Labor's 1954 Battle Cry
IN its long fight for more security, organized labor is now poised for an assault on a new objective: the guaranteed annual wage. Though unions have talked about the G.A.W. for years, there was little real enthusiasm for it while jobs were plentiful and overtime commonplace. But now, with unemployment brushing 4,000,000, union leaders in the mass-production industries are ready for the big push.
The push was started by the C.I.O.'s International Union of Electrical Workers, which asked Westinghouse Electric Corp. to guarantee its employees 52 forty-hour weeks a year—or the equivalent in pay. Under the I.U.E. plan, Westinghouse...