Doubts Amid Plenty

U.S. labor has never had it so good -- nor been so troubled in the midst of plenty. As orators across the nation delivered their Labor Day speeches this week, a far more eloquent statement of labor's healthy condition could be found in the statistics. The average weekly manufacturing wage has risen to an all-time high of $103. Despite a slight August rise in unemployment to 5.1% of the work force -- mainly among young, unskilled, nonunion workers -- employment has risen to 72.1 million, and some 275,000 factory jobs have been created in the past year. Strikes during the first six months of 1964 were at one of the lowest levels since World War II.

Submerged Problems. Despite all this, the American labor movement in 1964 is haunted by anxiety about the future and by a conviction that prosperity has only succeeded in submerging, not eliminating, its nagging problems. Organized labor considers automation a constant threat, particularly in such declining industries as coal and shipping. At the same time, there is the prospect of a vastly increasing influx of teenagers, whose unemployment rate has reached 15%, into a job market that is already crowded. Age is also a problem in the unions, where labor leaders have grown old, tired and divided, generally failing to groom young men to take their places. Unimaginative union leadership has failed to organize the growing ranks of white-collar workers, and union membership--now on the rise after a long decline--stands at about 22.2% of the labor force v. 25.2% in 1953.

Amid these portents, the U.S. laboring man in his great variety--from the sandhog in the bowels of a city to the window washer high above, from the production line worker to the sedentary clerk--has taken a historic step. Now that he has more money than ever, he has turned to the next need: security. In current contract negotiations throughout the U.S., the stress is on job security, early retirement and increased pensions. A contract signed last week between Armour and two meatpacking unions guarantees that workers displaced by machines will continue to earn their previous wages--even if their jobs are reduced to simple button pushing. A local union survey at Ford showed that among 15 critical issues workers ranked early retirement and better pensions first, higher wages 13th.

With Chagrin. In 1964, while grappling with its own problems, labor also sees its political influence waning, and is watching with some chagrin as a Democratic President woos businessmen as ardently as he seeks labor's support. On the other hand, few businessmen care to underestimate labor's still considerable power--particularly the power to disrupt. This week Walter Reuther is scheduled to decide whether to take the United Auto Workers out on strike. On his decision depends whether the U.S. economy will be shaken by the effects of the year's first major strike.

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