Peace in Pittsburgh

One of the longest and costliest postwar strikes was coming to an end last week. In Pittsburgh 760 delivery-truck drivers and helpers belonging to Dave Beck's A.F.L. Teamsters agreed to end their walkout against five of the city's biggest department stores (Kaufmann's, Home's, Frank & Seder's, Gimbels, Rosenbaum's) after 52 weeks of picketing and violence. Under the terms of a three-year contract, the stores agreed to an overall 8 1/2-c- wage boost (to $2.21 an hour for drivers, $1.94 for helpers) plus some fringe benefits. In return the Teamsters gave up a pair of choice featherbedding privileges: for the first time in eighteen years, the stores can use parcel post to deliver packages of 8 oz. or less, and management, not the union, will now decide when to put helpers on delivery trucks.

Under the old system, every package leaving the store had to go by trucks that had a driver and helper regardless of the size of the load. The delivery costs had run as high as 4.6% of total sales v. an 18-city average of 1.5%. When Pittsburgh's stores refused to continue the system, the Teamsters struck.

Though the walkout failed to close down the five stores, it still cost dearly. Business in the stores slumped from 25% to 40%. As for the Teamsters, they lost close to $5,000,000 in wages and got no benefits from Boss Beck, who condemned their wildcat strike. For almost a year a third of Pittsburgh's 1,250-man police force was tied up patrolling the picket lines, and the city businessmen lost an estimated $100 million as shoppers stayed away from downtown.

At week's end Pittsburgh's 760 Teamsters were still technically on strike. They announced that they would not man their trucks until all eleven other A.F.L. unions that had walked out in sympathy had also signed with the stores. But with the key issue settled, everyone expected the other unions to come to terms.

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