Word: labor
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...outdone, the computers last week verified what Mrs. Petit and other housewives were noticing at the check-out counter. The Labor Department reported that the consumer price index in June scored the biggest in crease in the past two years, rising by one-half of 1%, to 110.1% of the 1957-59 average. Main ingredients in this rise were meat, which climbed 6.1% between April and June, and vegetables...
...same time, the vegetable supply has been shortened by acts of nature: drought in the Maine and Long Island potato country, heavy rains in the carrot, onion and lettuce fields of the Southwest. Beyond this, the Government's recently imposed restrictions on Mexican braceros and other imported farm labor have reduced the availability of migrant workers to pick ripening crops. Federal economists predict that prices will hold high through August-but then relief will come. Already some downturns are noticeable. Last week wholesale vegetable prices dipped and more cattle began coming to market...
Despite the increases, few economists are alarmed. The Labor Department reckoned last week that wage raises in this year's first half averaged about 4% -above the Administration's 3.2% guideline-but productivity continued to rise about as fast as labor costs. Thanks to recent reductions in excise taxes, new cars cost 2.8% less than they did last spring, and air conditioners are 5.6% cheaper. Also holding down prices is the housewives' habit of comparison shopping. To help them, New York City's Markets Commissioner last week ordered that price tags be put on every item...
...public actions and words in the nation's steel capital last week suggested that another labor crisis is coming-but the behind-the-scenes atmosphere did not. By a unanimous vote of its 163-member Wage Policy Committee, the United Steelworkers served notice that it would strike if a new contract is not signed by Sept. 1. Steelworkers' President I. W. (for Iorworth Wilbur) Abel called the industry's current bargaining stance "unrealistic" and "indefensible...
...Steel-labor negotiations are not always governed by cold logic, of course, and the high hopes for settlement could easily be deflated. But as of last week insiders looked forward to stormy sessions leading to a last-minute settlement fairly close to the Steelworkers' demand, followed by selected steel price-increases carefully calculated to avoid Presidential wrath...