Surprise Strike at Chrysler

The song was the tipoff. As United Auto Workers negotiators left the Chrysler bargaining suite late last week and trooped into the press room, some started belting out Solidarity Forever, the old union strike song. Looking grim and tired, U.A.W. President Leonard Woodcock revealed the bad news. Contrary to all earlier predictions, the union was striking Chrysler Corp., the nation's third-largest auto manufacturer. This year's bargaining sessions were the "most complex" in the union's history, Woodcock said, forcing negotiators to cope not only with basic pay demands but also with such nonmoney issues as voluntary overtime, health and safety, and worker rehabilitation. By the Friday-midnight deadline, he said, there were still "substantial unresolved problems" on a "broad range" of issues. Added Woodcock: "We just literally ran out of time."

Thus the unusual labor peace of 1973 was suddenly, unexpectedly shattered. It was the first strike called against a major industry this year, and the first potentially serious walkout since the West Coast dock workers' strike of 1971-72. For as long as the work stoppage lasts, some 125,000 employees at 68 Chrysler facilities in the U.S. and Canada will be off the job. To be sure, the impact on the economy will hardly be comparable to that caused by the crippling 67-day shutdown of General Motors in 1970, when almost three times as many workers went on strike. Still, it was a severe blow to Chrysler. Lost production will total some 33,000 cars and 8,000 trucks per week. U.A.W. workers continued to clock in at GM and Ford plants under an extension of theftr old contracts, a strategy that the union obviously hopes will bring Chrysler to terms.

Just as there was little name-calling or vituperation before the strike, the reaction was also mild on both sides after it began. "In the interest of getting this solved, we do not want to indulge in any form of recrimination," said Woodcock. Echoed Chrysler's Chief Negotiator William O'Brien: "We are very disappointed, but we don't feel it's the fault of either party." Until the last moment, company negotiators believed that they could get an agreement in principle before the midnight deadline, even if they could not wrap up every point. But the hoped-for broad accord was not forthcoming, and the union refused to extend its deadline. Company and union negotiators continued to meet over the weekend, but they were not expected to reach any agreement for at least several days.

Profitable Year. Chrysler was chosen as the U.A.W.'s "strike target" mostly because its turn had come. Ford was hit in 1967, General Motors three years later. This year, the union reasoned, Chrysler is in a better position than ever to settle a strike on terms favorable to the union. The company is enjoying its most profitable year: second-quarter earnings of $108.6 million surpassed those of the entire first half of 1972. The U.A.W. is also anxious to force Chrysler to modernize some of its obsolescent urban plants, where grim working conditions have caused bitter rank-and-file protests. Beyond that, the company had seemed to be responsive to many union demands. Said Douglas Fraser, chief U.A.W. negotiator at Chrysler: "The company has shown the least knee-jerk reaction to our proposals."

The main sticking point was not wages; both sides are well aware that a settlement above the increases permitted by Phase IV guidelines would be unlikely to win approval from the Cost of Living Council. Company and union remain farthest apart on the question of voluntary overtime -a new union demand that is anathema to management. In the current auto boom, many workers have been on the job for as long as twelve hours a day, six or seven days a week during peak periods. While they make sometimes spectacular wages (the average assembly-line worker on overtime pockets $7.55 an hour), many union members complain that they have no life of their own. Management negotiators retort that production schedules will be thrown off if employees cannot be required to work overtime hours at the company's convenience. Moreover, the companies fear that workers, if granted voluntary overtime, might band together and refuse to put in extra hours, as a way of pressuring management on other issues.

At week's end both sides continued to negotiate under a news blackout, traditionally a sign that their leaders still see hope for a quick resolution of the issues. Unfortunately, the portents had less meaning than usual, since union and company officials had been so confident that their disputes would never reach the strike stage in the first place.

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