Carrying the Ball

When the news of Big Steel's surrender reached the United Auto Workers convention in Milwaukee, a listless show stirred to life. Walter Reuther perked up perceptibly. The U.A.W.'s scrappy president is not a man who likes to let George do it--or even Philip Murray. A steel strike sooner or later might have shut down the auto industry; now the auto workers were just where they wanted to be, carrying the C.I.O. ball for a fourth-round increase in U.S. industry. It was a nice forward pass (completed): Murray to Truman to Reuther.

Reuther swung into action. Telegram after telegram was read to the convention from Ford locals, reporting overwhelming votes in favor of a strike against Ford. Despite the fact that the "news" was weeks old, the delegates roared applause after each reading. When the pitch was right, Reuther asked them to give his executive board authority to levy a special $1-a-week-for-twelve-weeks strike assessment on all employed U.A.W. members. From their seats behind long, banquet-like tables, the delegates shouted approval. It meant a war chest of some $10 million.

"Too Young to Die." The auto workers, like the steelworkers, were concentrating on pensions and welfare benefits. The demands on Ford would total 40-c- to 44-c- an hour, including a cost-of-living increase (about 10-c-), and, more important, 8% for health insurance, 24-c- for pensions.

Cried Reuther: "C. E. Wilson [president of General Motors] in 1948 got $516,300 in salary and bonus. He made $258 an hour. General Motors will give him $25,000 a year when he is too old to work but too young to die ... If you make $1.65 an hour they say you don't need it... We say to American industry, if you can afford to pay pensions to people who don't need them, then by the eternal gods you are going to pay them to people who do need them--the guys in the shop."

Just because business was looking a little queasy, the U.A.W. was not going to go easy on it. Reuther came armed with studies showing, he said, that the industry could raise wages 70-c- an hour and still make 8% on its investment. Said Reuther in one huge gulp: "This is the time for labor to stand up and say we are getting in trouble because the little guy hasn't got enough and therefore he has to fight harder now to get what he is entitled to in order to avoid going into a depression."

Just a Brother. Reuther was careful to avoid any show of steamroller tactics. Anyhow, the noisy left-wing opposition of past years had dwindled to a whisper. The delegates re-elected him by a 12-to-1 vote, installed Reuther men in every important post. They also shouted themselves hoarse when Reuther introduced a friend he had invited along, Representative Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. Young Roosevelt laid it right on the line. He said: "I feel more like a brother. I not only am glad to be here; I belong here."

At week's end, the delegates disbanded in high spirits. Said Walter Reuther with deep satisfaction: "This is the most serious and most constructive convention we ever had." A Ford strike was now a definite possibility.

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