The New Mood

When he appeared last February before the grand moguls of labor gathered near Miami Beach. Labor Secretary Willard Wirtz warned A.F.L.-C.I.O. leaders that public displeasure over such failures in collective bargaining as the dock and New York newspaper strikes might lead to stricter labor legislation. Last week in St. Louis, Wirtz faced the nation's labor leaders again--and this time his mood was one of pleasure. Said he: "There have been some real gains made in collective bargaining." The mood of the U.S. labor movement seems to have changed too, and the result has been the best management-labor relationships in many a month. The Iron Law. In Seattle last week, giant Boeing and the Machinists Union reached an amicable settlement involving 41,000 workers on key defense contracts. Friendly accords have lately been reached in the rubber industry and the men's garment trade. In Pittsburgh, Steelworkers Union President David McDonald warned that he wants substantial agreement on a new steel contract by June 1, but no one seemed concerned by his declaration. Discussions have so far gone so smoothly that neither side looks for a strike. Though tension is greater in railroad negotiations, where management is trying to eliminate many featherbedding practices, a presidential emergency board reported "considerable progress" in mediation. For both steel and rails, said Wirtz, "the odds are sufficiently good that these cases will be settled by free collective bargaining."

Labor's generally more tractable mood stems partly from what Wirtz calls "the iron law of necessity"--the result of the public and congressional outcry at last winter's crippling strikes that has forced both management and labor to be more reasonable. Just as important, when millions of men are out of work, labor also has little heart for strikes or exorbitant demands. "If there's a high level of unemployment," says A.F.L.-C.I.O. President George Meany, "there's a tendency for the unions to settle for less."

This feeling reaches right down to the rank and file. Noting the 9% unemployed in Pittsburgh and the prospects of more automation in steel, the head of a steelworkers local is quick to argue: "This is no time to rock the boat. There are too many alligators in the water." At such times, the tendency of unions is not to press for higher pay but for increased job security. Even management agrees that the union attitude has changed. "Our experience this year," says Inland Steel Negotiator William Caples, "has been that the unions have been pretty realistic and generally easy to get along with."

Growing Maturity. So fiery a unionist as United Auto Workers President Walter P. Reuther noted in St. Louis that "there seems to be a growing maturity and understanding in collective bargaining." Though Reuther's own union members have gone on a wildcat strike at Ford's Chicago plant and Shell Oil workers are involved in a bitter strike in Texas, the number of strikes has sharply declined in the past few years (see chart). One reason is the spread of "human relations" committees of union and management that work together on long-term studies of touchy labor problems. A committee has been working for months toward a steel accord, and similar ones have been set up with West Coast longshoremen, plumbers, auto workers and rubber workers. George Meany favors more of such continuing committees. "It doesn't make sense." he says, "to have a relationship with an employer only when you're going to bargain with him. You don't have a strike when you have constant contact."

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