Strike!

Hardly had North American Aviation, Inc. rolled out the first production model of its new F-100 supersonic Super Sabre fighter last week when all production stopped; Out from the factories at Los Angeles, Fresno, Calif, and Columbus, Ohio marched 27,000 members of the C.I.O. United Auto Workers in the first strike against the company in twelve years.

The strikers wanted an hourly wage boost of 26-c- (to $2.10 an hour) in line with wages in the auto industry, plus such fringe benefits as higher pensions (to $66 a month), more severance pay and the right to smoke on the job. North American offered a few new fringe benefits (additional group insurance, a 2-c--an-hour cost-of-living allowance) and a pay boost averaging 8-c- an hour. Paul Schrade, 28-year-old Yaleman and president of U.A.W. Local 887, Los Angeles, said that "the company refuses to negotiate." Answered North American's white-thatched Chairman J. H. ("Dutch") Kindelberger: "[Union] demands . . . will add more than $95 million a year to the company's operating cost ... at a time when the nation's defense budget has been drastically cut. This is equivalent to the loss of 475 F-86 Sabre jets, more than eight times the number of Sabre jets shot down [in aerial combat] by the Communists during the Korean war."

Defense officials in Washington adopted a hands-off policy, though any wage increases would ultimately be paid by the U.S. taxpayer since all of North American's business is with the Government. Meanwhile, other aircraft makers, already negotiating new contracts, kept a sharp eye on North American. There was little doubt that a wage settlement at North American would set a pattern for the industry.

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