AUTOS: New Model

As casually as a salesman flipping open the door of a new model, the Chrysler Corp. made auto industry history last week: it offered a $25 million-a-year (10¢-15¢-an-hour) cost-of-living wage increase to 120,000 workers, despite its three-year contract with the U.A.W.-C.I.O. which freezes wages until July 1, 1951. (The increase had not come without prodding by the union; wildcat strikers, disgruntled over the rise in the cost of living, had thrown 13,000 out of work.) In the fast tightening labor market, Chrysler's new pay scale will help the company in bidding for new workers, since its average hourly wage...

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