No. 3

Round No. 3 had begun. U.S. labor was again asking U.S. industry for higher wages. Boosts ranging from 8-c- to 12 1/2-c- an hour had already been won by three middle-sized C.I.O. unions--the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, the Textile Workers and Harry Bridges' longshoremen. These gains came peaceably.

But last week Round No. 3 produced its first crisis. It arose out of a demand by three A.F.L. unions, representing some 50,000 Western Union employees, for a 15-c--an-hour hike. Western Union offered to give from a penny to a nickel more per hour to 9,029 workers, nothing to the rest. The unions branded the offer "insulting," called a strike for this week.

After intervention by the new Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, set up under the Taft-Hartley Act, the strike was called off--for sixty days at least.

But for U.S. industry, which for months has been free of major strikes, this was a disturbing symptom of trouble to come. Even more disturbing was the news that John L. Lewis was asking bituminous coal operators to give his miners a $1,200-a-year pension at 60 (after 20 years of service). If the operators failed to accede to this demand by Jan 1, Lewis would have an opportunity to call a strike in March.

By spring, Round No. 3 would be going full blast. The C.I.O.'s two giants, the steelworkers and the autoworkers, would both go to bat on new contracts in April. The steelworkers' Phil Murray planned to drive hard for an annual wage. The autoworkers' Walter Reuther wanted a price roll-back,* but did not expect to get it. In Washington last week, Reuther said: "What we're after is not dollars but purchasing power. If industry and Congress keep on failing to reduce prices, we will fight on the only front open to us--wages."

*For similar suggenstion from a different quarter, see Business

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