Calmer Waters

When the Pay Board in March cut back the wage increase that West Coast dock workers had won, four of the five labor members stomped off the board, and the dockers threatened to strike. Last week the board took on the East and Gulf Coast longshoremen. It ordered slashes, reducing the first-year increase from 70-c- to 55-c-. Labor chiefs were quiet, and there was little strike talk among the rank and file. Said Anthony Piccavillo, a checker on Manhattan's East River: "We should have gotten the full raise, but I wouldn't want to strike. Can't gain anything by it."

Dock workers say that they have had their fill of picket lines. Harry Bridges' West Coast longshoremen were out for 134 days before signing their contract; Thomas Gleason's East Coast and Gulf dockers were idle for eight weeks. Though no group won all it wanted, the approved wage raises averaged 12%, far more than the 5.5% that the Pay Board normally allows. The board permitted the outsized gain partly to avoid a strike, and partly because the dockers pledged to raise productivity by changing work rules.

East and Gulf Coast union leaders will meet this week to weigh whether to walk off the job. If they do, the West Coast dockers have promised to join, tying up all U.S. ports. Such a crisis seems unlikely, given the workers' mood. Indeed, there is evidence of restraint elsewhere in shipping. Last month the National Maritime Union, which speaks for 15,000 merchant seamen, agreed to a three-year contract with increases less than half as big as the dockers collected. The seamen apparently know that if they do not rein in their wage demands, they may continue to lose jobs to foreign ships.

In other Phase II action last week:

> The Pay Board ordered employers not to set aside funds in escrow or make any other formal deals deferring already-rejected pay raises until after the controls are lifted. The order was designed to prevent a wage bulge after Phase II ends.

> Treasury Secretary John Connally told reporters that the controls may be abolished when enabling legislation expires next March. But he warned that controls will hang on if, and as long as, Administration leaders think that removing them will lead to a new surge of inflation.

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