Labor: Bearding Uncle Sam

Of all the roles that the Federal Government plays, perhaps the least familiar outside of Washington is that of boss. The Government is by far the nation's biggest employer. Its payrolls cover 2,600,000 people (not counting the military services) who perform almost every conceivable variety of job. The range runs through the alphabet from architect to zoologist and includes beauticians, cotton classifiers, archaeologists and even funeral directors. In years past, the Government had a reputation as a model employer, but, says A.F.L.-C.I.O. President George Meany, "those days are long past." To many of his workers, Uncle Sam appears as a stingy, incurably bureaucratic, highhanded and neglectful boss.

Last winter's mail strike and this spring's air-traffic-controller "sick-out" dramatized the deep and spreading discontent among federal employees. Now unionized federal workers are openly talking about more strikes, despite the federal law that makes such action a crime punishable by a fine of $5.000 or a year in jail. Delegates to a Denver convention of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal union, two weeks ago shouted unanimous approval of an amendment that erased a no-strike clause from the union constitution. Partly because he opposed that move. Union President John Griner, 64, faced serious opposition to his re-election for the first time during his eight years in the post. Says Griner: "The Government is bringing on itself a situation where employees, particularly in the lower pay classifications, are going to withhold their services no matter what I do."

Pent-Up Emotions. The grievances draw considerable sympathy from the Nixon Administration's top union specialist, Assistant Labor Secretary Willie J. Usery Jr., who spoke at the convention. "Federal employees are falling behind in wages," said Usery before his talk. "There's a lot of pent-up emotion. I hadn't realized how bad it was. We must move with haste or we will have more strikes and work stoppages."

The A.F.G.E., which has tripled its membership to 310,000 since 1962 to become one of the fastest-growing affiliates of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., seeks a $6,000-a-year minimum for federal civil servants, compared with $4,125 today. The union is also pressing for the right to bargain for wages, which are now fixed by Congress. Federal workers won the power to negotiate about working conditions, grievance procedures and promotion policies under a 1962 executive order by President Kennedy.

Part of the new militancy among Government employees is unquestionably a response to the success of the postal workers' illegal strike; part reflects the increasing sense of anxiety among blue-collar workers everywhere. The mood is also a reaction to the mixed benefits and frustrations of the civil service system itself. Working for the Government ordinarily offers great job security, but this attraction has been somewhat dimmed by large cutbacks in employment in the Defense Department and NASA. Government employees can eat 750 lunches in federal cafeterias, take yearly 26-day vacations after 15 years and—the biggest lure of all—retire on full pensions as early as age 55, if they have put in 30 years.