Business: Strike Target

To no one’s great surprise, the United Auto Workers announced that its first strike target will be Ford. The U.A.W. set the deadline for this week, unless a new contract is signed. Ford said it was actually relieved that the showdown was set, promised to sign only the kind of contract that would be fair to its stockholders and customers as well as its workers, “whether it comes before or after the deadline.” At week’s end Ford said that it would make a new offer to the union.

Management, while giving no ground on wages, hinted at a willingness to sweeten pensions and supplemental unemployment benefits. Peace talks went on in weekend sessions in an atmosphere both friendly and optimistic. As U.A.W. President Walter Philip Reuther himself sat down with Ford Vice President and Chief Negotiator John Bugas, both sides expressed renewed hope.

But if no settlement comes, the crucial test will be whether General Motors and Chrysler, which have presented a united front with Ford during bargaining, will also present a united front during a strike. Talk was that they might trim production, or shut down, in sympathy with Ford, undercut Reuther’s whipsaw tactics. Following a poor year that saw G.M.’s Chevy alone outsell all Ford cars, Ford could not afford to stand idle while competitors were producing. But the U.A.W. could not long afford a joint showdown by the Big Three. The union might be faced with $12 million a week in benefits to jobless members, would soon exhaust its $40 million war chest.

U.A.W.’s Reuther sermonized that a simultaneous shutdown by the automakers would be “immoral . . . unthinkable . . . a violation of the law.” But Ford’s Bugas countered: “The best advice from our lawyers is that it would be legal.”