Back to Work

The United Auto Workers (C.I.O.) sent its strikers back to work at North American Aviation, Inc. last week with the bitter taste of defeat in their mouths. The union had little choice but to accept what was essentially North American's original contract offer. About 48% of the 33,000 employees had gone back to work voluntarily, and the strike was a failure. More than 100 planes had come off the lines during the 53-day strike, and the company was in good enough financial position to boost its stock dividend to $1 v. 75-c- in 1952's corresponding period.

Under North American's terms, the U.A.W. gets a flat 4% pay boost (averaging 8-c- an hour), plus some fringe benefits. (Douglas and Lockheed had made slightly smaller wage settlements with the A.F.L. International Association of Machinists since the strike started.) But beyond that, the union had little to cheer about. North American's workers had lost $16.3 million in paychecks during the strike, an average of $675 a man.

Strike Leader Paul Schrade, president of Local 887, put the blame for the U.A.W.'s defeat on the Government's strict "hands-off" policy. Actually, the Administration's policy was nothing more than a return to the old idea of collective bargaining in which labor and management are left to work out their problems without meddling by Government.

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