National Affairs: With Ford’s Help

Spokesmen for Ford Motor Co. and C. I. O.’s United Automobile Workers of America continued to speak to each other last week. They began to do so three weeks ago, when U. A. W. President Homer Martin conferred with Henry Ford and his personnel director, Harry Bennett (TIME, Oct. 24).

First result of their parleys was announced by Homer Martin. He was preparing a blanket union contract for some 2,000 plants which make parts for Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, et al.; parts makers who are, of course, dependent upon their big customers for economic life. A standard contract would fix the minimum hourly wage at 65¢ for some 250,000 supply plant workers.

Even more significant than the contract was its origin. Once the three had met, Henry Ford and Harry Bennett decided Homer Martin was a fine fellow. They did not revise their opinion of John L. Lewis, whom they do not consider fine. In this, Messrs. Ford and Bennett agree with Mr. Martin, who has actively disliked Mr. Lewis since the C. I. O. chairman put Vice Chairman Philip Murray and Sidney Hillman in control of U. A. W. two months ago.

In his further dealings with Ford last week. Mr. Martin played a noticeably lone hand. By doing so he was able to crack a situation which hitherto had hampered efforts to organize the suppliers. Because of intense competition in the supply business, automakers largely dictate the prices paid for parts, and thus in effect the wages paid by their makers. Harry Bennett last week announced: “Our purchasing department has been instructed not to favor parts manufacturers with low wage rates at the expense of competitors with higher wage scales and better working conditions.”

Dispatches reporting these events quivered between the lines with implications of cooperation between non-union Ford and U. A. W.’s Martin. The New York Times’s, soundly informed Reporter Louis Stark wrote: “It may be possible that Homer Martin . . . will be able to make an important announcement covering the union’s future relations with the Ford Motor Co.” With Ford’s help, Mr. Martin was able to say last week: “It [the parts agreement] has more potentialities than any other single thing in American labor history.” Chances of recognition of the U. A. W. by Henry Ford himself, last major holdout, Homer Martin would not discuss, but there was hope in his remark: “Nobody can do a better job of standardizing wages, hours and conditions than labor and industry cooperating on a national scale.”