Texas City, 171
Houston, 66
Killeen-Temple, 273
Laredo, 331
Longview-Marshall, 316
Lubbock, 120
Midland, 319
Odessa, 332
San Angelo, 291
San Antonio, 100
Sherman-Denison, 319
Tyler, 296
Victoria, 328
Waco, 255
Wichita Falls, 264
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