Business: Sealing a No-Strike Settlement

The price was high, but peace was preserved in autodom

"Excellent!" beamed Douglas Fraser, the United Auto Workers chief. "A credit to to both parties," said a General Motors negotiator. Both were praising a rare peaceful settlement, arrived at in a final flurry of horse trading at GM's imposing stone headquarters in Detroit just 4½ hours before a strike deadline. For the first time in 15 years, the autoworkers had reached a tentative contract agreement without going on a national strike. The three-year pact was concluded with GM but sets the pattern for the industry and covers 780,000 workers.

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