Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.issues From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: issues Fri, Jun 26 1992 Date: Fri, 26 Jun 92 05:19:54 EDT Message-ID: 06-26 0000 DECISIONLINE: Issues & Debate USA TODAY Update June 26-28, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network Here are some of the issues and topics being debated across the nation Friday morning in USA TODAY: Strike; POW:MIAs; Neuharth. TODAY'S DEBATE -THE RAIL STRIKE: USA TODAY'S OPINION: Freight trains glide across the USA like an invisible hand placing cars, food, mail, fuel, chemical-based detergents and plastics within reach of consumers. Wednesday that hand closed into an angry fist. A nationwide rail strike erupted with ominous possibilities: Grain rotting, poultry dying, vegetables spoiling, jobs lost and about 600,000 passengers stranded. Congress is right to step it quickly as it did last year when it stopped a national rail strike after 19 hours. ... Late Thursday, the Congress moved on the right course when a key house panel voted back-to -work legislation, which calls for a 38-day cooling off period and binding arbitration. ... The longer the strike, the greater the pain. Already General Motors plans a 25% production cut. Other auto companies, who rely on freight trains to keep inventory flowing, are expected to follow suit if rail service isn't restored soon. Costs to the economy are running at $50 million a day and would rise to $1 billion daily, if the strike continues for a month. The cooling off period will work better than an imposed solution, which Congress has as an option. ... Congress shouldn't take sides. But it should protect the public interest by extending the cooling off period until economic recovery is firmly in place. OTHER VIEW: MAC FLEMING, president of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees: Early Wednesday morning, the nation's railroads locked out rail workers and brought America's rail system to a halt. Rail labor wants the shutdown of the nation's railroads to end. We firmly believe, however, that Congress should stay out of this dispute. ... Labor brings only one weapon to the bargaining table: the right to strike. Take away that weapon, and management has no incentive to bargain in good faith. The Railway Labor Act, which gives Congress authority to intervene in rail disputes, was passed in the 1920s when 85% of intercity freight moved by rail. Back then, a national rail strike meant a shutdown of the national economy, and congressional intervention to impose a settlement was probably justified. Today, however, only 35% of freight traffic moves by rail and, when a shutdown occurs, trucks and airplanes can pick up much of the slack. ... Our government champions the rights of workers all over the world. But when it comes to the railroad industry at home, working men and women cannot exercise their right to strike. VOICES ACROSS THE NATION ON THE LIKELIHOOD OF POW:MIAS SURVIVING: ROANOKE, Va., Ed Hornby, 60, senior tax specialist: There are some somewhere in the world. I was in Korea. We were overrun by the Chinese. I'm sure there were many taken back to China. Who knows what happened to them? I was machine-gunned and overrun. Who knows how many were blown away? N. LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Stacy L. Joshua, 20, clerk: I'm sure there are some left. They probably want to come back home to their families. Some of them also may be handicapped. But now we are having trouble with today's society. With the little information the government knows, we shouldn't make it a big issue. WYANDOTTE, Mich., Kathy Moss, 37, steel worker: I've always thought there were still some alive. There are too many unanswered questions. The government would mislead people about their fate because it did not want to answer questions about covert operations. SAN JOSE, Calif., Gordon Koller, 75, retired, veteran: The chance is very slight at this point. We never should have left Vietnam as long as they were there. We did have one rescue attempt, in 1970, except there were no POWs there. They had been there a short time before. HOUSTON, Texas, Marilyn Linley, 69, executive producer: Boris Yeltsin indicated there might be. There is always that possibility. Until family members have some evidence the person is dead, they are going to have this doubt. TOPIC - NEUHARTH: AL NEUHARTH, founder of USA TODAY: Abner Doubleday, generally credited as the creator of baseball, was born 173 years ago. ... The family fun game he unveiled in Cooperstown, N.Y., in 1839 has become a duel of lawyers and liars, bullies and browbeaters. The biggest bully of all is baseball commissioner Fay Vincent. There have been eight czars since ... 1920. ... Best - Ford Frick (1951-65) and Peter Ueberroth (1984-89). Worst - Fay Vincent (1989-?) and Bowie Kuhn (1969-84). Frick ... expanded major league franchises. ... Ueberroth ... skillfully negotiated TV contracts that put baseball on the same sound financial footing he gave the Los Angeles Olympics. Kuhn ... provoked the strike of 1981 by bitterly fighting changes. ... Vincent ... abuses and misuses the "best interests of baseball" clause. ... This week, he gave a lifetime ban to pitcher Steve Howe after the drug-troubled former rookie of the year pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of attempted possession of cocaine. ... Last month, Vincent engineered a racist deal that permits Japanese to own, but not control, the Seattle Mariners. The best interests of baseball will be served if the owners give Vincent the thumb when his contract expires March 31, 1994 - or sooner. Issues & Debate Editor: Beth Mann. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM