STATE OF BUSINESS: Three Months' Vacation

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For United Steel Workers' Boss Dave McDonald, the coming bargaining with the steelmakers poses a problem. He has to get something for his unionists, but the steelmakers, like the automen last spring, seem in a pretty parsimonious mood. Last week McDonald came out with an idea that he hoped would please his steel workers, and not cost too much for the companies. He suggested a three-months' vacation with pay for each worker every five years. "At current rates." said McDonald, "this would cost the industry no more than 12¢ an hour per man and would create 25,000 to 35,000 new jobs in basic steel." Employment, McDonald noted, has not risen as fast as production since the recession; consequently, his featherbedding idea would take up some of the slack. McDonald, who threatened a strike July1 if there is no new contract by then, also had words for Senator Estes Kefauver. The Senator had proposed that the union peg its wage demands to the average increase in steel productivity. Snapped Steelworker McDonald: "I wish Senator Kefauver would learn to keep his nose out of my business." Retorted Kefauver: "The price of steel is not just Mr. McDonald's business. It's the business of all the people.''