Shutdown in Oil

Preoccupied with the great debate over steel, Washington hardly seemed to notice another ugly eruption last week. For the first time in history, the U.S. oil industry was hit by a nationwide strike. Some 90,000 of the industry's 268,000 workers walked out at refineries, distribution plants and pipelines of yo-odd companies, from New Jersey to Texas, cutting production by an estimated 35%.

The official issue was wages. The workers, already among the highest-paid in the U.S. (an average rate of $2.03 an hour), had demanded a flat 25-c- increase, plus higher premiums for night work. The best company offer to date: 18-c-. But the unofficial issue is much broader. For years the oil companies have managed to keep Big Labor out of their industry. Now, for the first time, 22 C.I.O., A.F.L. and independent unions are united against the companies.

The man who united them is a wiry, bantam-sized lowan, who first began working as a refinery laborer in 1925. As president of the C.I.O. Oil Workers International Union, Orie Albert ("Jack") Knight, 49, began pleading for unity last fall, soon smoothed over the jealousies and jurisdictional rivalries that had kept the oil unions apart. He is still moving slowly; much of the industry remains to be organized. But as he presided over the deadlock at his Denver headquarters last week, Jack Knight plainly looked like a man hopefully trying on the crown and testing the strength of a new labor kingdom.

The tie-up was only two days old when the U.S. Air Force announced a drastic cut in training flights affecting 12,000 pilots. (The strikers specifically exempted plants producing oil and gasoline for Korea.) The Government ordered civilian airlines to cut consumption of aviation gasoline by 30% this week, banned its use for pleasure-flying entirely, and shut off most petroleum exports. Bus service in Chicago was cut by 10%. This week, while Washington still hoped that the threat of even more serious cutbacks could be avoided by a speedy settlement, gasoline stations in the Midwest began posting "Sold Out" signs.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.