Edited by Louisa C. Brinsmade, with contributions this week by Andrea
Barnett,
Robert Bryce, and Amy Smith.
PESTICIDE PARK: Austin city officials met last week with East Austin
residents
who live near Springdale Park, a 14-acre tract that has been found to
be
contaminated with unknown quantities of pesticide and lead, to talk
about the
city’s cleanup efforts.
The park, which was purchased by the city in 1981, was used in the
1930s and
1940s as a dump site for ash from Austin’s municipal waste incinerator,
and is
piled high in places with broken glass and small metal shards. Last
December,
the city erected a fence around the park after five soil samples
revealed DDD
contamination, a breakdown product of the now-banned pesticide DDT
(dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane), as well as lead.
About 20 area residents gathered at the Sims Elementary School on
Springdale
Road, just south of Martin Luther King Blvd., to hear about the city’s
progress. Chuck Lesniak, with the Environmental and Conservation
Services
Department (ECSD), told listeners that the city has hired a contractor,
EMCON
Baker-Shiflett Inc., to take more comprehensive soil and water samples,
and
expects a report by mid-July. At that point, the city will weigh the
health
risks and cleanup costs, then decide on a course of action.
Of particular concern to both residents and the city is the
possibility of
groundwater contamination. Officials emphasize that anyone with a well
in the
area should contact the city so the water can be tested. Also, Lesniak
says,
nearly all of the site’s rainwater runoff goes into Fort Branch Creek,
which
runs inside the eastern border of the park. Lesniak says the
contractors will
have to sample runoff into the creek during a rainstorm, as the creek
is
normally dry.
Residents’ concerns ranged from wanting testing on property
surrounding the
park – including private houses, a fire station, and the Webbervile
Road
Baptist Church – to questioning the city’s commitment to cleaning up
the mess
it made 50 years ago.
“I really don’t want to hear about finances,” says Maggie Chapman,
who has
lived in her nearby home for 38 years. “We’ve heard that too often in
the black
community. I think it’s time to spend as much money as you need to
satisfy us,
because you’ve let us live here all these years when it’s been
contaminated.”
Lesniak, while assuring residents that their health will be
protected, says
that the amount of poison found at the site so far is fairly small –
“in the
parts per billion range.” The city is spending $75,000 on this
assessment, he
says, just to make sure there’s no more contamination than has already
been
found. – A.B.
UNIONS ON THE BORDER: American unions won a significant battle
earlier
this month when the U.S. decided to pursue a complaint against Mexico
under the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The complaint, the first
of its
kind to have cabinet-level consideration under NAFTA, alleges that the
Mexican
government ignored its own labor laws when workers at a Sony factory in
Nuevo
Laredo were prevented from forming an independent union.
Mexico’s labor policy has come under closer scrutiny since NAFTA
became law 16
months ago. The complaint involving Sony was the third grievance filed
under
the treaty. Last fall, the United Electrical Workers and Teamsters
filed
complaints alleging that workers in Ciudad Juarez were fired after
trying to
organize independent unions at plants owned by GE and Honeywell.
Since December, when the Mexican government devalued the peso,
workers’
purchasing power along the border has fallen by nearly half. “The
salaries were
deplorable before the devaluation,” says Susan Mika, director of the
Coalition
for Justice in the Maquiladoras, one of the four groups that filed the
complaint. “Now the situation is even more deplorable, if that’s
possible.”
Mika, a Benedictine nun, says the administration’s decision
to
pursue the complaint is “a historic step.” But she says worker rights
continue
to be ignored in Mexico. Some 2,200 maquiladoras now operate along the
US-Mexico border, and about 70% of the workers in the plants are women.
Between
80-90% of the workers at the Sony plants in Nuevo Laredo are women.
Mika says
about 60 workers (almost all of them female) were fired for trying to
create an
independent union at the plant.
A meeting between U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich and his
Mexican
counterpart, Santiago Onate, has not been scheduled, but observers
expect the
consultation on the union issue to occur within a month or so. –
R.B.
THE AMERICAN WAY: The Austin City Council is scheduled to vote April 27
on
whether to approve American Cab Company’s acquisition of Yellow Cab, a
company
Debbie Richards and her husband, Floyd, bought out of bankruptcy 10
years ago.
Trying to run a company in Austin and maintain a marriage and other
businesses
in Fort Worth was becoming too much of a strain, Richards explains of
her
decision to sell. She and her husband also own Yellow Cab companies in
Fort
Worth and Dallas.
Neither Richards nor Charles Johnson, vice president and general
manager of
American, would disclose the purchase price, but neither one is
complaining.
The deal will allow Richards to move back home to Fort Worth with a
tidy sum.
It also will give American the greatest share of the local market,
adding 140
Yellow taxi permits to American’s existing 139, giving them 67% of the
413
licenses in Austin. American also agreed to hire Yellow’s 20
full-time
employees.
Of course, not all Yellow Cab drivers are happy, particularly the
ones who
used to drive for American. Yellow drivers Art Castillo and Alan Smith
estimate
that at least 30% of Yellow drivers are ex-Americans. They defected to
Yellow,
they say, because they liked the way Richards ran her company with a
human
touch, whereas American has more of a corporate bent. American is owned
by
Yellow Cab Service Corp., Inc., of Houston (not related to Austin’s
Yellow
Cab), which also owns a cab company in Colorado Springs. “Yellow Cab
[of
Austin] allows the drivers to have more independence,” Smith says. “So
the move
to American is going to be detrimental to drivers who cherish that
independence.”
Adds Castillo: “It’s going to put more drivers on the same dispatch
system
fighting for the same calls.” He says some drivers voiced their
concerns about
American to a Houston company official, who promised an “attitude
adjustment”
on the part of American management.
Concerns also have been raised about the potential for an American
monopoly
in Austin, despite the city’s regulatory authority over the industry.
American’s acquisition of Yellow will leave only two competing cab
companies on
the road – Roy’s Taxi and Austin Cab, which occupy a smaller niche
among loyal
customers. Neither of these companies, however, have voiced opposition
to the
acquisition, according to Larry Anderson, chairman of the city’s Urban
Transportation Commission, which signed off on the proposal April 17 in
a 9-0
vote.
Still, Anderson says he’s not altogether worry-free over the deal.
“I’m
worried about the potential for one company to gain all the permits and
then
reduce the quality of service,” he said. “But then, if [Yellow] is
going to be
sold, it may as well be to a company that’s in Austin, that knows the
cab
business and that runs a good company.”
American’s Johnson says the acquisition will improve service. The
beefed-up
fleet, he says, will allow for investment in technologically advanced
equipment. As it is, American is the only company in town with
computerized
dispatching service. Johnson says he wants American to be the first cab
company
in the United States to install a Global Positioning System in every
vehicle.
The system would be able to track down any American-owned cab on the
road, its
direction, its route of travel – even how fast it’s going.
“The primary purpose is driver security,” Johnson says. But he
concedes the
new system could raise questions about Big Brother from drivers. “The
whole
attraction about the cab industry is the driver’s ability to be
independent,”
he says. “But the driver won’t lose that independence with the new
system. If
he wants to drive somebody from the Greyhound bus station to El Paso,
that’s
his decision.”
As for Richards, what will she miss most about Yellow Cab in Austin?
“My
drivers,” she says without hesitation. “I’ve got some great
drivers.” – A.S.
This article appears in April 28 • 1995 and April 28 • 1995 (Cover).