4A
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY OF GADY KANSAN
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2007
NEGOTIATIONS (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
ture private companies such as Pizza Hut, which is owned by PepsiCo, and Chick-fil-A, which has a partnership with Coca-Cola. Mucci said those companies contracts stated that they would not have control of the drinks at the food courts, so a new beverage contract would not cause a change in the food sold.
THE BENEFITS OF EXCLUSIVITY
Some universities share contracts between multiple food companies. Though Mucci said "anything's possible", he said a shared agreement would be unlikely at the University. Universities typically receive less return, or money, when a contract does not give full exclusivity to a particular company, Mucci said.
"The more exclusive it is, the more fulfilling to fund programs and scholarships," Mucci said.
Kansas State has an exclusive contract with Pepsi. Ray Wittlinger, Olathe senior and student body vice president, said he has spoken with
Lydia Peele, student body vice president at Kansas State, about the contract. Wittlinger said Peele told him that K-State's relationship with Pepsi was strong.
Wittlinger sits on the KU-Coca-Cola University Program Support subcommittee and the KU-Coca-Cola Partnership Council as part of his duties as vice president. Neither of these committees is involved in deciding which company to sign, but they monitor business trends within the University's relationship and decide how to spend the money the University receives from Coca-Cola.
However, he said the committees had discussed the contract negotiations.
"Anytime you have a contract as large as the one with Coke, you want that to benefit students," Wittlinger said. "It translates into more than just a business relationship."
STUDENTS'
PREFERENCES
Although students may not be
aware of the benefits of a beverage sponsorship, taste preference seems to be the priority for deciding which company the University should sign with.
"I like Pepsi a lot better," Adam Medaris, Olathe senior, said. "I hate having to walk all the way to the bookstore to get a Pepsi."
Andy Haverkamp. Hoyt freshman and student senator, said he did not see why the University had to pick between the two companies.
Wittlinger said University students would adapt no matter what happened.
"I think it's sad that an entire company has to buy out our entire campus and all of our students," Haverkamp said.
"The issue is who will help students, but for some students it's just what do they like to drink," Wittlinger said. "The students will adjust either way."
-Edited by Matt Erickson
INTERNATIONAL
Parade confrontational before U.S. visit
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TEHRAN, Iran — A day before flying to New York to speak directly to the American people, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad struck a confrontational tone Saturday with a parade of fighter jets and missiles and tough warnings for the United States to stay out of the Mideast.
Three new domestically manufactured warplanes streaked over the capital during the parade marking the 27th anniversary of the Iraqi invasion of Iran, which sparked a 1980-88 war that killed hundreds of thousands of people. The parade also featured the Ghadr missile, which has a range of 1,120 miles, capable of reaching Israel. Some of the missile trucks were painted
with the slogans "Down with the U.S." and "Down with Israel." The parade also featured unmanned aerial surveillance drones, torpedoes, and tanks.
Tensions are high between Washington and Tehran over U.S. accusations that Iran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons and helping Shiite militias in Iraq that target U.S. troops. Iran denies the claims. Washington has said it is addressing the Iran situation diplomatically, rather than militarily, but U.S. officials also say that all options are open.
"Those (countries) who assume that decaying methods such as psychological war, political propaganda and the so-called economic sanctions would work and prevent Iran's fast drive toward progress are
mistaken," Ahmadinejad.
Iran launched an arms development program during its war with Iraq after a U.S. weapons embargo. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own jets, torpedoes, radar-avoiding missiles and tanks.
"Those who prevented Iran, at the height of the war from getting even barbed wire must see now that all the equipment on display today has been built by the mighty hands and brains of experts at Iran's armed forces," Ahmadinejad said.
He is expected to do an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" airing Sunday, and make appearances at the U.N. and Columbia University His request to lay a wreath at the World Trade Center site was denied and condemned by Sept. 11 family members and politicians.
》 CONTRACTS
GM, UAW near tentative deal
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
United Auto Workers members Mike Freeman, left, and Roger Kendrick, right, get picket signs ready in case of a strike, at UAW Local 599 in Flint, Mich., Sept. 14. Bargaining between the UAW and GM continued early Saturday past a midnight contract deadline, a local union leader said, prepared for a possible strike.
DETROIT - Negotiators for General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers nearly finalized the details of a new contract Sunday after 20 days of talks, according to a local union official who was being briefed on the discussions.
The two sides wrapped up work on most issues and were down to determining how much money GM must put into a trust fund for retiree health care that will be managed by the UAW, said the official. The official expected a final deal to be reached as early as Sunday evening, although others said it could take longer.
