War of Attrition

As the marathon strike against Westinghouse Electric Corp. neared the 150-day mark last week, hopes for a settlement suddenly rose. A panel consisting of one federal and two state mediators wrapped up a package of compromises and submitted it to company and union. Westinghouse promptly accepted. The International Union of Electrical Workers hesitated for two days. Then it tossed the package back at the mediators. Said President James B. Carey: "Unacceptable."

The panel had recommended a five-year contract stretching to October 1960. Included in the proposal were wage boosts that would have given each worker a minimum 25-c--an-hour raise over the five-year period, plus increases in pension and insurance benefits. The proposal also contained a set of rules under which the company could make time studies of workers. All this was fine with the union, but Carey objected that the mediators' plan did not provide for arbitration on possible pay cuts for employees shifted from piecework to hourly pay; some, he said, stood to lose 37-c- an hour. He also objected to the suggestion that of 93 strikers fired for alleged picket-line violence, 57 be rehired and the other cases submitted to arbitration. Carey wanted them all rehired.

Carey insisted that the union's action should "not be considered a rejection" of the mediators' plan. But Westinghouse and the mediators considered it exactly that. Said one mediator: "We honestly don't know what the next step should be."

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