Labor: Two Strikes

Barely a month before the election, and against a background of unprecedented prosperity, the U.S. last week found itself in the midst of two major labor disputes. The fact was all the more remarkable because the disputes were not over bread-and-butter issues of pay or pensions, but over such questions as whether auto workers should smoke on the job and how many longshoremen should be available on the docks to unload arriving ships.

As labor leaders go, Walter Reuther and Thomas Gleason are about as different as possible: one the smooth, articulate head of the tightly organized auto workers’ union, the other the abrasive president of the rebellious and racket-tainted longshoremen. But both Reuther and Gleason insist on the importance of those vexatious laws of the laborer’s life, the work rules.

Local Demands. As the United Auto Workers’ strike against General Motors entered its second week, U.S. auto production was down 41%, G.M. laid off 20,000 men in divisions that had not been struck, and Labor Secretary Willard Wirtz anxiously got on the phone to both sides. But 16,000 local work issues stood in the way of any settlement. The union’s 130 G.M. locals took the opportunity to toss in every complaint about work procedures, every demand for extra comforts. Some, such as demands for heated washrooms in the winter and free safety glasses on production lines, seemed sensible enough. Others seemed to have been brought up simply to raise tempers: free time off for deer hunting and a 50% discount on G.M. cars for workers with 15 years’ service (G.M. executives get 25% off at most.)

There were demands by the dozens for floor mats for workers to stand on, for more drinking fountains and telephones. Some union officials wanted more time clocks in the plants; others called for the elimination of all time clocks. Demands for changes in grievance procedures, shift preferences and local seniority rights came in by the hundreds. If some U.A.W. locals had their way, the company-paid union committeemen in the plants would get quite a few extra amenities from G.M.: reserved spaces in the parking lots, motor scooters for buzzing around the production lines, and most important, more time off to do union business.

Gang Warfare. While Reuther’s U.A.W. wanted to eliminate some work, Gleason’s heavily featherbedded longshoremen wanted to preserve some. Five times in the past eleven years they have gone on strike, and they have adamantly resisted shipowners’ attempts to reduce the size of cargo gangs despite increasing automation. This year, backed by a presidential commission’s findings that gangs could easily be cut from 20 men to 17, the owners offered a 34¢ hourly boost if the longshoremen would agree to a reduction. Last week the union answered by calling a strike that tied up ports from Maine to Texas, stalling tons of cargo and forcing travelers to carry their own bags. On a request from President Johnson, a federal court ordered the longshoremen back to work after one day. Thanks to the Taft-Hartley Act, the strike will probably be postponed for a “cooling-off” period of 80 days. That means the U.S. can look forward to another shipping showdown during Christmas week.