Deadlock in Detroit

Red-eyed from exhaustion. General Motors' chunky Vice President Louis G. Seaton stomped out of a 14 1/2-hour bargaining session with United Auto Workers President Walter Reuther shortly after one midnight last week and issued a grave statement. For the first time, said Seaton, the nation's biggest manufacturer and its second biggest union would have to work together without a contract because it was "impossible" to agree on a new one.

Talks broke down in a bitter mood. "The U.A.W. has made no real effort to reach a fair and sound settlement," said Seaton. "Nothing can be accomplished on the 'give-and-take' basis suggested by Mr. Reuther, which he apparently defines as 'all-give' for us and 'all-take' for him."

Replied Reuther: "The company has refused to bargain, to arbitrate, to mediate. The company will get nowhere by the continuation of their nonsense." Then he took a swipe at the automaker's profits: "They have been fleecing the public."

At the last moment the U.A.W. made some concessions. But G.M. said that Reuther had merely trimmed his package demands "from a fantastic 73-c- an hour to an exorbitant and highly inflationary 48-c-." Altogether, G.M. was beset with 9,450 demands from U.A.W. locals--most of which will be settled by local G.M. and union officials. Some of them:

P: Management will adjust its schedule so that all employees wishing to go deer hunting will be allowed time off.

P: Motor scooters will be furnished for union committeemen.

P: The scores of all World Series and All-Star baseball games will be announced at the end of each inning over the public-address system.

P: All G.M. employees will be allowed to buy G.M. products at 25% off or at cost, whichever is lower. (One local demanded 40% off.)

While the union went on working without a contract, thus losing for good the "no-contract, no-work" threat that it has used against the auto companies before, G.M. stepped up the pressure. It stopped collecting union dues by payroll checkoff, and told union shop stewards that they can spend only half their working hours on union business. Ford and Chrysler, whose contracts expired three days after G.M.'s, followed the G.M. formula for operating in the no-contract period. If there are no contracts by the end of June, automakers may shut down. With a backlog of 760,000 cars, automakers prefer a showdown in the next few weeks to giving the union a chance to call a strike at the crucial model-changeover time.

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