Word: woodcocks
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...would be happening. We even offered some concessions on minor issues, and they wouldn't bite." Ford made its final proposal the day before the strike deadline. After 90 minutes of pro forma wrangling, it was clear there would be no settlement. The next day, U.A.W. President Leonard Woodcock called a strike in time for the evening TV news. "Ford," he declared, "has been unresponsive and unwilling to engage in serious bargaining." Sidney McKenna, Ford's vice president for labor relations and its chief negotiator, insisted that the company had presented offers totaling "over $1 billion in value...
Surrounded by aides, Leonard Woodcock, president of the United Auto Workers, strode into the union's Solidarity House last week to perform one of Detroit's triennial rites: the selection of a strike target. The union never shuts down the entire industry; it picks one company to concentrate on in the hope that the selected victim will agree to the union's proposals rather than lose sales to its non-struck rivals. Woodcock's announcement: it will be Ford that must reach agreement by Sept. 14 or face a walkout...
...Ford? Said Woodcock, in effect: primarily because that company has not been struck since 1967. General Motors was the target in 1970 for a 67-day walkout; three years ago Chrysler was hit by a nine-day strike. Ford also has the financial strength to meet at least most union demands, while a strike now against Chrysler or American Motors might permanently cripple those companies. General Motors is stronger still, but striking it would be far more costly to the union. The $175 million U.A.W. strike fund would be exhausted in only nine weeks in a GM walkout, but would...
...worst a very short one. The U.A.W. is concentrating this year on greater job security and a larger supplemental unemployment-benefit fund, rather than on wage boosts. Such preoccupation reflects the auto workers' experience during the recent recession, at the bottom of which 275,000 were on layoff. Woodcock even hinted last week that he might keep workers on the job without a contract if agreement has not been reached by Sept. 14, but seems close...
...moderate and strike-free auto settlement would vastly strengthen that healthy trend. It also would bring to a triumphant end the union career (Woodcock, who, having turned 65, will have to retire next year, and strengthen his chances of landing a Government job -just possibly, Secretary of Labor in a Carter Administration...