Intransigence in Charleston

From the beginning, the issues in the Charleston, S.C., hospital strike have been union recognition and official intransigence. For three months the walkout by 360 black workers--most of them women of limited skills earning only $1.30 to $1.60 per hour--has disrupted the gracious antebellum city with the threat of racial violence.

Authorities of Medical College Hospital and Charleston County Hospital, initially backed by the state, took the position early in the dispute that they could not legally bargain with a union of employees paid out of public funds. Gradually the anti-union tradition crumbled under strong pressure. A 9 p.m. curfew enforced by National Guardsmen cut the spring tourist trade. A Negro boycott of white businesses also did economic damage to the city. National publicity was mostly unfavorable and the strikers drew support from national labor and civil rights groups.

Heavy Sentence. Negotiations finally began four weeks ago, but were kept secret, presumably to save face for the hospital management. Governor Robert Mc-Nair, for whom the strike was becoming a political embarrassment, pushed for a settlement. Incentive came from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, which threatened to cut off federal financial assistance to the hospitals if they declined to rehire twelve union members who had been fired. This threat was too much even for Dr. William McCord, president of Medical College Complex and a firm opponent of union recognition.

By early last week, a settlement granting most of the union's demands was imminent. Local 1199B of the New York-based Drug and Hospital Employees Union would get de facto recognition. There would be pay increases. The dozen employees would be reinstated. Then Senator Strom Thurmond announced in Washington that HEW Secretary Robert Finch had promised not to cut off federal assistance without a personal investigation. This assurance, passed on to the hospitals, caused the settlement to collapse. Said McCord in a one-sentence letter to the union: "Please be advised, that the offer to employ the twelve discharged workers made June 9, 1969, is now withdrawn as of Thursday, June 12, 1969, at 5 p.m."

At week's end, the strikers were gearing for a bitter struggle. They vowed to make night marches through white neighborhoods all summer. The International Longshoremen's Association privately told McNair that it would close down the busy port of Charleston if the strike is not settled promptly.

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