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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 20, 1997)
» 4 ' “ •¿t m f t •' - ¿7 x . * i* <”’ • — • " • ~ * 7 i'» t . , * «TSfciuTft. < < ? n * V .- >■* - A 4 . •»/fù' .< »* f C s K •¡Sr* Employees called winners in UPS settlement A panel o f Team ster local leaders approved Tuesday a tentative con tract with United Parcel Service, ending a tw o -w eek strik e that crippled package deliveries in the United States, a Teamsters official said. The panel, which consists of two reprsentatives from each of the 206 Teamster locals, voted unanimously to accept the tentative contract that now goes to a secret ballot by Team ster members. The vote freed the 185,(MX) strik ing Teamsters to return to work at UPS, but a formal ratification of the contract depends on a secret mail ballot of union members That mail vote would likely take three to four weeks to complete Teamsters said they would dis cuss the results of the local leaders’ vote shortly. Workers could be back at work as early as Wednesday. UPS Chairman James Kelly said the com pany’s lleet of brown vans Oregon political leaders say workers won dramatic and exciting victory - See related story, Metro inside. w ould be running fu ll-o u t by W ednesday, while officials at the w orld's largest package delivery company would contact customers to try to win back business lost dur ing the strike. At picket lines near UPS head Volume XXVII, Number 34 quarters in Atlanta, thousands of Teamster union members cheered the tentative pact announced late on Monday to settle strike, which was widely seen as a victory for orga nized labor P resident C linton called the settlement "a g ixxl thing for the country Il's g ix x l tor the company. gixxl for the employees, he said, speaking to re porters while on vacation on Manila's Vineyard, olt the Massachusetts coast "It's a viclory for the proposition that you can treat your employees well and make money. T hat's what I wanted to prove from the time I became president,” he said. Teamsters President Ron Carey said the I85.(XM) striking workers, who received $55 a week in union Committed to cultural diversity. strike benefits, could go back to work W ednesday. The breakthrough cam e M on thly night alter almost 90 hours o f negotiations at a W ashington ho tel A federal m ediator guided the talks and Labor Secretary A lexis Herman was at the hotel and pushed the tw o sides to keep talking. Carey said the union had won sw eeping concessions from UPS. Aug. 20, 1997 (The IJortkmb (Ohserver ■ ,• T IflEiisr ||E week Aim is great care fo -S' -, •?- ,-Ìà i and families REVIEWI Fed leaves rates alone The Federal Reserve Tuesday left key interest rates unchanged amid clear evi dence the nation's economy is growing at a comfortable speed with low inflation. The announcement by the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee was widely expected and left the key federal funds rate which banks charge each other for overnight loans steady at 5.5 percent. With recent data suggesting that growth is moderate and inflation steady in the world's dom inant economy, investors had little reason to expect any change in the Fed's policy stance now. But some ana lysts believe the Fed may move to tighten credit later in the year. Mir restarts computer The crew o f the troubled space station Mir managed to restart the station's com puter system Tuesday, arresting a 24- hour tumble through space triggered by a technical failure during the docking o f a cargo ship. A Mission Control spokes woman said the crew will now be able to restore Mir's stable alignment with the sun. U.S. officials, meanwhile, are mull ing whether to keep sending astronauts to Mir. David W olf is scheduled to blast off on Sept. 25 aboard the space shuttle Atlantis, but whether he will actually embark on the station is still being de bated. Three separate U.S. inquiries into safety aboard Mir are proceeding, said a NASA spokesman. Shuttle lands in Florida The space shuttle Discovery touched down in Florida with a satellite carrying a bounty o f data about the health o f Earth's protective ozone layer. The German-built spacecraft flew free o f the shuttle for nine days and took nearly 50,000 atmospheric measurements to aid scientists studying the depletion o f the ozone layer. The satellite also provided evidence to sup port a controversial theory that the Earth is being bombarded daily by thousands of house-sized, water-laden comets. Texas Inmates moved Missouri officials are considering le gal action against the operators o f a Texas jail where guards videotaped prisoners being brutalized. A spokesman for Gov. Mel Carliahan said the state was review ing all o f its contracts with Texas jails where hundreds o f prisoners have been housed in a bid to ease overcrowding in the Missouri prison system. ValuJet hearings start The National Transportation Safety Board is meeting today to consider its final report on the crash lastyearofV aluJet flight 592 that killed 110 people. The DC- 9 plunged into the Florida Everglades on May 11, 1996. Tobacco chief testifies The tobacco industry's chief spokes man dismissed as overblown and un founded medical and anti-smoking claims that cigarettes are addictive, jurors in a landmark secondhand-smoke