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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 9, 2002)
News and world briefing Bush halts ports’ lockout of workers David E. Sanger and Steven Greenhouse New York Times WASHINGTON (U-WIRE) — President Bush on Tuesday inter vened in the 11-day shutdown of 29 West Coast ports, successfully seek ing a court order to halt the employ ers’ lockout of 10,500 longshore men because the operation of the ports is “vital to our economy and to our military7." Judge William Aisup of U.S. Dis trict Court in San Francisco issued a temporary injunction Tuesday night ordering longshoremen to re port to work immediately. In seeking to suspend the shut down for 80 days, Bush became the first president to invoke the Taft-Hartley Act’s emergency pro visions since President Nixon sought to stop a longshoremen's strike in 1971. Aisup said he would conduct a hearing in a week on whether to grant a full 80-day injunction. If he grants it, the labor dispute would be pushed past the Nov. 5 election, past the Christmas buying season, and perhaps past the start of mili tary action against Iraq. Bush said he was worried about the movement of military supplies. The Pentagon often uses commer cial shipping lines to send supplies and equipment overseas. The president sought the court order after Labor Secretary Elaine Chao was unable to negotiate a 30 dav contract extension to reopen the ports. The International Long shore and Warehouse Union agreed to a 30-day extension, but the employers’ group acknowl edged it had rejected an extension, saving it feared that the longshore men would engage in a renewed work slowdown. Bush’s aides said he was reluc tant to act, but feared that a con tinuation of the lockout would un dermine a sputtering economic recovery. “This dispute between manage-1 ment and labor cannot be allowed to further harm the economy and force thousands of working Ameri cans from their jobs,” Bush said in a hastily-called announcement to re porters in the Rose Garden. On Sept. 29, the Pacific Maritime Association, a group of port opera tors and shipping lines, shut the ports and locked out the longshore men, accusing the workers of engag ing in a job slowdown. Union offi cials said the workers were merely observing safety precautions be cause five longshoremen died on the job this year. For the White House, Tuesdays decision was a difficult political cal culation. With union leaders op posed to a cooling-off period, some of Bushs political advisers feared that the move might mobilize union members against Republican candi dates, less than a month from mid term elections. Several unions that Bush has courted say that such in junctions undercut labor’s power in contract disputes. “We’re extremely disappointed,” said Bret Caldwell, spokesman for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the union wooed most vigorously by Bush. “The whole strategy of locking out the workers and urging the president to invoke Taft-Hartley was clearly an employ er strategy to get around negotiating a contract with these workers. It’s a bad precedent. It gives management the upper hand.” But some White House officials said that labor itself was divided on how to deal with the issue. “With every passing day, as the harm to the economy increased, the presi dent leaned more and more in this direction,” one senior administra tion official said. “It buys some time, it gets us past Christmas.” Moreover, there is a chance Bush may reap some political benefit. Many business groups lobbied for the president to seek an injunction, and they have sounded the alarm about the shutdown’s potential to damage the economy. Tracv Mullin, president of the National Retail Federation, said, “The president has shown political courage and leadership. He has put national security and the economy first.” Bush’s announcement came just one day after he appointed a board of inquiry, led by former La bor Secretary Bill Brock, to report to him about the damage caused by a shutdown of ports that han dle $300 billion in cargo each year. Administration officials said it was important for the president to move quickly to prevent further economic damage — they cited economists who say the port shut down is costing the economy $1 billion to $2 billion a day. Administration, management and union officials said Eugene Sealia, the Labor Department’s so licitor, contacted the heads of the union and the Pacific Maritime As sociation, the port operators’ group, on Tuesday morning to pro pose a 30-day extension. Several union leaders praised that ap proach because it showed the ad ministration was seeking to heed union concerns and avoid invoking Taft-Hartley. Sniper has Blaine Harden New York Times SILVER SPRING, Md. (U-WIRE) — For seven strange days, each