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Show i Labor Demands Discussed By Steel Official I NEW YORK, N. Y., September 15, 1945 Benjamin F. Fairless, president of United States Steele Corporation, today made the following fol-lowing statement: "The newspapers report that the United Steel Workers of America (CIO) will soon demand $2.00 a day increase. $2.00 a day is 25c an hour. $2.00 a day means a 32 per cent increase in the basic labor rate, and a 21 per cent increase in the average over-all straight time rates in U. S. Steel's steel producing operations. opera-tions. The Union proposal also means an average increase in direct cost from this demand alone of at least $0.00 per ton, when costs are already so high in relation to O. P. A. ceiling prices that two-thirds of the industries production of ordinary steel products is now being sold at an average loss. Price Increases In-creases for steel products are absolutely necessary now and have been for sometime, to take care of wage and other cost Increases In-creases already imposed during the war years. "It is time to put the record straight. No matter how much United States Steel may believe in high wages, wages cannot be I increased In the steel Industry at this time unless prices are materially ma-terially Increased. "Wages cannot be considered separate and apart from steel prices. Wages paid In the steel industry and in the Industry from which steel manufacturers obtain the articles and services needed for their operation report a major cost of making steel. The Office of Price Administration Administra-tion now has data from steel ', companies making 85 per cent ot the country's Ingot tonnage which show that on an over-all average basis these steel com- panics are losing money on two-f two-f thirds of the tonnage they pro-, pro-, duee. |