This Day In 1970's History: Sunday December 11, 1977
- Central bank governors will meet tomorrow in Basle, Switzerland, amid speculation over whether steps will be taken to bolster the sagging United States dollar. The strong German statement that the dollar's fall "is not justified by economic facts" and Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal's talks in Paris last week with European and Japanese finance officials have stirred speculation that the United States and other governments may be planning coordinated measures to halt the dollar's decline. [New York Times]
- New York City is turning down nearly half of all new welfare applicants -- 48 percent since July 1 compared with 25 to 35 percent before tighter controls went into effect in mid-1976. Complaints of harassment and delays are being raised by client representatives, and after years of efforts to purge welfare rolls of ineligibles, the Federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare has begun a nationwide study to see if people are being kept off unfairly. [New York Times]
- Organized labor is losing control of the construction industry, which now has thousands of non-union workers. Union workers by the thousands "put their union cards in their pockets or in their shoes and go to work non-union" because it is the only way to find jobs, said Robert Georgine, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. building and construction trades department. Large and complex projects, especially south of Delaware, that once were the preserve of union men, are being built under open or "merit" shop conditions, with union and non-union craftsmen working side by side. High union wages and restrictive work practices are said to have created the new non-union competition. [New York Times]
- A 1972 directive on pesticides by Congress, giving the Environmental Protection Agency four years, later extended to five, to assess their safety remains unmet and may take another 10 years for completion. The delay points up complaints of many federal advisers, scientists and legislators about ineffective governmental regulation of chemical pesticides. [New York Times]
- White Rhodesian society appears to be shifting under black political pressure away from the hope of preserving white domination to that of holding together in a unified bloc to protect white privileges in a black-controlled state most consider inevitable. In government advertising, the issue is now presented as preserving the whites' way of life instead of resisting a perceived Communist menace. [New York Times]
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