National Affairs: That 23%

The biggest labor news of the week was a rumor.

The rumor was that Henry Ford II, undisputed boss of the Ford empire, had offered the C.I.O.’s United Automobile Workers a wage increase of 23%. This was just 7% below U.A.W.’s demand.

Ford denied it; the U.A.W. was coy. But there was ample foundation for the belief that Young Henry would make the U.A.W. an ample offer. Young Henry wants more than anything else to make Ford first in automobiles. He also has a strong leaning toward his grandfather’s tradition of high wages and low prices. If he could beat other motor manufacturers to the draw with a U.A.W. wage settlement, he might well be away out in front in the great race to feed the hungry market for new motorcars.

Such a settlement would also have its effect on the politics of the U.A.W., the world’s largest union. It was U.A.W.’s smart, redheaded Vice President Walter Reuther who two months ago first disclosed U.A.W.’s strategy of attempting to pick off the motormakers one by one, starting with General Motors. Reuther is in charge of U.A.W.’s G.M. division, and a settlement at Ford would give him a potent weapon in dealing with General Motors. It might also help him in his continued fight with U.A.W.’s left-wing Vice President George Addes. Reuther, with a substantial lead already over Addes, is now attempting to gather the laurels which he hopes will make him successor next year, to U.A.W.’s good-natured, generally ineffectual President R. J. Thomas.

There is little doubt that General Motors is as worried about Ford’s impending wage settlement as it is about U.A.W.’s demands. If Ford settles, G.M. will be faced with the alternatives of making a somewhat similar agreement or starting out on a protracted strike. Last week Detroit buzzed with another report: that Young Henry Ford had sat down to dinner at the Detroit Athletic Club with G.M.’s Wilson and Chrysler’s K. T. Keller to discuss the possibility of a united front against U.A.W.’s demands.

Ford and U.A.W. begin formal wage negotiations on Nov. 20. In the meantime, Ford devoutly hopes to hear from OPA about prices. The Nov. 20 meeting might have a big influence on getting Detroit—and the rest of the country-back to work.