European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 29, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes columns James j. Kilpatrick Public be damned policy must be changed More than a Hundred Yean have passed since a newspaper reporter put a rude question to William Henry Vanderbilt was t his Wheeling and dealing harming the Public the Public be damned Vanderbilt replied. In the strike of the International association of machinists the arrogance of the lordly old Mogul lives anew. Technically and legally he Iam � strike is a strike against Eastern airlines. In reality it is a strike against the Raveling Public. Such strikes cannot be condoned. They ought not to be legally permissible. 1 is one thin for textile work cars to strike against a textile Mill. No intolerable inconvenience is imposed upon he people when Mca Pacli cars strike a slaughterhouse. The right to strike is a weapon of last resort in the adversarial relationship of management and labor and Tew persons would advocate abolition of that right. The Lam s walkout is something else entirely by fore the strike had even begun striking machinist blocked traffic for hours at Washington s nation no air port. It mattered nothing to these belligerent workers a wholly innocent persons Terc being harmed. Pas sengers who were caused to miss their flights had done nothing to damage the Union. They had no grievance against either the company or the employees. These victimized passengers have plenty of grievance now and if he s Rick spreads o secondary targets the grievance swiftly will get to be massive. A recent sunday afternoon brought one of the More curious apologies in the history of Locial amenities. It came from Charles Bryan Leader of Che s,500-Mmberunion at Eastern. He was asked about the damage done to Hose who see Only to get to their destinations. We fed very bad and we apologize to the travelling Public said Bryan. Unfong Nalcy it s got to be seems the Only thing we can do is to reach out to the this is some was to reach out to the Public i m sorry to beat you about i he head and shoulders says the gentleman continuing to beat us about the head and shoulders it s a shame to punish innocent bystanders he says but you be got to be punished. It s got to be done. Well it does t got to be done the Public interest has to be put ahead of the interests of either the Union or the company. Many observers who have followed this Battle Over he past in months will have sympathy Ellen Goodman s fret us 60r6nzorfiatwsea/a/e Eastern Shoto with the machinists and baggage handlers who have called the strike. Their wages arc High especially for the machinists but not exorbitantly High theirs is highly skilled and responsible work those of us who Fly 100,000 Miles or More a year do not want around with Jet planes. It is possible also to have some sympathy but not much for Eastern. In Frank Lorenzo chairman of Texas air corp., Eastern s owner the company has had the misfortune of finding one of the most hated industrialists in recent memory. This Brilliant manage has managed Eastern so brilliantly that Iris losing a reported is million a Day this while competing airlines Are operating at a profit. Lorenzo has pulled off this feat by antagonizing virtually every person who works for Eastern in any capacity. He is despised and with Good reason he has made it tic or no Effort to solve the company s financial problems in any com passionate Way. It Isa matter of indifference to most traveler whether Eastern survives. If the company goes into bankruptcy the vacuum will be swiftly filled by other carriers. Neither Are the striking workers of arc in such demand that in one Way or another they will not stay unemployed Long. What cannot be a matter of indifference is the state of the Law affecting labor relations in Public transportation. The railway labor acl contains a provision not found in the Basic National labor relations act. Under he la workers have Power to wage secon Dary actions thus spreading the harm they do. Just the other Day in the Case of Twa flight attendants the supreme court acknowledged this difference in the two statutes. Regardless of How the Eastern strike turns out it i High time for Congress to rewrite this Section of the railway labor act a Means must be found absolutely to prevent crippling strikes against the Public in transportation Public Power the Telephone Industry and others. This May require a kind of binding arbitration that most conservatives find unsatisfactory but Noth ing is More unsatisfactory than a policy of the Public be damned and that is the policy that now prevails. a Ftp sort a to couple s parting leaves unresolved ethical Issue this is How it happens in ethics class. The teacher begins the morning Wajih a carefully constructed and rather farfetched