The Losing End

Two strikes that could have disturbed the progress of the U.S. economic recovery were headed toward settlement last week. One of them was solved with remarkable amity by federal mediation; in the other, workers returned to their jobs, many of them harboring rancor that could mean intramural union trouble in months ahead.

RUBBER. The breakthrough in the 16-week strike by 60,000 members of the United Rubber Workers came after a 70-hour bargaining marathon, when union negotiators and Firestone agreed to a new pay package giving workers a 36% increase in wages and benefits over three years. The Firestone agreement, which will set the pattern for the other struck members of rubber's Big Four (Goodyear, Goodrich and Uniroyal), will boost the industry's average hourly wage in the first year by 880, to $6.38 an hour. In addition, the rubber workers got an escalator that provides an extra 1-c- an hour for each .4% increase in the cost of living index.

Architects of the rubber settlement were Labor Secretary W.J. Usery Jr. and Federal Mediator James Scearce, who had to twist "a few arms on both sides," as an aide put it, to get the crucial pay agreement. The threeyear, 36% increase runs ahead of other recent major labor settlements, which have been in the 30% to 33% range. Washington, however, regards the hefty increase as unavoidable because the rubber workers have lagged behind other industrial employees in pay raises during the past three years. For instance, auto assembly-line workers, who are currently negotiating new contracts of their own, at present have an average hourly wage of $6.57. The settlement will cost the Big Four at least $400 million annually by the third year of the contract, and in expectation of those higher costs, the companies were already raising tire prices.

The impact of the rubber strike has been minimal. At first, the union hoped that auto plants would have to shut down for lack of new tires. Instead, tire inventories were so high, mostly because of auto-industry stockpiling during the winter and spring, plus the flow of tires from companies still in operation, that the strike caused almost no repercussions--except for the workers themselves. The union's strike fund was exhausted after only four weeks, and many of the workers were forced to use up savings and go deeply into debt.

COAL. The illegal, four-week strike of 110,000 of the nation's coal miners was finally drawing to a close. After 200 local union presidents of the United Mine Workers cast their votes for a return to work, the miners were expected to go back to the pits early this week, ending one of the most foolish strikes in the U.M.W.'s history.

Many miners did not even know exactly why they were out. The proximate cause was the effort of one U.M.W. outpost, Local 1759 at the Cedar Coal Co. of Cabin Creek, W. Va., to put one formerly nonunion job under its jurisdiction. When Cedar Coal demurred and was backed by a federal court, the local walked out and, demonstrating the U.M.W.'s traditional solidarity, so did many other miners across the nation.

The wildcat walkout weakened the position of United Mine Workers President Arnold Miller, who must stand for re-election in December 1977. His initial call for an immediate return to work drew jeers from the miners, and his demonstrated ineffectiveness during the strike can only loosen his hold on the job. The U.M.W. retirement fund lost $19 million in contributions during the walkout and the union's benefit fund went millions more deeply into the red. But the strike had no impact on the U.S. economy: coal stockpiles were more than sufficient to keep utilities and plants running at capacity.

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