trial heard this week. Samuel Chilcote, president o f | the Tobacco Institute, an industry trade group, also said the links between smok ing and diseases such as lung cancer were not yet proven and that secondhand smoke was not a health danger Ahson Kastner, the youth librarian at the A l b i Z a b r Z r i b h l i b r a r ^ Z d Z Z j t o ^ ^ ^ ! t X ^ c S ! ^ F S ^ S f f d a £ ! f t f c ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ f f Ministries at Northeast Martin Luther King & Skidmore. Several groups in north and northeast Portland, including the AMA Child Care Enhancement Project sponsored the fair as they work together to meet the needs of child care providers, children and families. (Photo by M Washington) Future for vacant market still up air United Grocery says it’s still committed to Wilshire site, neighborhood not so sure B y L ee P erlman espite closing their second gro eery in the area. United Grocers is committed to replacing the Wilshire Park Thriftway, officials told the Concordia Neighborhood Association last week. Last m onth Bill S eidl, the grocery cooperative’s director o f real estate and store developm ent, told the community group that his organization was committed to re-opening the Wilshire Park store on Northeast 33rd Avenue at Killingsworth Street, now vacant for two years. He said that an experienced operator was considering taking over the store, and that if an agreement could be signed it could open for business "within 180 days." The day after The former Wilshire Park Thriftway remains a blight in its northeast Portland the meeting the T J. Sentry Market at 4636 neighborhood, frustrating area residents. N.E. 42nd Ave., also affiliated with United Grocers, announced that it was closing its impending closure at the time of the meet he said. doors within a week. ing. As to the pending deal at Wilshire Park, Some residents took the two events as a "We kept the 42nd street store open longer Seidl said that it had fallen through. How betrayal. "Right now United G rocer's repu than we should have out of consideration for ever, he said, United Grocers remained com tation in the neighborhood is not good, and the neighborhood," he said. Sentry store had mitted to reopening the store. As proof of we need to do something about that,” former been losing as much as $60,000 per week, this, it is offering potential operators $1 Concordia president Ron Fossum told Seidl. he said. million toward its renovation. Last month Seidl insisted that the two events were a "Because of potential liability, we don’t the Figure was $500,(MX). coincidence, and that he did not know of the generally publicize these things in advance." A major obstacle, Seidl said, is the small D size of the store and the limitations that places on its operations. "We expect to do less than $125,000 a week worth o f business there,” he said. “Larger groceries do $500 to $600,000 a week.” The existing building is less than 20,000 square feel. Another problem may be fear of the area by potential operators. It was stated that one developer withdrew after a recent drive-by shooting on N orth east Alberta Street. N eighborhood board member M aggie White look stern exception to the remarks. "This happens everywhere. Beaumont M ar ket was robbed recently," White said. Seidl said the neighborhood could help him " s e ll" the market and area to potential operators. “I told one person, ‘Look w hat’s happeningiin Martin Luther King. W hoever thought that would be happening."’ The neighborhixxl association can also “help manage the emotion," Seidl told the board. “I know you guys are upset and you have every right to be, but cveiy hour spent on P R and spin takes away from finding a solution." Board member Phil Carrier told Seidl, You get it open, and I w on't buy anything anywhere else for a year." Apology for slavery debated Community dialogue: Apology and reparations for slavery ow do you feel about Presi dent Clinton and Congress officially apologizing to black Americans for slavery? What do you think about reparations - compensation for their ancestors' suf fering - to black Americans? The M etro p o litan H um an R ights C e n te r w ill fa c ilita te a C om m unity d ialo g u e on A pology to B lack A m e ri cans for S lav ery , T u esd ay , Sept. 9 from 6 :3 0 p.m . to 9 p.m . at the M ittlem an Jew ish C om m unity C e n ter, 6651 S.W . C ap ito l H ighw ay. All races of people are encouraged to H participate in open and honest dialogue on this subject. Everyone will have an opportunity to express opinion and offer ideas for posi tive change. M e tr o p o lita n H u m a n R ig h ts C e n te r's C om m unity D ialo g u es on race prom ote mutual u n d erstan d in g and respect. To register for the Sept. 9 dialogue or for more inform ation, contact 1 nda Hunter at 823-5136 II you are a person with a disability who needs accommoda tion. you're asked to call 48 hours in advance. Companions lost, future pondered John Lee survives a boating accident last week and is left to mourn the loss of his two fishing companions and friends. James E. Riley, 28 and Joe A. Banks. 44. who drowned in the mishap. Their bodies have now been recovered from the Willamette River A memorial service lor the men was scheduled for Wednesday at Maranatha Church
