LABOR: The Marengo Campaign

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Henceforth—"Good Faith." He did not have long to sit. George Love who had held the operators together for nine months hurried to call on Lewis at Washington's Carlton Hotel. Throughout the negotiating, Lewis had never once stated his terms; but he was understood to want an increase of 15¢to 35¢ a ton royalty for the welfare fund, plus a flat $15-a-day wage. The operators had already offered a 10¢ increase in the royalty; Lewis accepted. Love and Lewis finally agreed on a 70¢ increase in the wage scale, to $14.75 a day.

Operators agreed to wink at the union shop, though the miners have not held an NLRB election on it and a union shop is therefore illegal under the Taft-Hartley Act. The famed "willing and able" clause in this contract was changed to "good faith," i.e., miners would work only when Lewis decided the operators were acting in good faith — a clause that gave Lewis the right to call out miners on a whim. The contract would extend until July 1, 1952, with the right to reopen for wage changes after April 1, 1951. Rumbled John Lewis proudly, "We have benefited all labor and we have benefited all citizens who live under our flag." This week the country's economy brushed off its knees (see BUSINESS). The miners, virtually pauperized, started back to work. Lewis' fight had cost them around $400 million in wages — an average of around $1,100 each. The permanent damage to the coal industry, already groggy from constant conflict and losing more & more business to competing fuels, was difficult to assess. But the Marengo cam paign was certainly one of the greatest victories for burly 70-y ear-old John Lewis, whose formidable tonnage had not been washed away yet by any psychological waves.