Peace

In an industry accustomed to down-to-the-wire labor negotiations, General Motors Corp. and the United Automobile Workers last week reached agreement on a new national contract without a strike deadline ever having been set. Bargaining around the clock for 30 hours just as if they were under the gun, negotiators worked out a settlement whose economic terms were virtually identical with those won earlier at Ford and Chrysler. In fact, the accord might have come about even sooner had it not been for a number of thorny non-money issues.

What accelerated the settlement was U.A.W. President Walter Reuther's vow, in the event that last week's talks faltered, to set the same strike deadline for both national and local contracts. Rather than attempt the sticky business of negotiating those pacts simultaneously, G.M.'s new president, Edward N. Cole, pressed his men to stay at the bargaining table until they could get the national contract out of the way.

Preventing Erosion. Under terms of the settlement, which is expected to be ratified handily by the rank and file, the $4.68 an hour that the average G.M. worker now gets in wages and benefits would rise by about a dollar over three years. Agreement on non-economic matters was not so definite. On elimination of jobs through automation, for example, the two sides agreed to set up a committee that would merely try to prevent what Reuther calls "erosion of the bargaining unit."

Bowing to union objections to its outside contracting practices, the company promised to hire in-plant workers whenever it can and if it has to farm work out, to be sure to use union shops. Another key issue was Reuther's demand that company-paid U.A.W. committeemen be allowed to work full time on union business--as they do at Ford and Chrysler--without having to put m any time at their regular jobs. To solve that, G.M. agreed to free some committie altogether while paring on-the-job time for others.

A welcome relief after Ford's strike and scattered walkouts at both G.M. and Chrysler, the new contract assures the auto industry of labor peace until 1970--though it could be a shaky peace at first. Reason: local issues are still unresolved by all but 15 of G.M.'s 134 bargaining units. Probably the most restless of all U.A.W. members, G.M. workers are thus in a position to stage local walkouts that could disrupt production or even close down the company altogether. Reuther considers that unlikely. The new national contract, the U.A.W. boss predicted last week, "should hasten a prompt disposition of all remaining local issues."

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