Strikes: Still in the Trenches

STRIKES Still in the Trenches The 26-union strike against the nation's copper producers—longest walkout in U.S. history against virtually an entire industry—last week dragged into its eighth month. Though the unions and major copper companies remain as far apart as ever, a few small cracks have appeared in the costly deadlock.

The strike-leading United Steelworkers union and a subsidiary of American Metal Climax, Inc., have agreed on a new contract for A.M.C.'s huge Carteret, N.J., smelter, source of 10% of the U.S. domestic supply of refined copper. Terms: a $1.07-an-hour increase in wages,...