GOP expects to sidestep strike

The ongoing city worker strike in Detroit, which has halted bus service and resulted in huge garbage pileups in some sections of the city, is not expected to trip up plans for a smooth-running Republican convention, Monitor correspondent Lucia Mouat reports.

Anticipating just such an emergency, party officials some months ago chartered a fleet of 75 buses from a southeastern Michigan company to carry delegates to and fro during convention week. Many newspaper and TV reporters arranged in advance for car rentals.

Also, several union contracts specifically exempt work in the city core. A group of electricians, for instance, despite a decision by their union to join the strike at midnight July 8, was at work as usual the next day completin a wiring job in Joe Louis Arena under a special private contract.

An estimated 9,000 city workers, one-third of the total, are striking for a cost-of-living clause with no limits and a 7 percent annual raise over the next three years. Strikers do not include fire and police personnel.

Convention officials hope a settlement will be reached by the weekened but Detroit Mayor Coleman Young said it could be "a long hard strike."