Building Up the Pressure

With contract negotiations between the United Auto Workers and the three big automobile manufacturers still stymied, the U.A.W. last week stepped up the pressure on the companies. A sudden rash of wildcat strikes virtually shut down plants in Michigan, Ohio and Delaware; by week's end almost 16,000 workers had gone out. Their reasons for striking were often thin--in one case a leaky water pipe. More important, the U.A.W. high command, which has been discouraging strikes--at least publicly--seemed to have a change of heart. It was not only doing little to get the membership back to work, but in some cases it condoned the wildcat strikes.

Two of General Motors' Fisher Body plants were shut down, and some 7,000 workers walked out of a Pontiac assembly plant the same day that Pontiac's 1959 models were put on view. Said G.M. Vice President and Top Negotiator Louis G. Seaton: "The hit-run guerrilla warfare has the obvious goal of crippling 1959 automobile production." Nevertheless, the companies refused to budge from a firm no to union demands.

The U.A.W. negotiators heatedly denied that the scattered strikes represented overall union policy. But as they prepared for top-level U.A.W. strategy sessions this week, it was plain a showdown was near. Early predictions had been that Ford would be struck. But last week, with more than two-thirds of the wildcat strikers out at G.M., the pressure had shifted. Best guess on when a strike would be called: around Oct.1, when 1959 Chevrolets should be rolling.

One thing that might affect union strategy was an abnormal slump last week in new-car sales. Despite the fact that output has been low--4,288,907 cars this model year compared to 6,212,291 in 1957--the backlog of cars in dealers' hands was still high. With production cut back, the United Auto Workers had expected a quick sellout of 1958 models with resultant pressure on the companies to settle so that the dealers could get 1959 cars to sell. But with car sales sliding, the cleanup of 1958 cars will take more time than expected.

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