LABOR: Peace with Jimmy War on the Hill

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The President also threw his weight behind two other pro-union measures. At his midweek press conference. Carter announced that he would support an increase in the minimum wage from the current $2.30 to $2.65. effective next Jan. 1. The proposal, made by the House Education and Labor Committee, would tack an automatic escalator clause onto the minimum wage law for the first time. It would gradually lift the minimum wage to 53% of the average straight-time earnings of manufacturing workers by Jan. 1. 1980—or to an estimated $3.15 an hour. This represents a considerable Carter compromise. Originally, the White House proposed an initial increase to $2.50 an hour, with future increases pegged to 50% of the manufacturing wage: labor wanted a boost to $3. with an escalator equal to 60% of the manufacturing wage.

Promotional Blitz. Finally, the President also agreed to redeem a campaign pledge to the maritime unions, whose members provided generous financial support (an estimated $6 million) for his campaign. Carter agreed to back legislation that would require at least 9.5% of all U.S. oil imports to be shipped in American-flag vessels by 1982. Greater use of the more expensively operated U.S. ships would eventually create jobs for 2.500 additional U.S. seafarers and. at the very least, add $110 million in increased transport costs to the nation's oil import bill.

Carter's actions have taken a good deal of strain out of the relationship between the White House and the AFL-CIO. The President's endorsement of the three bills provided a needed lift for labor, which has been generally outflanked in its legislative battles this year by a revitalized coalition of business lobbyists. At the same time, labor has begun to accept the fact that it no longer wields the clout it once had among congressional Democrats; it needs presidential support and is willing to settle for less than its earlier grandiose goals to obtain it.

To gain popular acceptance for their bills, the unions are planning a lengthy. $800,000 promotional blitz featuring newspaper ads, talk-show appearances and a massive direct-mail campaign. White House aides even solicited views of business leaders to find ways to soften opposition to labor-law reform and an increased minimum wage. Still, employers generally remain hostile to both measures. A coalition of business lobbyists, backed by a war chest of more than $1 million," is planning what the U.S. Chamber of Commerce describes as "a long and bitter battle" against the labor-reform proposals. Thus the stage is set for what could be one of the harshest congressional clashes of the current session—and a test of Carter's newly professed allegiance to organized labor.