LABOR: Fight for the Annual Wage

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The battle lines formed last week for the greatest labor-management struggle in years. The issue was the guaranteed annual wage, a proposition to which C.I.O. President Walter Reuther said that his auto workers are "irrevocably committed." The auto industry is just as strongly opposed—at least to Reuther's plan.

With new wage negotiations only two months off, the war of nerves is already underway. Wildcat strikes and work stoppages plague the auto industry. A rumor, apparently planted by the union, that both G.M. and Ford would settle for some sort of guaranteed annual wage before negotiations start, was spread by such scattered sources as Columnist Drew Pearson, Gossipist Leonard Lyons and the newsletter of Manhattan's Chemical Corn Exchange Bank. The rumor was vehemently denied by management, and G.M.'s Labor Negotiator Harry Anderson even hustled to Manhattan to straighten out the bank.

To show their strength, the auto workers have already raised $12 million toward a strike fund of $25 million. On their part, the auto companies are turning out cars at the rate of 161,500 a week, just below the 1950 peak, in order to have as many as possible ready for spring and summer—just in case.

Actually, World War II and the postwar boom virtually gave the auto workers a guaranteed annual wage for the past 14 years (average pay last year: nearly $5,000). Now, with signs of a return to seasonal buying, they are fearful that the sharp seasonal ups and downs which harassed the auto industry in the prewar period will return. The bargaining will begin in April, though the U.A.W. contract with G.M. does not expire until May 29, with Ford on June 1, with Chrysler Aug. 31. Ford and G.M. are the key targets, and U.A.W. is sure to play off one against the other. While Ford would be under strong pressure to settle any strike before losing too much ground in its race with Chevrolet, G.M. might be under similar pressure from its stockholders.

"Morally Right." To Walter Reuther, the auto workers' demands are "economically sound, morally right and socially responsible." He claims that the U.A.W. can produce dollar figures on the auto industry to prove "excess profits" and ability to pay for G.A.W. But so far, the auto workers have talked only in generalities.

What the U.A.W. wants is a guarantee of a weekly wage for 52 weeks a year for all its hourly paid workers. If a man is called in one day and then laid off, says Reuther, he should get paid for the whole week. If he is notified in advance of a one-week layoff or more, then he should get enough to "maintain the same living standards as when fully employed." The payments, says U.A.W. with a hint to employers, should be integrated with state unemployment-compensation benefits so that "employers can reduce their liabilities by effectively working toward the improvement of state laws."