Word: automen
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Most automen had guessed that the U.A.W. would go easy on American. American President George Romney expressed the same hope before a Senate committee investigating competition in the auto industry. He pointed out that American is already paying higher wages than the Big Three, and its books are just beginning to show a profit (v. a $654,390 loss in 1955's first quarter). But last week the U.A.W. made it clear that the independents must follow the Ford-General Motors pattern. Said Leonard Woodcock, U.A.W. vice president and Reuther's chieftain for American Motors: American...
...Lawrence R. Hafstad, 51, first chief of the Atomic Energy Commission's reactor development division, was named head of General Motors research division, replacing Vice President Charles L. McCuen, 63, who will retire this year. With G.M. anxious to make use of atomic power, automen believe that Hafstad has been hired to devise an atomic engine...
...based on improved productivity, plus increased pension payments and other benefits. The combined cost of all this, said the union, would be much less than it had won in some previous bargaining sessions, such as 1946. when it won 18½? plus some "fringe'' benefits. But Detroit automen estimated that the union's demands would cost upwards of 28? an hour, might add more than $1 billion a year to the combined General Motors and Ford wage bill. This week the bargain-battling was due to start in earnest, with...
Since G.M.'s contract expires May 29, and Ford's on June 1, the showdown-and possible strike-will come by early summer. In Detroit, automen were betting that a strike, if called, would be against Ford only, because Ford's 135,000 members would cost the U.A.W. little more than a third of the union benefits required for G.M.'s 325,000 members...
...Automen themselves would like to flatten out the sales curve (last week Ford was sponsoring radio ads urging motorists to buy their new cars now, instead of waiting for warmer weather). But they are not sure that it can be done. Even in recent years of relatively mild ups and downs, 25% more cars have been sold in the second quarter than in the first quarter. Consumers already have an incentive to buy in the winter, with the chance at bigger discounts and trade-ins. And what the union seems to forget is that any greater profit for dealers...