The Splendid Settlement

Over the past few years, few contract negotiations in U.S. industry have been as bitter and bumpy as those between General Electric Co. and the C.I.O.'s International Union of Electrical Workers. With out fail, the I.U.E.'s trigger-tempered Boss James B. Carey peppered the company with shouts of "chiseling," called its offers a "sham" and "an obvious trap." Once, in a crescendo of rage, he bellowed that G.E. was an "aid and ally" of the Communists. Usually G.E.'s negotiator, Vice President Lemuel P. Boulware, gave every bit as good as he got.

This year the script was totally rewritten. After a month of calm discussion, G.E. and the union signed a new five-year contract that made everyone happy. Cooed G.E.'s Boulware: "A splendid settlement." Echoed I.U.E.'s Carey: "A splendid settlement."

To write the new pact, both G.E. and the union had given ground. Though the I.U.E. at first insisted on a guaranteed annual wage like the one the auto workers got, the union quickly gave in when G.E. turned the idea down cold. In turn, the company agreed to a hefty $100 million package that would raise the average hourly pay for 100,000 I.U.E. workers by 34-c- over the next five years, give them what amounts to another 10-c- in fringe benefits.

Under the new contract, G.E. will give workers a 3% wage increase every year for five years, tack on an additional 1-c- per hour during the last two years, to boost the hourly average to $2.27 by 1960. Beyond that, the company agreed to a cost-of-living formula Bunder which workers will get more pay if living costs go up, but take no cut if prices go down. It agreed to a new life-insurance plan equal to twice the amount of each worker's annual pay, and to three days' leave with pay in case of death in a worker's family. Another benefit: a new form of "catastrophe" medical insurance to cover long illnesses, which will provide as much as $15,000 to care for a disabled worker.

As a final fillip to good relations, G.E. said it would reopen its contract at the end of three years for a 30-day review of the guaranteed annual wage. G.E. announced that it would undoubtedly still oppose the idea, but would be glad to sit down and talk in a spirit of mutual cooperation. Said G.E.'s Boulware: "We are maturing into a kind of relationship that people ought to have. After all, we are dealing with a $1.2 billion payroll that affects 500,000 people. This is serious and it ought to be handled in a businesslike way."

David J. McDonald, boss of the C.I.O.'s United Steelworkers, also won a splendid settlement last week. He came to terms with the two biggest U.S. can-making companies, American Can Co. and Continental Can Co., and got an important extension of the guaranteed annual wage won earlier by the United Auto Workers. Instead of a maximum of 26 weeks of unemployment benefits, as in the U.A.W. contracts, McDonald's 35,000 steelworkers in 62 U.S. can plants will be entitled to a full 52 weeks of benefits pegged at 65% of their normal take-home pay. Average pay per laid-off worker: $45 weekly, which the company will pay out of a trust fund built up by 5-c- hourly contributions for each worker. Steelworker Boss McDonald promptly served notice that next year he intends to win G.A.W. from the entire steel industry.

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