(3 of 3)
On a basic issue, reinstatement of strikers, the two sides are committed to irreconcilable positions. U.A.W. has to cling to reinstatement as a bedrock-minimum demand. Kohler Co. has vowed that no worker will be laid off to make room for an ex-striker. But even if the reinstatement issue could somehow be arbitrated, the essential clash of stubborn wills would still remain. Herbert Kohler wants to keep U.A.W. out of his company altogether; Walter Reuther has to get U.A.W. in or suffer a humiliating defeat. Wielding the only weapon he has left, Reuther apparently intends to keep up the boycott until Herbert Kohler gives in or the company goes out of business. Compromise hardly seems possible any more. "It is almost sinful," says a U.A.W. official, "to have any labor dispute degenerate to the point this one has." Which was about as close as any interested party had come to the heart of it.