Word: reuthers
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Detroit's No. 1 salesman last week was United Auto Workers Boss Walter Reuther. Having left the Ford Motor Co. bargaining table with the richest labor settlement in industry history, he now had to sell the terms to the boys. The 35-month contract was worth "seven hundred to eight hundreds of millions of dollars," in wages and benefits, he said on an hour-long TV pitch. "I tell you that we have squeezed and squeezed and squeezed...
...Reuther took to the tube to ensure swift ratification of his contract, amid fears that Ford's 20,000 skilled workers, who generally complain of getting short shrift compared with their counterparts in the building trades, might revolt. One truculent group shouting "No! No! No!" gathered at a demonstration that ended in a fist-swinging brawl with union officials. In the end, however, the vote ran overwhelmingly-9 to 1 in the case of production workers, nearly 3 to 1 among the skilled men-to stop the costly 49-day strike...
...prices," the company kept mum on how much, or when, it might up car prices to meet the cost of the new contract. Undoubtedly, the $114 average price increase that Ford announced last month-in line with the rest of the industry-anticipated many of the labor costs. If Reuther's $800 million package was more than the company had projected, prices may be raised once again at year's end, when shoulder harnesses become a mandatory safety item...
...last year by the airline machinists, who effectively buried the Administration's once cherished 3.2% wage-price "guide-posts." Though the Administration has been strangely silent of late, it is now clear that another mark has been passed. Last August CEA's Ackley expressed the hope that Reuther's men would not jostle "the general pattern that has developed this year around...
Still, while Reuther fought for more fat in the settlement-which will serve as model for his next target, either General Motors or Chrysler-his workers' fortunes have worn thin. The seven-week strike, which has prevented production of 400,000 Ford cars and trucks, has cost employees an average $1,000 per man in wages...