Tough All Over

After six days on strike, the 76,000 Chrysler workers were determined but glum. They had reduced their original demand for a 30-c--an-hour wage increase to 17-c-, but the company showed no signs of budging. It had withdrawn its original 6-c- offer. Truth was that Chrysler was short of steel anyway, could easily sit the strike out for a while until supplies accumulated. The U.A.W. executive board grimly asked its members to contribute $5,400,000 to its war chest. "It looks like a long, tough strike," said a grey-haired mechanic.

At week's end, the U.A.W. got another sign that things were going to be tough all over. Ford replied to the union's opening demands for a 30-c--an-hour raise with an answer the union could only consider a countercheck quarrelsome--a proposal that Ford workers take a cut instead. Said Ford Vice President John S. Bugas: "We think the American people are tired of negotiations which seem to have no other aim besides gain for all parties except the consumers." Ken Bannon, U.A.W. Ford director, retorted: if the company would exert its influence with industry and Congress "to effect a substantial rollback in the cost of living," the union "will be happy" to withdraw its demands.

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