Labor: Smelted

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For years the huge (1,100,000 members) United Steelworkers of America (A.F.L.-C.I.O.) and the small (40,000) but noisy International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (Independent) have been deadly enemies. The Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union goes back to the turn of the century and a 1905 hookup with the radical left's "Wobbly" movement and its leader, William ("Big Bill") Haywood. In 1917, Haywood jumped a $20,000 bond and fled to Russia rather than face charges of violating the Espionage Act. Half his ashes now rest in the Krem lin Wall, the other half in Chicago. As recently as 1950, the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers were—mostly at the insistence of the United Steelworkers—thrown out of the C.I.O. on charges of being Communist-dominated.

Now, however, the two old rivals have signed a mutual assistance pact, agreeing to observe each other's contracts and to quit raiding; meanwhile, talks leading toward complete merger, as the United Steelworkers of America, would go on. Why? And why now? Said a Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers official: "Everywhere you look, unions are finding it necessary to get together and present a united front against ever bigger financial and management empires."