Teamster Test

Bending the wage guidelines

Until the last minute, it looked as if bargainers for the nation's trucking industry and 270,000 Teamsters union drivers and loaders had a deal. But just before the Saturday midnight deadline, the union broke off negotiations and announced a "selective" strike against a few major trucking companies. The strike, however, was well short of a total walkout that could cripple the economy.

The two sides, said Chief Federal Mediator Wayne Horvitz, "came awfully close." Only 24 hours before the strike deadline, negotiators agreed to increase the industry's compensation costs during the three-year contract by just over 30%. That would be substantially above the figure of 7% a year (22.5% when compounded over three years) recommended under Jimmy Carter's program of "voluntary" guidelines. By excluding some wage and benefit gains, however, the Council on Wage and Price Stability had been expected to proclaim that the 30% pact was close to the guidelines.

Despite the basic agreement on wages, the negotiators were unable to settle other critical issues, chiefly whether cost of living increases would be paid annually or semiannually. The truckers had agreed to an annual raise equal to 65% of the rise in the Consumer Price Index. The union wants semi-annual increases, which could add a few percentage points to the overall cost of the contract.

The White House labored exhaustively behind the scenes for a moderate settlement, and made a compromise in the middle of last week. Reversing an earlier ruling, a top-level strategy group said that 21-c- of a 58-c--an-hour cost of living increase due to the union on April 1 under the expiring contract should not be counted in the cost of a new settlement. That was expected to clinch the deal. But after the talks broke down, Teamsters President Frank Fitzsimmons made it clear that the Administration's efforts to impose its guidelines had been a key factor in the decision to strike. "Interference by high-level government bureaucrats," he growled, "played no small part."

By avoiding a nationwide strike and exempting military and medical supplies, the union obviously hoped to thwart any move to impose an 80-day cooling-off period under the Taft-Hartley Act. To get a court order under the law, the President must show that a strike will endanger the nation's health or safety.

How the walkout will affect the health and safety of the economy is another matter. The auto, rubber and electrical workers will be coming to the bargaining table later this year. If the Teamsters thumb down the guidelines, those unions--and others--may follow suit.

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