Labor: Comic Connotations

The nation's marathon airline strike last week reached almost comic proportions, but nobody felt much like laughing. After collective bargaining broke down, President Roy Siemiller of the striking International Association of Machinists agreed to urge his 35,400 members to submit the dispute to binding arbitration. That seemed a sensible enough way to end the strike without having Congress vote the machinists back to work, but it must have been too sensible. Siemiller conferred with his underlings and A.F.L.-C.l.O. Chairman George Meany, then backed down and ruled out voluntary arbitration. Later in the week, said angered Labor Secretary Willard Wirtz,...