Hot-Potato Game

Since the airline strike began last month, it has developed into a logistical nuisance and an economic drag. Last week it also became a political hot potato. By turning down the agreement worked out for them by their own national leadership under President Johnson's scrutinous eye, 35,400 members of the International Association of Machinists put the U.S. Government in an uncomfortable position. As has happened in the past with striking railroaders, the contract defeat left the Government no choice except to act. But in an election year, when politicians of all stripes are exceedingly sensitive about the labor vote, nobody in Washington wanted to be the one to say "obey."

The Congress, it turned out, would be more than pleased to give Lyndon Johnson special permission to order the machinists back to work. But Lyndon did not share that enthusiasm. He wanted Congress to take the political responsibility for a back-to-work order. Compromise after compromise was tried, to the point that Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield once glanced down at his paper-littered desk and confessed that there were so many compromises in the works, he just didn't know which was the current order of business.

Slicing It Up. Finally, the Senate passed (54-33) a resolution that sliced up the hot potato into small French fried-sized pieces. Under the Senate motion, Congress would order the machinists to return to their jobs with the struck airlines (TWA, United, Eastern, National and Northwest) for a 30-day period. During that time, President Johnson would be given authority to appoint a special mediation board to work out the dispute; the order creating the board would also extend the back-to-work period another 60 days. If the board was unsuccessful in settling the dispute, the President could still keep the union on the job for 90 more days while other steps were tried. With the union members thus ordered to stay at work for 180 days in all, the President, if no progress had been made after 150 days, would be requested to send Congress his own recommendations for a settlement.

The artful dodging of Washington's politicians was little comfort to 31,000 airline employees who are not on strike, but nevertheless are getting neither regular pay nor strike benefits. Many of them looked for temporary work on the ground; TWA Captain Ford S. Blaney--who ordinarily earns $30,000 a year flying a jet--took an $18-a-day job piloting, a gas-eating Chicago taxicab. Nor was there much comfort for some 16,000 passengers of TWA who in most cases were abroad on vacation and found themselves stranded in Europe, unable to get home to the U.S. TWA helped out by offering them interest-free loans and by asking its overseas employees to open their homes to strandees. U.S. consulates certified that the travelers were strikebound in case bosses doubted them. Airlines and travel agents worked out intricate, substitute passages that sometimes involved taking a bus from one country to another in order to pick up a U.S.-bound flight.

Rising Gloom. With 60% of the nation's commercial air transport grounded, problems of all kinds continued to grow. In California, servicemen returning from Viet Nam on combat leave found themselves stranded for up to 72 hours at Travis Air Force Base. As many as 100 at a time curled up to sleep on sofas or in makeshift barracks while they waited for hitchhikes aboard military planes passing through the base. Mail deliveries that normally move by air were slowed; shipments of everything from electronic equipment to exotic flowers were delayed for lack of air cargo space. Businessmen hitched rides on one another's corporate aircraft, demand for car rentals soared, and so did telephone bills, as executives settled for conference calls instead of face-to-face confrontations. Air taxis and charter services in some cases were doing triple their normal business.

The U.S.-based airlines that were still flying--notably American and Pan Am --were having their own troubles. Though they have done all they can to pick up strike-caused traffic, they are embarrassed by the fact that many potential passengers call their ticket offices, get busy signals, and assuming that the situation is hopeless, give up. American, which has had some flights depart with unfilled seats, ran ads last week trying to smooth over the situation. "Come out to the American terminal at the airport," the ads urged. "If the flight you want is all booked up, there's a pretty good chance we'll get you on a later flight. We'll help you in every way we can." Assured Pan Am in similar ads: "Pan Am continues in full operation."

Moving into its fifth week, the airline strike, with Senate action completed, became the unhappy concern of a House whose every member is up for re-election this fall. Opening hearings on the Senate measure last week, Chairman Harley O. Staggers of the Commerce Committee protested that the proposed resolution "would set back the cause of collective bargaining 50 to 100 years." Labor Secretary Willard Wirtz agreed with Staggers that legislation weakens collective bargaining. "But," he said, without alluding to the Administration's sorry performance, "this time collective bargaining has fallen on its face so far."

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