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long, long time from May to
September, and Reuther has the
reputation of doing most of his
shooting from the lip, and, as
he said himself, eloquence does
not impress management. And it
isn’t going to get him off the
tiger he is riding in his union,
either.

But the growing militancy of
the auto workers is only one
half of the story in the States.
The other and perhaps pervasive
half is the social and economic
mileau of a country at war.

“This lousy war,” as one dele-
gate characterized it, is sapping
the strength of the American
trade union movement. “If we
go on strike,” one delegate said,
“President Johnson is going to

‘We want our equity out a
of increased profitability |

By WILLIAM ALLAN
DETROIT
ASED on the increased pro-
ductivity of 116 percent of
cars and trucks since 1947
in the auto industry, and after-
tax profits of 85 percent from
1963 to 1966, President Walter
Reuther told the convention
delegates that the union must
win a substantial wage increase

‘in 1967.

With some of the auto com-
panies showing lesser profits in
1967, Reuther said to the dele-
gates that ‘we are not bargain-
ing for the 1967 model, that will
be off the assembly line by the
time we get to the bargaining
table, we are bargaining for
tomorrow”.

There was massive pressure
on Reuther at this convention on
economic demands. A demon-
stration of several thousand pro-
duction workers took place de-
manding cuts in production
speeds, improved working condi-
tions, money in the pocket. Skil-
led workers seek at least $l-an-
hour raise. The parts and supplier
plants employees, who make up
about 400,000 UAWers, want
their wages brought up to the
level of workers in General
Motors, Ford, Chrysler. Cana-
dians, some 81,000 UAW mem-
bers, want elimination of a wage
differential of 41 cents an

and hour for production workers and
it is a$l for skilled. Those who work

have a chat with Walter, and
tell him that his union is hurting
the war effort by going on
strike. This convention,” he
continued, “has got to tell
Walter what his answer to the
President will be.” This answer
boiled down to the fact that
war or no war, the corporations
are making piles of money, and
we are going to get some of it.

At the press conference fol-
lowing the convention, Reuther
fortified this point. He said that
no corporation was going to be
allowed to hide behind the Viet-
nam war when it comes to set-
tling with the workers this year.

This will be easier said than
done, however, because the of-
ficial position of the union is

tied almost completely to the
mystical “great American
dream” and the general infatua-
tion with ‘the free society’.
Like eunuchs in a harem, the
workers can’t really participate
in the “great society” but still
have to guard the doors against
anything that isn’t kosher capi-
alism.

Thus, in spite of all the de-
mands for “‘social equity” ema-
nating from the leadership, the
union is still tied hand and
foot to the sanctity of the status
quo — and this means Vietnam.
Yet a break has to be made, or
the whole economic program of
the union is in jeopardy.

All this is true, just as it is
probably true that much of the

WALTER REUTHER:

as electricians, bricklayers and
other building trade crafts, but
as UAW members, want the
same wages as outside contract
workers who get at least $1.50
more an hour than UAW men
doing the same work.

With 1.5 million unsold 1967
cars in the stockpile and 800,000
unsold used cars, it’s been learn-
ed that 100,000 auto workers
have been secretly laid off in the
last weeks. This has erupted
here with hundreds pressuring
the platform for a shorter work

- week to begin some type of

protection of jobs.

Reuther is also under pressure
because of the 70-cents-an-
hour settlement offered the
Teamsters for 450,000 freight
haul drivers; the 60-odd cents an
hour gained in Packing. He can’t
talk about the same money set-
tlement as in 1964, which was
54 cents an hour. Also in his
struggle with AFL-CIO presi-
dent George Meany for a differ-
ent kind of labor movement in
the United States, a settlement
for a $l-an-hour package in auto
would place Reuther high in the
esteem of the American trade
unionists. <

The greatest applause for
Reuther in his opening pitch to
the convention came when he
got down to talking about pro-
duction, speedup and profits, and
lashing at the huge salaries of
the corporation executives.

He related these almost un-
known facts:

In 1947 we had 625,000 work-
ers in the automobile industry
and they produced 4,792,000
cars and trucks. In 1966, we had
671,000 workers and they turned
cut 10,358.000. In other words
seven percent more workers
turned out 116 percent more
cars and trucks. They weren’t
the same cars and trucks. They
were bigger and more compact.
They were more difficult to
build. Yet a handful more work-
ers turned out more than 100
percent more cars and trucks.
That’s where we want our
equity. We want our equity out
of the increased productivity
and the increased profitability.
The industry from 1962 to 1966
made in excess of $27 billion in
profits, the most fantastic pro-
fits in the history of the world.
They increased their dividend
payment in that period roughly
30 percent.”

Reuther’s plea for making a
Guranteed Annual Wage the
main demand for 1967, has now
been dropped to a secondary
position, he bowed to great rank
and file heat both in the conven-
tion and the plants for a big
cash raise. His pointing up of
the rises in production and pro-
fits, but saying nothing of no
similar rise in wages in the past
years for the auto workers, out-
side of cost of living raises,

* other worker in the United

effort at pinning down a con-
crete bargaining policy will like-
ly be glossed over in verbiage.
But life has a way of asserting
itself and, like it or not, the
auto workers, like almost every

States is on a collision course
with American monopolies, and
a whole number of changes are
in the works. The economic con-
ference of the UAW was both an
expression of the problem and |
the changes needed, as well as.
an outline of what these changes
will be and the force that will
bring them into being.

This will assume more tan-
gible proportions, and Walter
Reuther is going to have to jump
lively.

saw at this convention a change
in his emphasis to-a “substantial
wage increase”.

He is tying this in a package,
with better pensions, higher
rates for skilled, more money to
bring up rates in parts and sup-
plier plants, wage parity for
Canadian workers, a cost of liv-
ing clause for pensioners, main-
tenance of cost of living raises,
more money in the SUB fund.
It’s estimated by some here that
this economic package for this
coming negotiations is worth
about $1, or slightly more,
spread over a three-year con-
tract.

“Don’t be frightened son. They're
fenced off.”

May 5, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7