Ford into Line

On Labor Day, Ford tooted its way into the traffic line of companies passing out wage boosts. The Ford contract, less than a year old, still had four months to go. But ever since Chrysler voluntarily gave its workers a 10-c--an-hour lift (TIME, Sept. 4), Ford saw a pay raise in its future. In a secret, three-day meeting with U.A.W. bosses, Ford rewrote its contract.

The new one gave 110,000 production workers 8-c- more an hour (13-c- more an hour for 16,000 skilled workers). It also promised another 4-c--an-hour boost for the final four years of the five-year contract, and tied wages to the cost of living with an escalator clause. Pensions were increased from $100 to $125 monthly (including Social Security).

Henry Ford II thought that the settlement might mark "the end of an era . . . The three major manufacturers are [now] just about on an even basis as far as wages are concerned. I don't think this is a bad development. It doesn't seem fair to compete against other companies with the grocery bills of our employees."

But all other industrial workers would also want their wages evened. Whether it was the end of an era or not, it had all the earmarks of being the real beginning of an inflationary spiral, with wages and prices leaping upwards.

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