The Pension Bill

U.S. Steel this week announced that the cost of the strike-won pensions and insurance benefits for its 290,000 workers would be $67.5 million a year, in addition to the $10.5 million which the company is already paying. In a proxy statement to its 240,000 stockholders, Big Steel asked them to approve the plan, which will add 6% to the corporation's annual wage bill. While the added cost was not far away from what had been unofficially estimated, steel users were complaining that the increase in steel prices to pay for the pensions--announced as $4 a ton--was turning out to be far more than that. In Chicago, the Purchasing Agents Association polled 200 of its members, reported an average increase of $7.25 a ton during December. Some members complained that they were being nicked as high as $30 a ton more for special steels.

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