After Many a Day

At 2:45 on the afternoon of the 113th day, after a 25-hour nonstop conference, the General Motors strike was settled. When news of the settlement reached the pickets at the Cadillac motor plant, some of them wept. In Detroit, some pickets shouted, tore up their placards and threw them to the March winds; Chevrolet Local 235 ordered its men to keep marching until ratification of the agreement by the rank & file was final.

Who had won? Walter Reuther, U.A.W. vice president and director of the strike, made no comment on a U.A.W. handout which claimed complete victory. But obviously springy, redheaded Reuther could claim some kind of personal triumph. He would go to the U.A.W. convention at Atlantic City this weekend with a substantial campaign argument in his race for the presidency of U.A.W. against President R. J. Thomas.

Neither the union nor General Motors could soundly claim a victory. Millions had been lost in wages, profits and precious time, in the most important single element in U.S. postwar conversion. Both sides could point to gains.

The U.A.W. had won: P: A raise in pay of 18 1/2-c- an hour -- far below its original demand for a 30% increase, and short of the figure (19 1/2-c-) set by Harry Truman's fact finders.

P: The most liberal vacation allowances (approximately $5 million a year) in the automobile industry.

G.M. had won:

P: Freedom from war-imposed maintenance of membership (but the U.A.W. had won the dues checkoff).

P:1; The proviso that seniority would govern promotions only where employes of equal merit and ability were involved.

This week, without unanimity but with favorable majorities, U.A.W. locals worked at ratifying the settlement. It would be several weeks before G.M. plants would be ready to take all their workers back. But within two months, G.M. hoped to be matching the daily output of Competitors Ford and Chrysler.

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