Long, Large & Difficult

Every morning for three days, the string of cars crammed with grim-faced men streamed through Detroit's traffic to pull up in front of a different corporate doorway. Each time, a solemn platoon spilled from the convoy, headed by a familiar red-haired figure. A holdup? That was the way some people looked at it. For the red-haired leader was United Auto Workers President Walter Reuther, and he was paying his now familiar triennial call on the nation's Big Three automakers to open negotiations for new contracts.

There were smiles and handshakes all around before Reuther got down to business. Taking more than three hours to make his case at General Motors, and almost as long at Ford and Chrysler, the U.A.W. president outlined the most ambitious list of labor demands Detroit has ever seen. With contracts due to expire Sept. 6, the auto industry faces arduous bargaining that could set the pattern for upcoming labor negotiations across the U.S. The fact that Detroit is girding for the worst --local banks report stepped-up savings deposits by strike-wary workers--suggests what the pattern may be.

A Certain Disquietude. Major labor contracts, covering 3,100,000 workers, expire in the U.S. this year (the figure was only 980,000 in 1966), and the biggest wave of strikes since 1959 seems only too likely. Not surprisingly, most labor leaders share Reuther's belief that workers deserve a bigger slice of last year's record corporate profits. Few major contracts expired in 1966, however, and corporate profits are off this year. As University of Chicago Labor Specialist Arnold R. Weber puts it, "Now that the unions are able to get to the bargaining table, the pickings are not so succulent." As a result, adds Assistant Labor Secretary James Reynolds, "management resistance is growing stronger at the same time that labor demands are going up. This gives rise to a certain disquietude."

Trouble has already begun. A twelve-week-old strike in the rubber industry spread last week to Goodyear, the only major company that was still untouched (though Goodrich and General Tire reached tentative agreement on a contract). At the same time, a strike hit the copper industry, affecting eight companies that account for more than 80% of the nation's output. In a small but violent dispute (at least 20 people injured), workers walked off the job at Virginia's Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co.--the first general strike at the world's largest shipyard. Meanwhile, the possibility of a crippling strike by six railroad shopcraft unions flickered anew, though on Capitol Hill, there were hopeful plans to draft legislation to handle the dispute.

Off the Wall. A new wave of walkouts in the fall could weaken the economy just when there was widespread hope for a vigorous upturn. On the other side of the coin, lavish labor settlements, coming on top of undiminished spending for the Viet Nam war, would surely add to the dangers of inflation.

Now that labor has broken free of the Johnson Administration's onetime 3.2% wage increase guideline, it understandably has no intention of returning to the mold. Labor settlements during 1967's first three months provided for average wage-benefit increases of 4.8% a year. Many ran much higher, and with predictable results. In Cleveland, for example, transit workers recently won an 8% wage increase for the coming year, whereupon city bus fares went up a nickel, to 30-c-.

Even bigger are the bargaining gains recently chalked up by building-trades unions, with wage increases in some cities ranging up to 13% a year. Walter Reuther's U.A.W. is sure to cite hefty construction settlements to support its demands. Other unions, in turn, will be watching how the auto workers fare. Especially interested is the United Steelworkers Union, which opens new contract talks with the steelmakers next summer. Laments one steel industry official: "Reuther will probably bounce a few balls off the wall, and we'll have to catch them."

Guaranteed Income. Reuther's 1967 goals are ambitious even for him. In addition to the usual demands--profit sharing, company-paid auto insurance, more holidays--he is insisting on a "guaranteed annual income." As a starter, that would mean increasing the industry's unemployment benefits. And for union members with seniority, it would involve some sort of new company-financed plan enabling an off-the-job worker to maintain "his normal living standard" for up to a year. Automakers fear that such proposals, by guaranteeing a worker's paycheck whether he is on the job or not, would only encourage rampant absenteeism. Reuther, insisting that the hourly wage smacks of an industrial caste system, wants to put workers on a salary basis, since, he reminded General Motors, "that is the way you pay your executives."

The U.A.W. will probably call for wage increases in the neighborhood of 6% a year. The money question gets stickier when it comes to the Big Three's 120,000 skilled workers, who are bitterly unhappy about earning less than skilled tradesmen outside the auto plants. Having recently won the right to veto any settlement, the U.A.W.'s skilled workers will undoubtedly scuttle any negotiated package unless it includes an extra-big wage increase for them. Another issue that could send auto workers out into the streets: the practice of farming out work to outside shops.

So far, Reuther has not suggested which of his many demands are of highest priority. Neither has he indicated which company he will strike first in case of an impasse--though it may be worth noting that G.M. has not been the U.A.W.'s opening negotiating target since 1945. In any case, automakers regard Reuther's list as "long, large and difficult." Says Ford's chief negotiator, Vice President Malcolm Denise: "I don't see how at the moment we can get over these hurdles."

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