Smooth Sailing in Autos and Coal

What had been shaping up as a rancorous year for contract negotiations has so far turned into one of settlement without major strikes. The United Mine Workers last week accepted, 4 to 1, a contract providing a 10.25% raise over 40 months. Though it was the first time since 1964 that the union had not gone out on strike at the end of a contract, U.M.W. President Richard Trumka, a miner turned lawyer, hailed his members as "the shock troops of the American labor movement."

In St. Louis, 300 district leaders of the United Auto Workers overwhelmingly approved the contract worked out earlier with General Motors. The contract was sent to the rank and file for ratification by Oct. 14. Despite creation of a $1 billion fund for retraining workers displaced by automation, there could be some balking. Says Pete Beltran, president of Local 645 in Van Nuys, Calif.: "The ratification vote will be much closer than people think." Autoworkers were grumbling that the annual wage hike for the next three years will be just 2.25%. Economists, though, feared that wages and benefits were still at too high a level, approaching an average of $30 an hour, to make Detroit competitive with Japanese imports.