Labor: Two Strikes

Barely a month before the election, and against a background of unprecedented prosperity, the U.S. last week found itself in the midst of two major labor disputes. The fact was all the more remarkable because the disputes were not over bread-and-butter issues of pay or pensions, but over such questions as whether auto workers should smoke on the job and how many longshoremen should be available on the docks to unload arriving ships.

As labor leaders go, Walter Reuther and Thomas Gleason are about as different as possible: one the smooth, articulate head...

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