Fast Comeback in Steel

"I don't want to sound like a Pollyanna," said a steelman last week, "but so far, everything is going better than we dreamed it could." With its 500,000-man labor force back on the job, the nation's steel industry was making an amazing comeback. Barely a week after the first furnaces were fired up again, the mills were up to 45.9% of capacity, and turning out 1,300,000 tons of steel. This week output should be clipping along at better than 60%, well ahead of the first estimates.

Republic Steel Corp. hit 70% this week, some five weeks ahead of earlier predictions; U.S. Steel* is also coming fast, will have some plants up to 85% production by next week. Inland expects 80% capacity this week, while Jones & Laughlin, Wheeling Steel, Armco, Allegheny Ludlum hope to hit between 65% and 80%. Throughout the industry, steelmen are cashing in on the care they took in shutting down their furnaces and in keeping maintenance crews in the plants during the strike. Only a fraction of the expected repairs proved to be necessary.

"Human Nature Is Queer." Another big factor was the attitude of the steelworkers. Though some unions posted signs saying: "We shall return as slaves of Ike," and issued armbands emblazoned: "U.S.W. of A.--Ike's Slaves," the men were ready to work hard. U.S. Steel and others reported the workers' attitude "excellent." Said a foreman at Detroit's Great Lakes Steel: "Human nature is queer. There isn't any love feast between the workers and the company, but the guys in the plant have lots of pride and self-respect; they want to do a good job."

No matter how fast ingot production climbs back, best estimates are that it will be several weeks before finished steel products are moving from the mills; the cold-rolled sheet, needed by Detroit's auto industry, will not be available for another two or three weeks. U.S. Steel estimates that its shipments of finished products will be only 25% for a while, and doubts that many mills can top that figure.

Nevertheless, the prospect of a faster flow of steel was causing steel-short manufacturing plants to revise their production schedules. Ford Motor Co.. which ha been running most of its 17 assembly plants on a four-day basis, will step up to five-day operations this week without fear of exhausting its stockpile. General Motors, which is altogether shut down made plans to start recalling workers within two weeks, hoped to be back in limited production in three weeks.

"Explosive Issue." The great fear of the automakers and other heavy industry is that they will have to shut down again almost as soon as they get back to full production. Though a few companies whose business is in slack period, may be able to build up small stockpiles during; the 80-day Taft-Hartley injunction period, most companies will not be able to build up any appreciable supply. The pipelines are so clear that steel will be used as fast as it is delivered. If the strike is resumed after the injunction is ended, shortages will show up immediately.

As of last week, there was little indication that labor and management were ready to settle. The negotiations were halted for a two-week rest, after which federal mediators will try to bring the two opposing sides together. The steelworkers 171-man wage-policy committee made it clear that it considered the settlement made by Kaiser Steel a pattern for the rest of the industry, said the strike would be resumed if there is no contract at the end of the 80-day period. The companies made it equally clear that they will not agree to the Kaiser settlement.

It was also plain that unless some agreement is reached, steel will face the threat of congressional intervention. Said Vice President Richard Nixon: "Nothing could be more detrimental than to take this explosive issue and throw it in the lap of Congress in an election year." He added the hope that "the threat of this will be decisive in bringing these two great power complexes together."

* A good start for its new President, Leslie B. Worthington, 57, boss of U.S. Steel's West Coast Columbia-Geneva division, who was chosen to succeed the late Walter F. Munford. Though U.S. Steel usually picks its operating chiefs from the production side, Worthington, who started with the company right out of college (University of Illinois '23), got the nod because of wide experience in sales and warehousing, that should prove valuable with tougher competition in the U.S. and from abroad.

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