URUGUAY: Spiral Stoppage

Orderly little Uruguay put a new wrinkle in Government-labor relations. Last week the potent General Workers Union (100,000 dues payers) staged a one-day general strike, ostensibly in protest against the rising cost of living (up 25% in a year). Real reason: the Government had long wanted to halt spiraling prices but needed popular support to squelch the expected squawk from businessmen. It was all carefully arranged. Enrique Rodriguez, hard-bitten union boss, was summoned; he agreed to call a 24-hour general strike “in support of the Government.” By special union dispensation, there was one exception: because Uruguayans take pride in courtesies to foreign tourists, buses moved foreign vacationists from ports to seaside resorts, as usual.