In three conference rooms around Detroit, preparations are being made for a decisive confrontation. At the corporate headquarters of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, janitors are washing blackboards, flicking pieces of lint from carpets and drapes, buffing and rebuffing elongated tables. Across these tables next week, scores of bargainers from the auto industry's Big Three will square off against negotiators from the United Auto Workers in Round 1 of the 1964 labor negotiations.
At issue are the wages and working conditions not only of the automobile industry's 565,000 blue-collar employees but of millions of other industrial workers, whose new contracts will be strongly influenced by Detroit's pattern. Should the negotiators fail to close a deal by the deadline on Aug. 31—when the '65 models will be rolling out—a strike could brake the industry's three-year boom and dent the whole economy. Noting that the auto companies are enjoying "fantastic" profits, the union figures this is a good year to step up to the higher-priced field itself. President Walter Reuther insists that "only a fool or an economic moron could suggest that we are not entitled to greater equity."
What Walter Wants. The Johnson Administration has asked labor leaders to limit their wage-and-benefit demands to 3.2%, but Reuther says he will fight for 4.9% or more because productivity is rising faster in autos than in some other industries. Detroit anticipates that Reuther will seek a wage raise on top of the annual boost of 2.5% or 6¢ an hour—whichever is higher—that the auto companies already award for higher productivity. A still more important issue will be his demand for earlier retirement and fatter pensions. The rank and file have been pressing their leaders for a plan to cut mandatory retirement age from 68 to 65, to reduce the voluntary retirement age from 60 to something less and to raise pensions to a minimum of $400 a month, including social security benefits.
The most emotional issue involves not money but working conditions. Specifically, the unionists want more free time to escape from the noise, perhaps go to the toilet or relax over a cup of coffee. In most plants, auto workers can leave the production line only for their 30-minute unpaid lunch break and two twelve-minute paid periods during the eight-hour shift. Now the union wants to shut down the assembly lines for at least 15 minutes during each shift—making a total of 39 minutes' released time. Says U.A.W. Vice President Leonard Woodcock, who will conduct most of the negotiations with G.M.: "You have coffee breaks on assembly lines all over the world. Only the U.S. has no coffee breaks on the assembly line."