A MAJOR TRIAL OF STRENGTH
It is generally considered to be the most significant working-class struggle since the formation of the C10 and the sit-down strikes of the thirties.
It has clearly turned into a major trial of strength between the trade unions in general and the capitalist class, supported by Congress and the administration. The steelworkers, who entered the struggle in a without leadership and adequate preparation, quickly consolidated their ranks when they understood that the steel magnates were determined to strike a decisive blow against their organization and to take away work practices which had been agreed to and negotiated over the years.
They have consolidated the union to such an extent that they are now, in spite of being obliged to work, more ready than at the beginning of the strike to go all out again on January 26 when the injunction expires. As is well-known, the union obtained a first, partial victory when the firm of Edgar Kaiser broke the united front of the steel industry and thus tacitly disproved persistent corporation claims that the union demands were too costly for management. Another claim of this latter was invalidated by reports, including official ones, concerning payments to the steelworkers.
Thus the report of the Secretary of Labor, Mitchell, issued on August 15 clearly demonstrated: a) that the basic steel industry average gross pay fell from $5,350 per worker annually in the prosperous year of 1957 to $4,840 in
40% of the steelworkers earned less than $4,800 in below the minimum income set by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for an urban four-person According to the satre repot and itser sole en opers. ing at 87% of capacity for the first six months of 1959, the steel companies' margin of profit was so great "that a 15-cent increase in real employment costs, combined with a price reduction of about $7 a ton, net profits after taxes at the level of the all-time record steel profit year of 1957."
The most controversial point in the arbitration negotiwas remed on favorable, the demanding of th perisken
- intervention of Nixon especially
The workers received an hourly increase in wages higher than the employers' last offer.
The latter dropped their claim for arbitration on the complex work-rules issue. Doubtless they will add the inations now taking place between the representatives of the unions and the employers and Federal Mediation Director J F Finnegan, is that management must justify rule changes in local work and that the union has the right to protest via grievances any changes they consider unwarranted are now demanding that the union accept all changes efficiency" — the final judge of what constitutes "efficiency" to be management
The workers must now decide by a secret ballot starting on January 11 and to be completed by January 18 whether or not to accept the bosses' latest offer.
It is predictable that they will reject it by an majority" (according to the union by than 90 %").
What will hapen after that?
According to the steelworkers' president, David McDonald, the union might reverse its historic pattern of industry-wide walkouts and start a partial or selective strike against one, two, or three of the largest steel producers, so as to split their front.
But at the same time, without an agreement, demands for "strong measures such as a compulsory arbitration law seem certain to be renewed" (New York Times, December
According to other rumours, Eisenhower may call for an extension of the injunction.
The union leaders, while declaring that the struggle is a decisive one, fought by "the reactionary forces, seem at the moment to control the entire American scene" (Meany), against the entire American working-class movement, still do not seem disposed to wage a coördinated class action of the organized workers' forces to combat the de facto united front of the bosses, the administration and
But the mounting pressure of the rank-and-file could give rise to a new course which will set labor on the road not only of united trade-union action, but also independent working-class political action. The class struggle is hardening in the United States in proportion to the decline of the economic and financial power of American capitalism on a world scale. January 1, 1960 crease granted the workers on to the price of steel.
The agreement marks an important success for Nixon, favorite candidate in this year's Presidential election.
It in no way lessens the intention of Congress and the Administration to enact new, drastic anti-union legislation as soon as the election campaign is over. January 5, 1960
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