BY HARRY RING

When you gotta go, go quick - Workers at Gainers meat- packing in Edmonton, Canada, have to continue paying for going to the toilet, an arbitration board ruled. Under a "personal relief" program, the 850 workers must obtain a snooperviser's OK to go, and be docked 60 cents a minute for the time spent.

Bigger headaches ahead -With continuing budget cuts slated, the French government is bracing for a new round of major strikes. Meanwhile, it's coping with public anger over the victimization of immigrants. Returning from summer holiday, President Chirac reportedly found his government "gloomy" and "marked by depression."

Testimonial to capitalism - In Rome, a court awarded 1.17 million lire (about $750) compensation to a couple whose 12- year-old son was killed in a road accident. The judges said the son of a farm laborer would never have made much money.

May he fry equally in hell - In Phoenix, Arizona, county sheriff Joe Arapaho is setting up female chain gangs. "I don't believe in discrimination in my jail system," he says. "I feel that women should be treated just like men."

Role model - Harry Singh & Sons, a big-time California tomato grower, won a U.S. Labor Dept. "Agricultural Employer of the Year" award for allegedly improving the conditions of farm workers. Meanwhile, it was disclosed that the company owes about $1 million in unpaid overtime to workers who have put in as much as 82.5 hours a week at straight time. California requires time and a half for farm workers after 60 hours.

Another role model - Three years ago, an overtime complaint was filed against the Singh outfit by California Rural Legal Assistance. This spring, the state Labor Dept. finally filed suit. Since then, it says, it's been trying repeatedly to serve the papers on the company, but has been denied entry to its gated offices.

Mature, senile or snow job? -The San Francisco Chronicle sees irony in "leftist" Democrats lining up behind Clinton despite his reactionary stand on social issues. Explains California liberal Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, "We are a far more mature party. People realize that not everyone is going to agree on every single issue."

Barbarians, old and new - A Toronto Globe and Mail article details some of the huge profits made by Nike and other companies through the superexploitation of Asian workers. The article says these companies argue they "cannot be held responsible for elements of barbarism that prevailed before they arrived.

Funniest source of the week -Reporting that early this year Clinton had secretly authorized funding for a CIA operation to overthrow Iraq's Sadam Hussein, the Los Angeles Times cited "sources" who confided that it was "the most far-reaching intelligence operation ordered by Clinton, whose legal background has given him an aversion to covert operations."  
 
 
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