A New Work Model

Working around the clock in tense and sometimes sulfurous sessions, weary negotiators for the Chrysler Corp. and the United Auto Workers last week welded together a new three-year work agreement. The two sides shook hands just two days after the union had called a strike, making it one of the shortest nationwide walkouts in U.A.W. history. If, as expected, the deal wins approval in a rank-and-file vote that ends this week, the way will be clear for Chrysler to resume operations almost immediately. U.A.W. President Leonard Woodcock scarcely concealed his glee in pronouncing the settlement "precedent setting," an assessment in which most auto chiefs concurred.

The accord provided boosts in wages and fringe benefits adding up to at least 7% annually, thus stretching the Nixon Administration's 6.2% guidepost rule.

Yet the wage provisions alone were remarkably modest: a 5.4% increase in the first year, bringing the pay of the average assembly-line worker up 62-c-, to $5.70, and 3% for each of the next two years. The Administration provided a clear signal that it was satisfied with the deal. The terms, said the director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, W.J. Usery Jr., exemplify "real industrial statesmanship." That endorsement is certain to weigh prominently on members of the Cost of Living Council, who must approve the contract before it becomes final.

Most of the innovations in the Chrysler settlement were in the area of working conditions and fringe benefits.

The most important:

> A drastic weakening of the compulsory overtime rule, a cherished management prerogative and the key sticking point in negotiations. Union members complained that work schedules lasting twelve hours a day, seven days a week, were ruining their home lives. Under the new pact, Chrysler cannot require employees to work more than nine hours on any day. Furthermore, workers can refuse to accept Sunday schedules, and they do not have to work more than two Saturdays in a row.

> A full "30 and out" pension plan, which permits workers to retire after 30 years' service, regardless of age. Under the old contract, workers had to be at least 56 before they could exercise a "30 and out" option. The new plan becomes effective by stages over the next six years and also provides more generous payments. By 1978, a retiree will collect a pension of $700 monthly, including whatever Social Security benefits he has coming.

> An improved cost of living formula that will add 1-c- per hour to wages for every .35 of a point increase in the consumer price index.

> Provision for full company payment of any payroll tax that is enacted by Congress to support a national health-insurance plan. Two such plans have been bottled up in the Legislative Branch for more than three years, both of which would be supported by contributions from employers and employees. The idea of transferring the full load to the company is certain to be picked up by other unions, and thus stiffen labor's demands for enactment of a national health-care plan.

The new agreement covers Chrysler's 127,500 U.S. and Canadian workers. Woodcock's next job is to win the same package at General Motors and Ford, which employ some 614,000 workers covered by U.A.W. contracts. The union chief has said that he will seek no larger economic concessions from the Big Two than those won at Chrysler --but will accept no smaller ones. The outlook for a strike-free agreement seemed to remain optimistic. Reviewing the Chrysler deal, a Ford executive said:

"It looks like a pretty big, fat settlement, but I haven't heard anybody saying it's a package we can't live with."

Whatever the blessings of the swift Chrysler agreement, they are hardly without inflationary costs. Council Chairman John T. Dunlop admitted that "a further round of auto price increases" is soon inevitable.

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