In President Roosevelt's 1944 Santa Claus bag still rests one secret weapon: the possibility of a general wage increase for all U.S. workers.
After nearly eight months of probing, the WLB is fairly close to a decision on a wage raise for the 900,000 steelworkers.
Under the famed Little Steel formula, raises have been slow and gradual, while the cost of living, by most studies, has shown a substantial jump. If WLB now recommends smashing the Little Steel formula, thousands of U.S. workers (and votes) would, in effect, get a pre-Election Day promise of a wage raise.
WLB itself is comparatively free...