Even though October 6th fell on a Sunday in 1996, there was no shortage of news, politics and mayhem to report.
Thousands more General Motors employees were poised to join their union brethren on the picket line as the autoworkers’ strike spreads and its economic shock waves ripple through southern Ontario. Talks between GM and the union were suspended over the weekend and the company said it’s a “forgone conclusion” that 5,300 workers at a St. Catharines plant will walk out at midnight tonight. “I don’t see what can avert a strike at that operation,” GM spokesman Stew Low said. The strike could spread by Wednesday to encompass 4,600 workers employed at GM plants in Woodstock, London and Windsor.
The walkout has already been felt in a number of communities, with layoff slips going out last week to more than 1,000 workers at auto-parts suppliers. Thousands more are likely to follow. Buzz Hargrove, Canadian Auto Workers chief, told a union meeting in Windsor yesterday that the strike will be felt across the country. “This will have a devastating effect on the Canadian economy,” he said. “That’s why we’ve tried everything to avoid this.” He said the small business people who rely on GM workers for survival should recognize that autoworkers are fighting to keep their jobs in Canada.
Hargrove urged union members to be ready for a lengthy dispute. “Hang with us, stay in there united and we’ll bring you back a good collective agreement,” he said to cheers from members of the Windsor locals.
The walkout had already been felt in a number of communities, with layoff slips going out last week to more than 1,000 workers at auto-parts suppliers. Thousands more are likely to follow. Buzz Hargrove, Canadian Auto Workers chief, told a union meeting in Windsor yesterday that the strike will be felt across the country. “This will have a devastating effect on the Canadian economy,” he said. “That’s why we’ve tried everything to avoid this.” He said the small business people who rely on GM workers for survival should recognize that autoworkers are fighting to keep their jobs in Canada.
Hargrove urged union members to be ready for a lengthy dispute. “Hang with us, stay in there united and we’ll bring you back a good collective agreement,” he said to cheers from members of the Windsor locals.
Meanwhile, Bill Clinton and Bob Dole were more than $400 billion apart on tax cuts, a world apart on abortion and divided by degree if not direction on central questions about Washington’s role in people’s lives. Those differences have been obscured in a campaign where chunks of one party’s platform could be inserted into the other without anyone noticing. But if the Clinton-Dole debates serve their purpose, voters may begin to see clearer choices on issues. Here is where Clinton and Dole differ in key areas: Taxes: Clinton proposes $110 billion in tax cuts, including an eventual $500 tax credit for preteen children and college tax breaks. He would increase capital gains tax for some investors, reduce it for home sales, offer business tax breaks for hiring welfare recipients and raise some corporate taxes.
Clinton did not deliver on his 1992 promise for a middle class tax cut. Dole proposes $548 billion in tax cuts over three years, including a 15-percent cut in income tax rates, halving of capital gains tax rate and a $500 tax credit for children under 18. He would let people direct $500 of their income taxes to charities that fight poverty. I Affirmative action: Clinton wants to “mend it, don’t end it.” Dole would favor ability and qualifications over most federal preferences based on race or sex. – Balanced budget: Dole favors a constitutional amendment mandating balanced budgets; Clinton does not.
I Health care: Dole favors tax-free medical savings accounts; Clinton says they would undermine Medicare. Clinton favors cutting $124 billion from planned Medicare spending over six years; Dole favors cutting $158 billion in that time. Dole would turn Medicaid over to states; Clinton would not. Bureaucracy: Dole would eliminate the departments of Education, Energy, Commerce and Housing and Urban Development, along with Corporation for Public Broadcasting and national arts and humanities endowments; Clinton has cut regulations but opposes closing major departments. Crime: Clinton favors strong gun controls, which Dole opposes.
Dole promises to appoint more conservative judges. Education: Clinton favors public school mandates; Dole favors a broader option of choosing among public, private and religious schools. Clinton would provide tax breaks to help people go to a university or community college; Dole would provide vouchers to help parents send their children in public schools to private or religious schools. Abortion: Clinton supports broad abortion rights; Dole favors a constitutional amendment to ban abortion subject to exceptions for the life of the mother, rape and incest. Dole would sign the so-called partial birth abortion ban vetoed by Clinton.
And finally, A blue marble might offer a clue to a wave of nearly 150 mysterious windowsmashing attacks on Southern California freeways. Authorities found the marble on the floor of a car, Gov. Pete Wilson said last week, adding that other projectiles have been discovered. Neither the governor nor California Highway Patrol Commissioner Spike Helmick would discuss what the evidence might suggest. No one has been hurt, and no arrests have made in the three week rash of attacks, which have puzzled investigators unable to find bullet or rock fragments.
Investigators think more than one person is involved in the “stupid and cowardly” attacks, Wilson said. Theories about the assailants’ method of attack have included BB or pellet guns, high-powered slingshots, rocks hung from overpasses with fishing lines and & lasers, microwaves or other energy waves. The latest rash of attacks came Wednesday night, when at least 20 vehicles were hit. On Tuesday night, 42 windows were damaged * on at least four freeways. The governor said that he had authorized the Highway Patrol to boost patrols and resources in an attempt to stop the attacks.
And that’s just a sample of what happened, this October 6, 1996 as reported by CBS Radio News.