No Go for Oilcan Eddie

The polls had not even closed when Ed Sadlowski, insurgent candidate for president of the 1.4 million-member United Steelworkers, began muttering about fraud. Brewing up a cauldron of bean soup at his cluttered campaign headquarters in Chicago, he told visitors that only by stealing the election could union chiefs deprive him of the presidency: "They've done it before, and they'll do it again." At his opponent's headquarters in Pittsburgh, Campaign Press Chief Hank Raebun phoned Organization Candidate Lloyd McBride at home in St. Louis. "We're doin' good, buddy," he crowed. "We got this sumbitch beat."

Grandfatherly Winner. So it seemed. The 500,000 ballots that union members cast last Tuesday at 5,301 local halls throughout the U.S. and Canada must be shipped to Pittsburgh, where union aides will count them under the supervision of Labor Department watchdogs. The official results will not be announced for at least another week or two, but private counts by the candidates' organizations make the outcome clear: the grandfatherly McBride, 60, defeated the firebrand Sadlowski, 38, by a margin of about 3 to 2. His victory will bring sighs of relief at AFL-CIO headquarters and in the councils of the steel industry. It means that the federation's biggest union has been kept out of the hands of a rebel, Sadlowski, who has sharply denounced George Meany's leadership. It also means that the Steelworkers will begin bargaining this week for a new contract with mills still bound by a no-strike agreement that McBride backed and Sadlowski opposed.

The campaign was one of the most vituperative ever seen in a union election, and it continued that way to the end. On the weekend before the polling, retiring President I.W. Abel, who had hand-picked McBride as his heir, flew to Chicago to attack Sadlowski on his home turf. "I've known Ed Sadlowski for twelve years," sneered the white-haired Abel, "and I know his lack of ability, his lack of dedication." McBride repeated his charge that "outsiders and limousine liberals" were his opponent's main backers. Sadlowski, for his part, called Abel, McBride and Meany "well-heeled fat cats" who had lost touch with the rank and file.

When all the shouting was over, though, it became apparent that McBride, not Sadlowski, had read the union members' mood correctly. Sadlowski had become something of a liberals' darling by portraying himself as a lance bearer for the downtrodden, a champion of militant bargaining with the industry who would also work for social change through unionism. But basic Steelworkers average about $8 an hour, hardly a depressed wage; many live in the suburbs, and few are disposed to left-leaning politics. Surprisingly for a third-generation "mill rat," Sadlowski turned many workers off by referring repeatedly to "the shop floor," an expression that mill hands do not use.

So it will be business as usual for the Steelworkers. When bargaining begins this week for a new contract to take effect in August, the union is likely to call for a "lifetime security" program --some sort of guaranteed annual wage, a 32-hour week, earlier retirement or a combination of all. But if no agreement is reached by April 20, the dispute will be submitted to binding arbitration.

McBride's victory is likely to discourage insurgents in other unions from seeking power, and it may even inspire labor leaders to seek new legislation to thwart attempts by "outside" liberals to become involved in union politics. Meanwhile, Oilcan Eddie, as friends call Sadlowski, will not go away. Though he had to give up his post as director of Chicago-Gary District 31 to run for the presidency, the new district director, Jim Balanoff, is sure to appoint Sadlowski his deputy when he takes office in June.

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