News stories from Sunday September 6, 1981

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

Labor and the White House quarreled on the eve of Labor Day over the administration's handling of the air traffic controllers' strike and the effect of President Reagan's economic program on the nation's workers, which seems to be more important to many union members than the controllers' strike. Lane Kirkland, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., said in a television interview that Mr. Reagan's "hard-fisted" tactics in dealing with the controllers demonstrated an insensitivity to the needs of labor. In another television interview, Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan reaffirmed White House policy and said there would be "no amnesty" for the controllers. [New York Times] Discord among White House aides grew while President Reagan was on vacation in California in August, White House officials are acknowledging reluctantly. They said that the vacation seemed to strain relations and disrupt operations among Mr. Reagan's top advisers for the first time since the President took office, resulting in an unusual number of contradictory statements from them and from cabinet members on the budget and military spending. [New York Times] Serious problems face school systems as they start their fall terms -- declining enrollments, strained budgets, ethnic shifts and the bilingual issue, and, in some instances, a turning back to segregation. Total enrollment, which has declined since 1975, is expected to be 40 million pupils, one million fewer than in 1975, partly reflecting a lower birth rate and a rise in private and parochial school enrollments. [New York Times] The Army's outlook has brightened a year after its Chief of Staff, Gen. Edward Meyer, said at a congressional hearing that it had become a 'hollow army," threatened by shortages in personnel, training, weapons and maintenance. Now, officials say, recruiting of new soldiers has increased among high school graduates; skilled sergeants and specialists are staying on the job, and helicopter crews won an international competition that included Soviet rivals. In addition, the Army says that tank units have done well in international competitions, and divisions stationed in the United States are better prepared for combat. [New York Times] The Love Canal area is deserted, its residents having fled the toxic wastes that were dumped there for years. The site was declared a federal disaster area and more than 1,300 lawsuits involving billions of dollars remain unsettled in the case, in which health problems and birth defects were linked to the wastes. The New York state Department of Transportation has proposed the demolition of 700 empty houses, but the state Attorney General's office has resisted such plans on the ground that the houses could constitute evidence in the lawsuits. [New York Times] Prime Minister Menachem Begin arrived in New York, starting a 10-day official visit to the United States that will include his first talks on the Middle East with President Reagan. He was accompanied by a larger entourage than he has had in 11 previous trips to the United States. With him were Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir, Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, and Interior Minister Yosef Burg. [New York Times] The Ulster hunger strike protest against Britain was weakened when the mother of a striker ordered medical treatment for him, following a similar case on Friday, and when the Irish National Liberation Army, a smaller but more hard-line guerrilla faction than the Irish Republican Army, announced that it was scaling down its involvement. [New York Times] Solidarity must provide a program that will lead Poland out of its economic crisis, the leaders of the independent trade union said at its first anniversary convention. An official statement said, "We have become convinced that we cannot stand idly by looking on at a breakdown of the national economy." [New York Times] Coptic Christians in Egypt were both confused and uneasy after the ouster of Pope Shenuda III by Anwar Sadat. The Egyptian President also cracked down on the fundamentalist Moslem Brotherhood and other Islamic groups Saturday. Egypt's Coptic minority in the mainly Moslem nation have customarily relied on Egypt's leader for protection. Pope Shenuda, who had been accused of political ambitions by President Sadat, will be replaced by a committee of five Coptic bishops. [New York Times]