Up & Up & Up

The steel industry caved in last week under the pressure of labor's demand for third-round wage increases. To the 35,000 miners in the steelmakers' "captive" coal pits went the same $1-a-day boost John L. Lewis had wangled from other coal operators. Then U.S. Steel Corp., which had held out for more than two months against the wage-price spiral (TIME, May 3), gave Phil Murray what he wanted for his steelmakers: an average 13-c--an-hour increase. Other steel companies followed U.S. Steel's lead, were expected to follow it also with price lifts (see BUSINESS).

This week the pressure was high against Ford Motor Co., which had not boosted wages like General Motors, Chrysler and other motormakers. Ford's 110,000 workers had voted to strike, but few United Auto Workers' officials expected that it would come to that. They expected a raise similar to the 9% increase given last week to Ford's 25,500 white-collar workers.

So far in 1948, more than 10 million U.S. workers--about two out of every three labor union members--had received their third wage increase since the war.

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