Battle of Buttons

On the crowded, noisy, littered floor of the New York Stock Exchange, brokers are identified by the big white, oval buttons they wear. Elevator operators, runners, pages also wear buttons--small, white ones. These identify the wearers as members of the independent United Financial Employes Union. Months ago, the small buttons demanded 25% pay boosts from the Big Buttons, and a watered-down version of the closed shop and grievance machinery. Stock Exchange President Emil Schram, biggest of buttons, offered a 10% increase.

Last week negotiations were stalled as the little buttons threatened a strike, which they hoped would shut the Exchange. If a strike came, President Schram said, brokers would run their own errands as they did on Aug. 14 during a strike-vote demonstration. Meanwhile, the small button leaders decided to get some bigger buttons to help them. They recommended that the independent union, which claims 5,000 members, from scrubwomen to tellers, affiliate with A.F.L.

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