What the Workers Want

STEEL What the Workers Want

In the steel mills and barrooms of Aliquippa, Pa., the men who make steel heatedly debate one subject. They beat it to pieces during Coke breaks in the fiery shadows of the open hearths, carry it into the Balkan Cafe and the Mill City Inn and Ernie's Steak House, hash it out in their homes. The crucial subject: the Pittsburgh Pirates, once the door mat of the National League but at week's end five games from first place.

Swinging through the humming steel towns of Pennsylvania last week, TIME Correspondent Jack Olsen reported: "A reporter going in to interview the steelworkers about baseball's Pirates would have a snap. The men devote their off-hour attention to the fact that Harvey Haddix is pitching or Bill Virdon hit a homer. But when it comes to the steel labor negotiations, they do not know what is going on. They do not understand the issues. They do not know what they want. They have a vague idea that their pension plan needs strengthening. Some of them talk about shorter hours. They do not want to strike, but they will strike."

Roll Grinder Daniel Kuntz of U.S. Steel Corp. explained: "What the hell good is a raise? Everything goes up, and Uncle Sam takes 25% anyway. The important thing is to keep prices down." Added another workman: "If we get a raise, the merchants and the landlords raise prices to the equivalent of what we're getting. If we strike, we lose what we make in the raise anyway, so we lose twice."

Earlier Retirement. While only a handful called for a general wage increase (average demand: 12 1/2-c- or 15-c- an hour), many a worker wanted to wipe out wage inequities and sweeten fringe benefits.

Said one middle-aged steelworker: "We're riot too hard to satisfy. We want a house for our family, a couple of drinks from time to time, and a couple or three weeks a year to go fishing--a chance to get our lungs cleaned out."

The steelworkers would like to have longer vacations (now one week to start, two weeks after five years). But most of all, they want to retire earlier, at age 55 or 60 instead of 65, and on a pension higher than the companies' $72 a month. Argued Metal Drainsman Ed Winters: "I'd like to see a retirement plan that starts after 25 years. Make that 20 years. That's what civil service has--why shouldn't we?" The steelman also wants enlarged health insurance to cover doctor bills short of hospitalization and to carry on after retirement. "That's when you need it most," said an Inland Steel worker.

Like the Army. On the strike issue, the steelworkers seemed to break generally into two classes. The strong young workers talked tall ("If there's a strike, I'll just go on vacation--I don't give a damn"), yet were unsure of what to strike for ("What we need is a six-hour day, a 34-hour week"). But the seasoned older workers, who well know the belt-tightening frustration of past long strikes, feared another one. Said one Pittsburgh worker: "Some workers even wish the President would seize the mills rather than prolong the agony." A lot of them think it is a matter for union brass alone to decide. "If you're in the Army," says one, "you don't have much to say about whether you're going to march the next morning. We don't have much sense of participation." But the feeling is general that the strike is inevitable. A shear operator at a Jones & Laughlin tin mill shrugged his broad shoulders and said: "The men don't want a strike, and they don't want raises. They don't know what the union does, but they have blind faith. They'll back the union so its position won't be weakened."

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