"My sense is they are close. I think this is the end game," said Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley who specializes in labor issues. "They may be approaching a resolution, but if that's in the next two hours or the next two days, it's hard to say. There are a lot of complex issues yet to be resolved."
The health care fund — known as a Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association, or VEBA — would be a groundbreaking change for the auto industry and is the major issue in this year's negotiations. GM has around $51 billion in unfunded retiree health care costs, but the company isn't required to put the full amount into the VEBA. The UAW and GM are wrangling over how much GM should put in and how much can be paid in cash or in stock.
Talks resumed Sunday morning after negotiators recessed Saturday evening, GM spokesman Tom Wickham said. Sunday marked the ninth day since GM's contract with the UAW was scheduled to expire. The contract was renewed on an hour-by-hour basis since then.
Several local union officials said they had heard little about the negotiations as of Sunday afternoon and hadn't been told when the UAW will tell them about the deal. Once a tentative agreement is reached, local union leaders will meet for a briefing and then will present the deal to their members. Any agreement will
have to be ratified by a majority of GM's 73,000 UAW members.
GM, which has about 339,000 UAW retirees and spouses, wants to pay the union to form the VEA to get the health care liabilities off its books. The UAW is seeking guarantees of new vehicles to be built in U.S. plants in exchange.
"There's a tendency in negotiations for observers to focus on one or two contentious issues, but ultimately it's a package that's being voted on," he said.
Shaiken said workers will want to see job security promises if they're being asked to accept a VEBA.
》BLACKWATER
Maliki deems deaths unacceptable
ASSOCIATED PRESS
"The Iraqi government is responsible for its citizens and it cannot be accepted for a security company to carry out a killing," he told The Associated Press, speaking in his New York hotel suite ahead of his appearance at the U.N. General Assembly.
Noting that Blackwater has been linked to at least seven incidents involving gunfire on Iraqi civilians, he added: "There are serious challenges to the sovereignty of Iraq." In Arabic, he used the word "tajawiz" which can be translated either as "affronts" or "challenges."
However, Maliki left open the possibility that Iraq and the United States would work toward a solution to the problem of Blackwater. "We have coordinated with the American side to establish a joint committee to ascertain the facts and hold accountable" those responsible, he said.
NEW YORK — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Sunday the shooting deaths of civilians — allegedly at the hands of Blackwater USA guards — and other violence involving the company pose "serious challenges to the sovereignty of Iraq" and cannot be accepted.
In the interview, Maliki defended his government and spoke up
Speaking in a calm voice, al-Maliki was dismissive of some of the criticism directed at him by Washington politicians in recent months. Some members of Congress have said al-Maliki is not forceful enough in pressing for political reconciliation and achieving benchmarks meant to measure progress in the four-year U.S. intervention in Iraq.
Maliki said it is normal tor any government to be criticized, but he feels certain that he has the backing in Washington he needs.
for the rights of Iraqis to manage their own affairs. He said that his country is making progress toward political reconciliation and that 2008 would be a year of political and economic progress and reconstruction for Iraq.
"What is important is that it did not come from the American administration or President Bush," he said of his critics. "That it comes from other areas ... for other reasons, is not a concern of mine. ... It means nothing for me," he said.
The Sept. 16 killing of at least 11 civilians near a square in central Baghdad has highlighted the practices of foreign security contractors whose aggressive protection of Western diplomats and other dignitaries has long angered Iraqis.
U. S.-Iraqi relations have been further strained by the U.S. detention of an Iranian Thursday in northern Iraq who was accused by the military of smuggling weapons to Shiite militias for use against American troops.
Al-Maliki condemned the detention and said it was his understanding that the man had been invited to Iraq.
"The government of Iraq is an elected one and sovereign. When it gives a visa, it is responsible for the visa," he said. "We consider the arrest ... of this individual who holds an Iraqi visa and a (valid) passport to be unacceptable."
Iraiqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, demanded the Iranian's release on Saturday, saying he was a member of an official delegation that was in the autonomous Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah with the full knowledge of the Iraiqi government and local authorities.
Military spokesman Rear Adm. Mark Fox, however, said the Iranian was posing as a businessman but was actually a member of the elite Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who was smuggled armor-piercing explosively formed penetrators known as EFPs into Iraq.
Underscoring the dangers, the military said an American soldier was killed Saturday and another wounded when an EFP hit their patrol in eastern Baghdad.
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2007 KU BLOOD DRIVE
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
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