Settlement at Ford

By Detroit bargaining-table tradition, negotiators start talking in private only after they are ready to clam up in public. So it was not until two weeks ago, soon after United Auto Workers Boss Walter Reuther got in his last loud licks at a Detroit rally called to beef up the U.A.W.'s Ford strike fund, that the two sides declared a blackout on negotiation news. Last week the red headed union leader emerged from the blackout with a settlement that, he declared, was the "largest ever negotiated by the U.A.W. with any major corporation."

The mood was tense as settlement neared. Early in the week, Ford Chairman Henry Ford II told newsmen that the strike could be over in a minute--if the company would knuckle under to the union's original demands, which by his facetious estimate would cost $4 an hour in increased wages and benefits. Reuther thereupon blew his top at the breach of the blackout, causing Ford to issue a soothing retraction saying his remark "was not meant to be taken seriously." Then signs of an imminent settlement began to grow. Ford ordered its steel suppliers to resume deliveries, began taping ads saying that "1968 models will soon be plentiful."

Roadblocks. Settlement seemed assured as Thursday's bargaining session wore on for 31 hours, breaking off only after two of the management negotiators had collapsed from exhaustion. Then, roadblocks began to appear as Reuther entered the final meeting with a fistful of complaints. By the time they were straightened out--after more than 14 hours of talks--Ford Negotiator Malcolm Denise could only describe the negotiations as "the most difficult in 26 years."

Ford did manage to wring some relief in the haggling over the last major contract hangup, which concerned the U.A.W.'s cherished cost-of-living escalator clause. While the old contract provided for unlimited automatic wage adjustments geared to the consumer price index, this time Ford got annual ceilings of 8-c- and 7-c- in the second and third years of the contract, agreeing to a minimum annual increase of 3-c- in return. The pennies were not peanuts; 1-c- an hour on Ford's 160,000-man payroll means $3,200,000 a year.

More All Around. Under the final terms--which still must be ratified by the rank and file--the average $4.81 an hour in wages and benefits Ford workers now get will rise by about $1 during the next three years, starting off with an immediate --age jump of 20-c- an hour. At around 7% overall, the new package seemed sure to outrun the 5% increase--6.6% including subsequent cost-of-living adjustments--that the U.A.W. won in 1964.

There was more in almost every contract category. Holidays were increased from nine to eleven, pensions were raised. The 20,000 skilled workers, who have long beefed about having to accept the same increases as the unskilled men, got an extra 30-c- an hour on top of the general first-year increase. And Reuther boasted of an "historic" victory with a new guaranteed annual income provision--though it was hardly the executive-style salary plan that he had been seeking. It amounts to little more than a substantial sweetening of current unemployment benefits, under which idled workers get 62% of their wages. The new plan provides as much as 95%, after a weekly deduction of $7.50 that nonworking workers do not have to spend for lunch and bus fare.

Still, while Reuther fought for more fat in the settlement--which will serve as model for his next target, either General Motors or Chrysler--his workers' fortunes have worn thin. The seven-week strike, which has prevented production of 400,000 Ford cars and trucks, has cost employees an average $1,000 per man in wages.

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