Battle of Pittsburgh

As steel goes, so goes inflation. Since Nov. 27, when the steelmasters and Philip Murray's United Steelworkers started negotiations for their 1952 wage contract, the eyes of U.S. businessmen have roved between the negotiators' hotel room in Pittsburgh and the stabilization authorities in Washington. If Murray wins a settlement that sends steel wages and prices bursting through the frail barrier of WSB and OPS controls, other unions and other industries will charge after him through the breach. If Murray is turned down by either Washington or the steelmasters, he has threatened to call a defense-disrupting steel strike as soon as his present wage contract expires. This week, in a statement designed to give the mobilizers a chilly Christmas, he growled to a news conference: "It appears a strike at midnight December 31st will be unavoidable."

Murray's threat came soon after Washington had trumpeted its intention to stand fast. New Economic Stabilizer Roger L. Putnam told the Steelworkers last week that the Wage Stabilization Board's present formula would not be altered to suit their convenience; under this formula the workers might get a 5-c--to 13-c--an-hour increase (over their present average rate of $1.79 an hour). More emphatically, Putnam told U.S. Steel's President Ben Fairless that ceiling prices on steel would not be raised to offset the cost of wage increases. Said he: "You are bargaining with your own money."

Putnam's ukases did not make a strike inevitable, despite Murray's threat. The union's wage demands, made public this week, would boost average earnings by 19-c- to 20-c- an hour; if these are trimmed to accord with the WSB formula, the stabilizers might give the nod to Murray's demands for fringe benefits (longer vacations, higher shift premiums) without undignified retreat. Murray is also asking that the steel companies guarantee to each employee with three years' service annual earnings equal to 32 hours a week for 52 weeks.

To face the impending crisis, Murray this week called a special convention of 2,500 Steelworkers' delegates to meet Jan. 3. The next move seemed to be up to Washington.

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