Word: stillness
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...competitors had already done so. The company by the end of 1981 will shut down 15 older plants and mills in eight states, laying off 13,000 of its 100,000 steelworkers. Among the closings: the Youngstown Works in Ohio where a steam engine installed in 1908 still drives one of the rolling mills. U.S. Steel's earnings will be hit by the plant closings, which could cost as much as $600 million, mainly in pension benefits to workers. But Chairman David Roderick indicated that further closings may be necessary unless productivity and quality are improved...
Roderick was openly pressuring the United Steelworkers (U.S.W.), whose contract expires next August, to moderate wage demands and become more productive. The domestic industry still leads its major foreign competitors in productivity. In fact, it is doing considerably better than European rivals, who also suffer from aged plants and surging costs. But the Japanese are rapidly gaining in the productivity race. They earn less but produce almost as much steel per worker as their American competitors. Over the past decade, productivity growth in the domestic industry has declined from 3% a year to 2%, while wages and benefits have risen...
...fear of strikes every three years when the union contract came up for renewal that led steel customers to buy still more imports to hedge their supplies. But when steel imports rose from a 13.4% share of the domestic market in 1975 to 17.7% in 1977, the Carter Administration imposed minimum or "trigger" prices for imports based on a complex formula. Imports have fallen off to 14% in this year's first nine months, and the trigger price was reduced 1% to $347.55 a ton for the third quarter. But with the yen weakening almost 23% against the dollar...
...bill now goes to the full Senate, where it will face some fierce lobbying. Douglas Fraser, the president of the U. A.W. and a director-elect of Chrysler, protests that a wage freeze is ridiculous. Still, the freeze seems to have a good chance of passing. Even if it fails, the Senate bill will differ markedly from the Administration-designed aid package soon going before the House. There is not much time to resolve the differences. Congress aims to recess by Dec. 21, and probably will not convene before Jan. 22. Chrysler has warned that if it does...
...company's 102 lenders fear that if guarantees are granted, but Chrysler still goes bankrupt, federal law requires the Treasury to have a first claim on its assets. Probably not enough money could be raised from selling off its plants and other assets to cover both federally guaranteed loans and Chrysler's burdensome debts. So if Chrysler slid into bankruptcy -a real possibility because its survival plan depends not only on federal guarantees but also on many optimistic projections-the Government would grab most or all the assets...