hypothetical Case today. It a Drozic. Imagine just imagine says the teacher that a couple comes to divorce court to split up i hair property. They arc nor wrangling Over a House or a boat or ear what they each demand is custody of their seven pre embryos the creations of his sperm and her eggs that lie Frozen at the in Tilro fertilization clinic. The class lets out a collective groan. Come on ,.too farfetched that would never happen. Give us a break. Well students the ultimate hypothetical has now happened in mar Vilk term the main players in this i Rue Story an Mary sue and Junior Lewis Davis. The outcome is up for grabs. During their 10 years of marriage Mary sue had five tubal pregnancies that finally led the couple to an if clinic there the doctors fertilized eggs in a Ciri dish and twice tried Uri successfully to implant them in Mary sue s uterus. When the marriage disintegrated the remaining seven pre embryos became its most dramatic leftovers. Now a Blount county judge has wisely restrained Access to these fertilized eggs. But when the husband and wife formally split the court must decide the Fate of what was joined together. This is More than a Bio ethics Freak Case. There have been Well Over 4,000 children born from in this one have pre embryos been part of a property claim in a divorce the questions it raises arc at the Cen Ter not the Periphery of this still new technology. Is an embryo really property this is one that our ethics class could debate for Days Junior Davis listed these fertilized eggs under joint property. Mary sue says to consider them the head of Jhc if clinic or. Ray King believes they should be treated like Junior Davis lawyer Charles Clifford says Law if they arc not human beings they arc if embryos Are property under the Law How does the court decide whose prop erty it cannot after All Rule for join custody one week in his Freezer one week in hers. It could i suppose Divide these fertilized eggs the Way California divides assets right Down the Middle three for Junior three for Mary sue and one up for grabs. That hardly solves the Puzzle. Alternatively the court could decide ownership on the basis of what sociologist Barbara Katz Rouhman de scribes reluctantly As sweat s participation hormonal Urcal Mcnol ova extraction unsuccessful implants was greater than thai of her husband Ai sperm donor. The court could also calculate the Dollar paid for the clinic might own the taking the most logical Steps can Lead Down the most bizarre trails. The other ways to determine posses Sion do not Promise to be easier. Perhaps he pc embryo should go to the one most in need or most eager to use it Mary sue who can Only have children through if has said she wants to be a Mother although she is not sure she haste emotional or financial resources to try again. Junior has not said what he would do with the embryos. There is also the Sticky matter or rights Junior says he does t want to father children. Now does he have a greater right to determine the pc ambry is than a Man who Fertil cd an egg in shall we say the More traditional Way Mary wants to Mother a child does she have a greater right to Bear her sex Hus band s child than another divorced woman after All Mary sue could use Triesc eggs after their divorce Junior could end up responsible for the child. Whose rights Are right lest this ethics class to layout of hand one other set of possibilities. If the court awards the pre embryos to one or the other what to to Slop either from donating them 10 other infertile couples or using them in second marriages hard cases make bad Law and Dilem Mas make bad ethics. The Davis Story caches both those maxims not even an advanced seminar could work Oul a perfect Resolution. But there is a Way to prevent such a hypothetical from becoming a reality again. Six years ago another couple Mario and Elsa Rios died in a plane crash leaving no instructions for the fat of the Fertit Icid eggs which Are still stored in a clinic in Australia in the aftermath Many clinics Drew up agreements asking couples what they wanted done with the fertilized eggs i they could no longer use them. Couples could add Liat 1 would Call pre Concep tar clauses 16 these agreements. Hus band and wife would decide in Advance which would control he Fate of their by olog Tal merger in the event that they in new technology allows us Loim i ate the act of creation in a Laboratory pct i dish but it has devised no Binge Nylic Way to resolve Etc Day human conflicts we Are left to sweep up after the new technology. This ethics class will meet again. Wit Tunglen Pott Willm Imp the opinions exp med in the column Sand cartoons on i Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to reconsidered a representing the views of the stars and stripes or the untied states government
