Depending on public opinion to curb the violators
Like a boxer rising groggily from a stunning roundhouse, a weakened Administration got back into the fight against inflation last week. It was time for some new tactics, since a federal judge had struck down President Carter's threat to withhold Government contracts from firms that breached his wage-price guidelines. The loss of the procurement sanction undercuts management's ability to resist granting powerful unions, already contemptuous of the guidelines, fat pay raises. A rash of big settlements for organized labor could also pull up wages for many nonunion workers, who are close to 60% of...