The Man in Charge

Like the old Romans trooping into the Colosseum, some of the delegates to the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s fourth biennial convention in Bal Harbour, Fla., were excited at the prospect of watching a pair of veteran gladiators, President George Meany and Vice President Walter Reuther, batter each other into a bloody pulp. Meany has little use for Reuther--and Reuther, in turn, makes small secret of his belief that such A.F.L.-C.I.O. problems as declining membership and jurisdictional disputes are due mainly to Meany's thickthumbed leadership. But as the days passed at the federation's convention last week, it became perfectly plain that Reuther was not yet ready to enter the arena against Meany.

Clenching a cold cigar between his teeth, Meany moved about with complete assurance. He patched up his differences with A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, who had charged that discrimination against Negroes still existed in the A.F.L.-C.I.O. He backed a civil rights reform setting up a new federation panel to investigate discrimination. Also with Meany's approval, convention delegates shouted through resolutions calling for shorter hours and higher pay--even though President Kennedy just the week before had urged the A.F.L.-C.I.O. to practice self-restraint in holding down production costs.

Key Issue. Meany was at his stubborn best against his old foe, President Jimmy Hoffa of the racket-ridden Teamsters Union. Although there was increasing sentiment in the A.F.L.-C.I.O. to take back the ousted Teamsters, Meany would have none of it so long as Hoffa is president. He shoved through a resolution against admitting tainted unions. Explained a Meany aide: "It's simply a case of the Teamsters yes, Hoffa no."

While Meany was running the show, Reuther publicly deferred to his leadership, dodged the limelight and set out to sell his reforms to the convention. Prodded by Reuther, the delegates voted to set up a fund for a new organizing drive. On the key issue of the convention -- how to settle jurisdictional disputes between craft and industrial unions--Reuther campaigned for tough arbitration machinery that would, if need be, refer disputes to the courts for final settlement.

When Reuther's proposal deadlocked the 29-member executive council, Meany led its members into a hotel room and kept them there until a compromise was struck at 4 a.m.

Big Fish. Only one delegate rose to challenge the plan on the convention fl jor. President Elmer Brown of the International Typographical Union warned that the machinery would grind up the small unions: "The big fish will eat the little fish, and the little fish will eat mud." If the plan was passed, threatened Brown, his union might "disassociate" itself from the A.F.L.-C.I.O. Unperturbed. Meany told him to go right ahead. Then he gaveled through the plan. After that, about all that was left was the re-election of George Meany as president and Walter Reuther as vice president by voice votes that rumbled through the smoke-blue hall.

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