From Hodag to Groton

Across the desk of Labor Secretary Arthur Goldberg last week came a memo stamped OPERATIONAL IMMEDIATE. "Due to the graveness of the situation at Hodag," it said, "and the effect this jurisdictional strike may have on the McClellan Committee and public opinion, I thought that you should be advised before we take action." It was signed by Assistant Air Force Secretary Joseph Imirie. Always a man to get going on things, Goldberg ordered a subordinate to get cracking on the Hodag dispute. Top aides were soon in a tizzy trying to locate what they assumed to be a classified Air Force base. Finally the Air Force broke down and admitted that it was all an interdepartmental joke--Hodag Missile Base in Hodag, Ark., is a fictional site where Milton Caniff s comic-strip hero. Colonel Steve Canyon, recently settled a labor dispute. Growled Goldberg sheepishly: "My God, a guy has to read the funny papers to find out what's going on around here." Stale Turkey. Not all of Goldberg's labor problems are so fictional or so funny. Last week Secretary Goldberg, who gets paid $25,000 a year, seemed about the most underpaid and overworked official in Washington. He was involved simultaneously in three major disputes: a strike that stalled construction of eleven nuclear submarines in the Electric Boat yards of General Dynamics at Groton, Conn., a strike of flight engineers against Eastern Air Lines, and a court-enjoined strike by the engineers against Pan American World Airways. Out of his paneled office suite overlooking Constitution Avenue, Goldberg ricocheted from one bargaining table to another--most evenings until past midnight. One night he left the reception he was giving for Philippine Labor Secretary Norberto Romualdez Jr. to get back to the Pan Am meetings, carried along with him hors d'oeuvres and turkey slices that served as dinner for the negotiators, who finally reached a settlement at 2 a.m. Next night the same stale leftovers sustained Goldberg and the deadlocked Eastern parties until the early hours, but did not provide enough sustenance to reach a settlement. Goldberg also devoted 20 hours last week to the Groton dispute, managed to hammer out an agreement.

When not table-hopping among negotiators, Goldberg attended to such routine duties of office as a weekly staff meeting, a Cabinet meeting, a State Department dinner for the President of Ecuador, a string of office appointments. Through it all, he seldom looked tired. Whenever the pace began to wear, a quick pull at the department's rowing machine and a shower restored his zip.

Intervention or Service? For Goldberg and his aides, such weeks are fast becoming routine. While such dedication is commendable, many businessmen question whether it is really necessary or desirable. Nowadays a labor dispute hardly seems to have any status at all unless Goldberg or his department is involved. This tends to down-rate all the ordinary processes of bargaining. But Goldberg's participation is frequently not entirely his doing: he gets so many "please help us" appeals from both management and labor that he rejects far more pleas than he accepts, insists that he enters only those situations that seem to have special significance for the economy. Settling the airline strikes over the third man in the cockpit, for example, would prove that even the knottiest problems of automation, featherbedding and union jurisdiction can be solved reasonably. Whether this be called intervention or public service is a matter for dispute. But not all businessmen resent having Goldberg in the act. Said Everett Goulard, Pan Am's vice president for industrial relations: "We welcomed the help of the Government and Goldberg in this proceeding. Goldberg was most helpful."

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