European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 28, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse The stars and stripes ago 10 columns James j Kilpatrick rehiring air traffic controllers in t the answer one of the oldest one Linen in inc Law has to do with the youngster who killed his parents. Then he pleaded for mercy As an orphan. Something of the sort is involved in a move to compel the rerun Rig of air traffic controllers who walked out on strike in 1981. They if cd to wreck the system then. Now they re being hailed As its Savior. 11 May he useful 10 recall inc events of seven years ago. The air traffic controller Hud a bad relationship with the Federal aviation administration they fell icy War underpaid for their stressful and demanding jobs icy resented inc Cavalier realm Cal that mulled in Sis Day workweeks and Many hours of overtime. The government offered pay increases Al double the Rale elsewhere in the Federal service. The controllers Union scorned the proposal. Roughly 16,400 air traffic controllers then manned the nation s Airport Lowers. Like All other Federal employees they were prohibited by Law from striking. In Deli acc of inc Law 13,000 controllers hit the bricks and posted picket lines. It was an ugly strike. The pickets cursed and abused Hose controllers who remained faithful to their obligation. President Reagan Cave the strikers 4 8 hours to return 10 their jobs. About came Back. The president Ihnn fired Hie other i ,400 and ordered them permanently excluded from the towers. Nearly seven years have passed. The system is not yet Back to the pc so Rick level but 15,900 controllers arc on the Jab and another to controllers have been authorized far 1989. The system needs at least a thou Sand full performance level controllers known As Fps. But getting these through Normal training Chan Nels lakes time. The Faa has 1,700 recruits in the pipeline they Are two years away from service at congested airports. Against that background. Rep. Guy a Moli Nari of new York has proposed that 500 sinkers be re employed in 19ss and another 500 in 1989. They would have to undergo three to six months of retrain ing but they would emerge As qualified Fps. Last week by a vote of 234-180, the House approved Moli Nari s Bill. The measure now goes to the Senate. Be cause of the Prii Donl s continuing opposition it May die there. Persuasive arguments May be advanced on both sides. Molinari s position is wholly pragmatic the air traffic control system sorely needs experienced con trollers. At least half of the strikers have indicated a willingness to seek their old jobs Over the past seven years inc volume of air traffic has soared. Controllers arc now under greater Strain than Ever. Al key airports Tom Wicker Natiw Lawf roti waning in a of Ca w5mni Howe Etc your notably Chicago s o Lia c. Controllers arc working at dangerous Levels of overtime. Mulinari finds u preposterous to risk air safely by continuing inc ban against rehiring the strikers. Opponents such As Frank Horton of new Orkand Newt Gingrich of Georgia take a different View. If inc system is in Roubic they observe it is precisely because of the unlawful conduct of the striking control lers the strikers wilfully deliberately violated the Law they acted in confirm it of the Public interest they said in effect the Public be damned. They were arro Gant then. Why should they be trusted now to Lake Back the strikers in the opponents View would be to Send a fatally wrong message to other unions of Public employees. Passage of the Bill would say to Ihm go on and strike amnesty will be granted in the there is this further object Ion thai air traffic Lowers arc tightly confined quarters in which controllers must flight of re san is in euen3s res someplace. To k As a harmonious learn. What kind of Harmony could be expected when strikers Lake scats next to the scabs of 19 it my to that objection Molinari replies that the 1,000 strikers would be hired with care. His Bill excludes those convicted of criminal activity during the strike. New hires would be on probation for six to 12 months troublemakers would be dismissed no questions asked no right of strikers would have to serve Sii years before they could qualify again for retirement benefits. My own thought is not to disturb the status quo. Air travel has an element of risk last year saw 1,063 near collisions in midair 400 of them endanger ing airliners but the number of actual collisions Nas remained both stable and minute. In anti bar is months to two years authorized staff Levels will be reached and excessive overtime will diminish. The situation is resolving itself. I would leave it alone. I Wartell Pitt a and 41 murder of Plo official violated israeli policy the government of Israel has not denied and tends to confirm by its silence thai it ordered the murder of Khali Al Wazir also known As Abu jihad. This order efficiently carried out by israeli gunmen violated Israel s established policy not to assassinate Lead ers of inc Palestine liberation Organiza Tion. It also violated the decent behaviour demanded of a democratic and Law Abid ing government. John Kifner of the new York times has reported that the Shamir government ordered inc murder of Abu jihad be cause he was directing the palestinian uprising in the occupied territories of Gaia and the West Bank. If so the order was misconceived As Well As disreputable in set off the blood kit Day of rioting yet seen and although the situation has calmed it May yet be come More difficult to control. This act of male murder testifies Loo to the seeming blindness of the israeli Cabinet in acis As if what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank is not a popular uprising against israeli occupation but something ordered and orchestrated from the outside by the Plo. Thin the Cabinet approaches the uprising More As a temporary problem to be handled militarily than As a Funda mental Challenge to the ensling order. Mow else could the Cabinet conclude As Kufner reported that this act of coun Ter terrorism might give the army Lime to brine things Back to Normal Bui is Rael is faced Only superficially with a Mil itary problem for the army the palestini an uprising ultimately Calls for a political approach. Politically however the violent death of Abu jihad also appears to have Back fired on its perpetrators. The murder of the military Leader and second ranking official of the Plo has a culled in Al least a partial reconciliation Between the Plo and Israel s bitter enemy Syria where Abu jihad was buried. And be cause his burial there and no in Jordan was a calculated Plo insult to King Hus Sein of Jordan in makes the King even less Likely Ever to be acceptable to palestinians As their spokesman let alone their ruler. The american initiative unsuccessfully pushed in the Middle East by Secretary of state Sulu depended heavily on Hussein s participation. Now it s even less Likely dial he can play a useful role on behalf of palestinians or in easing their pressures on miracl some israeli sources suggest that the murder of a Well known Tenor isl Leader was intended to remind palestinians of israeli strength to discourage potential recruits from joining the Plo and Loun Dermine Plo morale while boosting that of israelis. These Are weak justifications for calculated slate murder and miss the main Point anyway. As Zeev Ehilt inc Mili tary analyst wrote in Haartz ii is a mistake to think thai this is what will bring the end of the uprising. It did not begin because of Abu jihad and the Plo and its end will not come be cause of his Schiff added thai the murder of Abu jihad who was regarded As a moderate within the Plo might allow More Vej Treme forces to and the newspaper Hada Shoi raised another pertinent question if Plo leaders Are Large for bumping off with whom actually do we intend to discuss the palestinian problem to an american an ious for Israel s survival and Success and alarmed by the potential for a. Middle Eastern War thai could result in superpower confrontation All of ibis is dismaying but not More so than the idea of Israel s highest most responsible Leaden deliberately approving a political assassination. Its trite thai Israel lives in a Vir Tual state of War surrounded by implacable enemies h a True Loo thai one not resident in thai country can hardly comprehend its pressures and dangers or the conflicting passions they produce. It s Irue finally that the opprobrium of out sides sometimes lakes insufficient account of realities on the scene. Nevertheless the Good opinion of Mankind is important especially to a nation whose no Are planted in moral revulsion against the holocaust. A abiding behaviour in necessary to a demo cratic government most particularly when that government is under Chal Lenge. Calculated murder is terrorism s instrument not that of decent societies in which it must always be illegal inhumane immoral. For whatever purpose Israel should not be a party to in. Tbs of Lekeu cipro Ltd la inc columns and eur too on Hifp or mail to cwt of us Tubon n4 to in � to be u the new of to sur. Nod so Ripe or the United Sutet Mer Amrol
