Word: steelmen
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...seemed well aware last week that there will be a third man at the table: the public. Both sides were firing off statements designed to win friends and influence people. United Steelworkers President David McDonald, who had rejected the steelmakers' request that he freeze wages, demanded that the steelmen freeze prices for the life of the new contract, and still give 500,000 steelworkers higher wages and benefits. This would be "justified," McDonald argued, by the industry's heavy profits (see below) and the rising productivity of the workers...
...Economic nonsense," replied the twelve firms representing the steel industry. It would be "completely unlawful" for them to freeze prices, said the firms; nor had they any intention of granting wage boosts, "the primary cause" of inflation. But not all steelmen were so sure that the industry could not freeze prices. Chairman Joseph Block of Inland Steel, one of the twelve companies negotiating, said that if the union held the line on wages, "that would enable us to hold the line on steel prices...
Sharp Movements. The steelmen's negotiating committee also argued that productivity per man-hour in the steel industry went down 7½% from 1956 through last year, while labor costs went up 19%. Next day the Labor Department issued the latest productivity figures, and they seemed to back management's claim. Productivity in steel had indeed declined in 1957 and 1958, said the report. But both management and labor were quick to agree that the new figures would have no bearing on negotiations. Reason: they could be misleading...
...volume within hollering distance of the 2,525,000-ton alltime peak set in December 1956. As customers hurried to build up depleted inventories and hedge against the threat of a strike or higher prices in July, some mills even began to ration short products on an informal basis. Steelmen expect the big demand to run through the second quarter at least, make it the biggest in steel's history...
...industry still had some slack left, but it was not enough to feel really comfortable, and steelmen were thinking of expanding once again. National Steel Corp. Chairman George Magoffm Humphrey and President Thomas E. Millsop announced that they will build the industry's biggest new finishing plant since U.S. Steel Corp. put up the $500 million Fairless Works (TIME...