Business: Guidelines: Down but Not Out

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...

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