10-c- an Hour

While the C.I.O.'s Walter Reuther and his United Auto Workers battled for a guaranteed annual wage (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS), another giant of U.S. labor came up to bat. In Pittsburgh this week, David McDonald, boss of the C.I.O.'s 1,200,000-man steelworkers union, sat down to start contract negotiations with the steel industry. McDonald did not ask for a guaranteed wage, thus observing the letter of his contract, which permits negotiations this year on wages only. Reportedly, the steelworkers will demand a straight hourly pay boost; the industry may counter with a 6-c- to 8-c- hourly offer, and the eventual settlement is expected to be around 12-c- an hour. But no one expects a strike.

Whatever the final settlement is in steel and autos, the chances are that it will not be picked up as a standard bargaining pattern by many other U.S. unions. Few unions this year have set their sights on G.A.W., and, except in a few isolated cases, all have quickly given up the demands. There was a time when either steel or autos set the standard pattern for most U.S. labor-management negotiations. But the pattern has been broken as U.S. industry has readjusted to a peacetime economy, with some industries booming and others slumping. More and more unions are gauging their wage demands to the economic health of individual industries and companies.

Around the U.S., hundreds of companies have already buttoned up their new contracts with packages ranging anywhere from 2-c- to 30-c- an hour, most of them calling for flat pay increases. Even within some industries there has been no exact wage pattern. For example, in the aircraft industry 15,000 East Coast A.F.L. machinists got a raise of between 5-c- and 7-c- an hour from Republic Aviation ; in Marietta, Ga. the machinists settled for 7.2-c- for 12,000 workers at Lockheed, while in St. Louis, another 13,600 machinists were satisfied with only 6-c- more an hour from McDonnell Aircraft. Some of the biggest boosts went to fortunate workers in the booming petroleum, building trades and cannery industries, where 230,000 employees got up to 10-c- more an hour in flat pay raises. New York's 3,500 A.F.L. tugboatmen got a 17-c- wage-welfare package, with 8-c- for straight hourly wage increases; and some 20,500 truck drivers in Philadelphia won themselves a whopping 30-c- more an hour, bringing their wages to $2.05 an hour.

On the other hand, both Philco and American Viscose Corp. signed up some 19,000 workers for only 5-c- more an hour, while in the chronically depressed textile and clothing industry 135,000 workers were willing to renew their present contracts with no pay boost at all. To date, the majority of raises have been from 7-c- to 10-c- an hour, 50% higher than 1954's 5-c- to 7-c- an hour. Furthermore, in some cases, workers had actually taken a slight pay cut because of a downward cost-of-living adjustment.

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