Word: walkout
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...strike would have been the first legal job action by South Africa's black miners since their union, the National Union of Mineworkers, was formed in 1982. The walkout at gold and coal mines was called off at the last minute, however, when management agreed to raise the workers' holiday pay. But word of the compromise evidently did not reach all the mines, and throughout the gold-rich Transvaal and Orange Free State some 40,000 blacks refused to go underground for their usual shifts. When they did not disperse, police riot squads moved in, and the angry...
...workers. By no coincidence those plants turn out nearly half of GM's total production, including such hot-selling models as the Pontiac Fiero and Buick Century. But as the selective strike continued last week, more and more workers began to feel the impact of the partial walkout. At its peak, the strike affected 40 plants and 110,000 workers, one-third of GM's blue-collar work force...
...U.A.W. walkout would hurt the industrial states of the Rust Bowl. Despite attempts to diversify into new industries, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Missouri are still heavily dependent on the auto industry. Michigan factory towns like Pontiac and Flint, now enduring unemployment rates of 18.8% and 12.4%, respectively, could suffer an economic earthquake. Steel, rubber and glass producers could lose their biggest customer. GM, for example, buys about 10% of all the steel produced in the U.S. Sales in stores and restaurants are likely to slip when striking workers stay home, and tax revenues will slide...
Nonetheless, even if the union decides to expand its walkout, a GM strike is unlikely to repeat the damage done to the U.S. economy by the 1970 shutdown, which helped trigger a temporary recession. The auto industry today simply does not enjoy the commanding position in the economy that it had 14 years ago. During the intervening years, banking, retailing and other service industries, plus the new high-tech fields of semiconductors and computers, have become more important, and foreign manufacturers now hold 23% of the U.S. market, vs. 15% in 1970. One American worker in six was employed...
...history of strikes at GM does not portend a short walkout. Past labor troubles have been long and rancorous. In 1945 U.A.W. President Walter Reuther led the autoworkers on a 113-day strike in an attempt to win a 330 an hour pay hike. Three months after the walkout began, Reuther was willing to accept an increase of 19.5?, but GM offered only 18.5?. As William Serrin recounts the story in The Company and the Union, the GM negotiator placed a cent on the bargaining table and said: "Walter, there it is, a penny. That's what this strike...