Word: reuthers
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...relatively few workers. Before the U.A.W. was born in 1936, seasonal layoffs were recognized as an especially sore spot in the labor situation of the auto industry. The C.I.O.'s late President Phil Murray got nowhere in 1944 when he bid for the guaranteed annual wage. But Reuther (who succeeded Murray as C.I.O. president) and his tough, 1,523,000-man United Auto Workers made the most determined attempt in the history of U.S. labor...
Three-Year Preparation. In 1950, the year he won his last great gains in five-year contracts with the auto industry's Big Three (General Motors, Ford and Chrysler), Reuther was already working to win the guaranteed annual wage in the new contract this year. His economists and researchers worked over the figures for three years before agreeing that the guaranteed annual wage (G.A.W.) was practical: "Industry can afford it." His busy educational division churned out pamphlets, posters and propaganda. Auto workers were warned repeatedly that growing automation would cause increasing layoffs unless the workers were protected by G.A.W...
Over the years, Reuther has struck all three of the Big Three, but never simultaneously. His slogan: "One at a time." This year's first objective: Ford. Reuther reasoned that Ford, running neck and neck with Chevrolet, eager to expand and preparing to make its stock available to the public this fall, would be likeliest to come to terms. Besides, strike benefits for Ford's 140,000 workers would cost less than for G.M.'s 325,000. The G.M. union contract was expiring May 29, but Reuther extended it until June 7, so that the Ford contract...
...Semi-Annual Wage. In the Ford negotiations at the red-and-beige Silver Room of the Detroit-Leland Hotel, both sides talked-behind a pledge of secrecy -until almost a week before deadline. Then Reuther warned that G.M. had made an offer. Two days later, Ford's Vice President John Bugas presented a "partnership in prosperity" plan...
While the C.I.O.'s Walter Reuther and his United Auto Workers battled for a guaranteed annual wage (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS), another giant of U.S. labor came up to bat. In Pittsburgh this week, David McDonald, boss of the C.I.O.'s 1,200,000-man steelworkers union, sat down to start contract negotiations with the steel industry. McDonald did not ask for a guaranteed wage, thus observing the letter of his contract, which permits negotiations this year on wages only. Reportedly, the steelworkers will demand a straight hourly pay boost; the industry may counter with...