News Digest
Drug tests ordered for 4 million
WASHINGTON — The Trans
portation Department on Monday
ordered a wide range of drug testing,
including random checks, for more
than 4 million transportation workers
from airline pilots and flight atten
dants to truckers and railroaders.
Transportation Secretary Jim
Burnley said the transportation indus
tries are no more immune from drug
abuse as other parts of society, listing
a series of accidents and other indica
tors he said shows narcotics to be a
problem among truck and bus drivers,
commercial pilots and railroad work
ers.
“The American people demand
and expect a drug-free transportation
system. These new rules will take us
as far as practically possible toward
that goal,” Burnley said at a news
conference.
He acknowledged the tests, which
take effect in a year, likely will be
challenged in the courts.
The Supreme Court has before it
two separate drug-testing cases, in
cluding one involving post-accident
testing of railroad workers, that are
expected to be decided next year.
After Burnley's announcement,
the head of the 40,000-member Air
Line Pilots Association vowed to go
♦o Congress and to the federal courts
to overturn the requirement for ran
dom testing.
“Random testing is a counter-pro
ductive, shotgun strategy that is at the
same time an unwarranted invasion of
privacy and of no significant value in
the battle against dreg abuse,” said
ALPA President Henry Duffy.
The series of federal regulations
announced by Burnley call for trans
portation companies to have a com
prehensive testing program in place
by December 1989. Companies with
50 or fewer employees - including
tens of thousands of over-the-road
independent truckers - have a second
year to comply.
The Transportation Department
estimated the testing will cost busi
nesses more than $2.1 billion during
the first 10 years, but Burnley said die
testing will save the same companies
about $8.7 billion in increased pro
ductivity, accident reductions and
medical cost savings.
Besides requiring random checks,
the regulations call for drug testing
before employment, periodically
during annual physicals if there is
reasonable cause to suspect drug use
and after an accident. The drugs cov
ered by the tests are marijuana, co
caine, opiates, amphetamines and
PCP.
The random-testing provision,
which requires that at least 50 percent
of a given workforce be tested during
a single year, has attracted the loudest
protests from the unions. They argue
that such tests constitute an invasion
of privacy and have minimal benefit.
The required testing programs will
cover:
• Nearly 3 million long-distance
truckers, including independent driv
ers and those that work directly for
large trucking companies. Intercity
bus drivers also must be tested.
• More than 538,000 aviation em
ployees, including 50,000 commer
cial pilots, 80,000 flight attendants
and 300,000 airline mechanics. Air
traffic controllers already are subject
to similar testing requirements.
• About 90.000 railroad industry
workers, including engineers,
brakemen and train dispatchers.
• Nearly 200,000 urban transit
workers, including subway and tran
sit bus drivers and mechanics.
• About 200,000 merchant seamen
and other mariners on commercial
vessels that carry passengers or cargo.
Fishermen are not covered by the
rules.
I PLO swings to moderation
ALGIERS, Algeria — Mem
bers of the Palestine National
Council worked out final details
Monday of a new political strategy
that would renounce terrorism and
implicitly recognize Israel.
The council also is expected to
declare Palestinian independence
in the West Bank and Gaza Strip,
which Israel captured from Jordan
and Egypt in the 1967 Middle East
war and has occupied since.
With the new approach, the
450-member council hopes to meet
at least some conditions the United
States has set for dealing with the
Palestine Liberation Organization.
The Arab League formed the coun
cil in 1964, but it has assumed the
role of PLO legislature.
Behind the scenes of the council
sessions, which began a special
session Saturday, PLO chief Yas
ser Arafat rallied members to his
new policy.
Arafat beamed and said, “Eve
rything is fine” as he entered the
Palais des Nations conference
center Monday for a meeting of the
committee drafting resolutions.
George Habash, leader of the
radical Popular Front for the Lib
eration of Palestine, contended too
many concessions were being of
fered with no guaranteed response
from the United States and Israel.
In an unusual display of modera
tion, however, he assured Arafat he
would “express reservations in
public, but bow to the rule of the
major;ty,” conference sources
said.
In Washington, President Re
agan said implicit PLO recognition
of Israel “would be some progress,”
but added: “There are other prob
lems that remain to be solved.”
Israel rejected results of the
Algiers meeting in advance.
“We will not negotiate with the
PLO,” said Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir. “It’s not a problem of defi
nition and formulations of various
positions. We’ll not negotiate with
them because they’re opposed to
peace with Israel.”
Arafat and other PLO leaders
consider the independence decla
ration a historic step toward crea
tion of an independent state in the
West Bank and Gaza. The council
meeting is called the “Intefadch”
session after the 11-month-old
uprising among the l.S million
Palestinians of the occupied lands.
i---—--1
Beating victim
dies in attack
PORTLAND, Ore. — Civil
rights groups expressed outrage
Monday at the beating death of
an Ethiopian man, apparently at
the hands of white supremacist
“skinheads,” and said attacks by
such groups have been growing
nationwide.
Two other Ethiopian men
were injured in the attack early
Sunday by three young men who
had shaved heads and wore mili
tary jackets.
Skinheads, bands of young
loughs who espouse white su
premacism and are prone to
violence, have been linked to
two other slayings nationwide,
and a multitude of criminal acts
against blacks, Asians, Jews and
homosexuals.
“I think that what has hap
pened is very tragic, the ultimate
manifestation of racial hatred,”
said Avel Gordly, associate
executive secretary of
Portland’s American Friends
Service Committee, which
works for peace and social jus
tice issues.
it needs to be seen as some
thing that lias occurred because
of the overall racial climate in
this country.”
Police spokesman Dave
Simpson said Monday that in
vestigators had no leads in find
ing tne men who attacked Mu
lugeta Seraw, 27, Wondwosen
Tesfaye, 24, and Tilahule Ant
neh, 31. The Northwest Coali
tion Against Malicious Harass
ment last month identified Ore
gon as a “hotbed” of skinhead
activity. In Portland, skinheads
have been linked to various acts
of vandalism and at least two
assaults, including the beating
of an Asian man in March.
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