Word: fairless
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They were there on a summons from Presidential Adviser John Steelman, who had warned them: "This isn't a social visit. This is it." Precisely at 10 o'clock, Murray and Fairless were ushered into the President's oval study. Harry Truman greeted them curtly, then coldly rattled off top-secret statistics to prove that the U.S. was being crippled by the biggest steel strike in its history. Said the President, turning to Fairless: "You can settle this thing, Ben, and you've got to settle it. I want it settled by tomorrow morning...
...Fairless started in surprise. "I alone?" "No," said Truman, turning toward his old friend, the president of the United Steelworkers of America. "Phil, you've got to settle this thing too. Now go in there in the Cabinet room, and I want you to come out with a settlement...
...again. At 4:45 p.m., they had an agreement ready to sign, and Steelman came in to witness the signing. Then the trio went to Harry Truman's office. The President listened, called for the press. Like a snappish schoolteacher, he dictated: "Mr. Murray and Mr. Fairless have just advised me that six major steel companies and the United Steelworkers of America (C.I.O.) have reached agreement . . ." The steel strike was over...
...Fairless and the steel industry, the settlement was a victory too. From the start, they had insisted that they must be granted a price rise to match a wage increase. Two weeks ago, Steelman passed the word that they could count on an average of $5.65 per ton. Fairless saw to it that Steelman put his word in writing at the White House. "I don't like the price increases we have to give you," snapped Harry Truman, "but I guess there is nothing else...
...nosed attitude. To compensate for wage increases, Steel wanted sizable price increases. The Administration was openly boasting that Steel would get no such thing. So Steel's refusal to bargain with Phil Murray was its only lever in its bargaining with the hostile and partial Government. Said Ben Fairless in Cincinnati last November: "Whether our workers are to get a raise, and how much it will be if they do, is a matter which probably cannot be determined by collective bargaining, and will apparently have to be decided finally in Washington...