LABOR: Art of Negotiation I

The new Ford may or may not be a better car than the new Chevrolet, but there was evidence last week that the new Ford labor policy was much smarter than General Motors'.

While Ford's negotiations with the United Automobile Workers were characterized by the giving of bouquets, G.M. and the U.A.W. were still throwing brickbats harder than ever.

It was true that G.M. was on a hotter spot than Ford, put there by the U.A.W. strategy, which had singled it out as the first target to strike. But as the G.M. strike entered its fifth week and the language on both sides grew more violent, G.M.'s negotiators were no match for U.A.W.'s fiery, eloquent Walter Reuther.

While Reuther kept the spotlight playing on the company's profits rather than on labor's earnings, G.M.'s Vice President Harry Anderson was frequently reduced to snorting exclamations. Sample:

Reuther: I will tell you this, gentlemen, if it goes much longer you make it worse. . . . You turned it on. We have some more panzer divisions to roll out. . . . We have not turned on the full steam yet.

Anderson: Does that mean the goon squads are going to be called out?

Reuther: It has nothing to do with goon squads. . . .It has everything to do with turning on our economic pressure.

Anderson: We are going to give you the demands on the contract changes Monday.

Reuther: We will be prepared to discuss these demands in about the same schedule you were prepared to discuss our wage demands. About six weeks from now we will be prepared to talk about those things. . . . And then we will give you the union's demands. For every one you give us we will give you a counter-demand. . . . Because you ain't fooling anybody.

Anderson: You ain't fooling us, either.

Reuther: When a bunch of workers asks for their share you thumb your nose at them, tell them to go to hell, refuse to conciliate, refuse to bargain, refuse to negotiate, refuse to arbitrate. That is the way you do it. You are asking for a fight and, brother, you are going to get it, and if it is the last thing we do, brother, we are going to sweat this one out to the bitter end. . . The whole American labor movement is behind us. We are backed to the last goddam inch.

Whatever the merits of G.M.'s case, G.M. did not make the best of it. The company, as Reuther wove the dialogue, was made to look merely obstinate and unsympathetic. Bitterness grew; the strike dragged on; the public watched impatiently.