more jittery than the last, a macabre lottery has been playing in Washing ton and its well-groomed suburbs. It affords everyone who dares leave the house a chance — an infinitesi mal chance, but a chance — of being murdered by an excellent marksman. “You don’t even have to play to lose,” said Byrne Peake, 42, a build ing contractor here in Silver Spring, where last week a nanny was shot in the head while sitting on a park bench. “All you have to do is have a pulse.” And yet — with six dead, two seri ously wounded, including a 13-year old boy shot on Monday on his way to school, and the sniper still out there somewhere — the quotidian pulse of suburban life thumps on. The Beltway, which slices through neighborhoods where sev en of the shootings occurred, re mains jammed and manic. School attendance has not swooned, al though children sit in classrooms behind drawn shades, recess has been put on indefinite hold and po lice officers with rifles patrol schoolyard perimeters. People here are carefully carrying on with the tasks that keep them alive — and make them targets. “If you let this sniper run your life, you may as well hide in the back hall closet,” said Peake, who was out this crisp autumn afternoon at Sligo Greek Golf Course. The course lies 10 minutes from the Kensington Shell Station, where last Thursday a woman was killed while vacuuming her minivan, While Peake was willing to play golf on a thickly wooded course where he conceded he was fair game for a sniper, he has reined in his fam ily. His 3-year-old daughter is not al lowed out of doors. This combination of annoyed bravura and calibrated retreat has begun to define the daily lives of res idents of Montgomery County. Be fore five people were shot to death here in the past week, this sprawling suburb of Washington was known primarily for the extraordinarily high percentage of its residents who are well-off, well-educated and live in big houses. Now it is a place where going to school requires tactical planning. Nicholas Shann, 11, is a sixth grader at Julius West Middle School in Rockville, Md., about five miles from where a man was shot to death last Thursday while mowing a lawn. Nicholas lives three blocks from the school and normally walks home by himself. But his mother, Allegra Shann, an interior decora tor, has canceled those walks for the foreseeable future. As has been the case since late last week, the shades at his school were drawn shut Tuesday, the doors were locked, all physical education class were confined to the gym and no one was allowed to go outside until bus es and parents showed up to take children home. All after-school ac tivities were canceled. Teachers and students agreed that was it hard to concentrate in class on Tuesday. An unusually high per centage of the students who did show up Tuesday, Green said, ask to see the school nurse. They com plained of stomachaches and several demanded that they be taken home, she said. “I had a dream last night that the shooter guy was in my school,” said Monica Kellem, 12, a seventh-grad er from Rockville, before jumping on a bus home Tuesday afternoon. “Now, I am going home and I am staying home.” In nearby Kensington, Margaret Upton, 36, was asked by a reporter outside a children’s library if she would talk about the shooting. “Not out here,” she said, as she pulled her baby from the back seat and grabbed her older son by the hand. “But after we get inside, I’d be happy to.” AUTHOR EVENTS Oct. 10 • 7:30pm University of Oregon Knight Library Browsing Room Author Kim Stafford "Early Morning: Remembering My Father" UNIVERSITY of OREGON BOOKSTORE For more about the author visit www.uobookstore.com AUTHOR EVENTS Oct. 9 • 7pm 100 Willamette Hall University of Oregon Author Tim Palmer "Pacific High" For more about the author visit www.uobookstore.com Do you need to take GRE • GMAT • TOEFL* PPST/P mmm mm The University of Oregon Testing Office is an official ETS computer-based testing site. Testing is available year-round, Monday-Friday, 2 sessions a day. Appointments can be scheduled by calling 541.346.2772 or by visiting the Testing Office. The Testing Office is located on the 2nd floor (Rm. 238) of the University Health and Counseling Center, 1590 E. 13th Ave., Eugene OR. The period of greatest demand is usually Sept, through March, so it makes sense to plan ahead. For more information visit the Testing Office web site at http://www.uoregon.edu/~tesling/ l Coming to UO... $*** |eve| Taking it to a new Ever been in an unhealthy relationship , or witnessed your friends in one9 Wish you knew how to help? ' MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Work with a team of men and women to help bring an end to sexual violence in our community through a 2-credit internship course. Call 346-4095. Deadline: ] 0/11/02.
