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Show ft j ft 1 1 1 i S' ft r,' t i OREM-GENEVA TIMES Thursday, February 81. m-f A Letter to the President 01 T Dm ted. States January 18, 1946 Hon. Harry S. Truman President of the United States The White House Washington, D. C. Dear Mr. President: Your proposal to me in Washington last evening eve-ning that the wage demand of the United Steel-workers Steel-workers of America-CIO be settled on the basis of wage increase of 18 1-2 cents an hour, retroactive retro-active to' January 1, 1946, cannot, I regret to say, be accepted by the United States Steel Corporation Cor-poration for the reasons set forth below. As you must be aware, your proposal is almost equivalent to granting in full the Union's revised demand of a wage increase of 19 1-2 cents an hour, which was advanced by Philip Murray, the President Pres-ident of the Union, at our collective bargaining conference with the Union in New York a week ago today. In our opinion, there is no just basis from any point of view for a wage increase to our steel workers of the large size you have proposed, pro-posed, which, if put into effect, is certain to result in great financial harm not only to his Corporation Corpora-tion but also to users of steel in general. As I have tried to make clear to you and other Government of ficials during our conferences in Washington over the past few days, there is a limit in the extent to which the Union wage demands can be met by us. We reached that limit when we raised our offer to the Union last Friday from a wage increase of 12 cents an hour to one of 15 cents an hour. This would constitute the highest single wage increase ever made by our steel-making subsidiaries. Our offer of 15 cents was equivalent to meeting 60 of the Union's original excessive demand of a $2 a day general wage increase. Our offer met 75 of the Union's final proposal of a wage increase of 19y2 cents an hour. A wage increase of 15 cents an hour, such ' as we offered, would increase the direct labor costs of our manufacturing subsidiaries subsidi-aries by approximately $60,000,000 a year. That is a most substantial sum, and does not take into account the higher costs we shall have to pay for purchased goods and services, when large wage increases generally become effective throughout American industry, as is inevitable after a substantial increase in steel wages. As you know, collective bargaining negotiations negotia-tions with the Union broke down at the White House yesterday afternoon, because Mr. Murray then refused to budge from his position that a country-wide steel strike must take place, unless steel workers are granted a general wage increase in-crease of 19V2 cents an hour. Our offer of a wage increase of 15 cents an hour was again rejected by the Union. The Union threatened to go ahead with its program for a national steel strike at midnight next Sunda, although such a strike will be a " clear violation of the no-strike provision contained con-tained in our labor contracts with the Union, which continued by their terms until October 15, 1946. From the outset, we have recognized how injurious in-jurious a steel strike will be to reconversion and to the economy of this whole country. Most industries are dependent upon a supply of steel for their- continued operations. We have done everything reasonably within our power to avert such a strike. If a strike occurs, the responsibility rests with the Union. When the Government at the eleventh hour informed us about a week ago of its willingness to sanction an increase in steel ceiling prices, we at once resumed collective bargaining negotiations nego-tiations with the Union. Such price action by the Government was a recognition by it of the right of the steel industry to receive price relief because be-cause of past havy increases in costs, something which the steel industry for many months has unsuccessfully sought to establish with OPA. I should like again to point out some pertinent facts relative to the wages of our steel workers. Since January 1941, the average straight-time hourly pay, without overtime, of our steel workers has increased more than the 33 increase in the cost of living during that period, recently computed by Government authorities. Steel workers' wages have kept pace with increased living costs. Such average straight-time pay in our steel-producing subsidiaries was $1.14 an hour in each of the months of September, October and November 1945, excluding any overtime premium and any amount for correction of possible pos-sible wage inequities. An increase of 15 cents in accordance with our offer, would raise such average straight-time pay to $1.29 an hour, placing plac-ing such pay among the highest today in all of American industry. Under our offer of a 15 cent increase, the average aver-age weekly take-home pay- of our steel workers for a forty-hour week would amount to $51.60, assuming that no overtime is involved. This figure fig-ure is only $4.45 less than the actual average weekly earnings of these employees, including overtime, in the last full war year of 1944, when the average work week was 46.1 hours. The difference dif-ference is really less, because we will undoubt-edly.continue undoubt-edly.continue to have overtime in the future, just as we have at the present time. In November 1945, overtime premiums to our steel workers aggregated more than $1,300,000. Such reduction of $4.54 in weekly take-home pay is the natural consequence of a shorter work week of forty hours, and therefore one of lower production. Much as we desire to avoid a steel strike, we cannot overlook the effect both on this Corporation Corpora-tion and on our customers and American business busi-ness in general, of the 18 cent an hour wage increase, which you have proposed. Such a wage increase must result in higher prices, for steel than have previously been proposed to us by the Government. Great financial harm would soon follow for all users of steel who would be obliged oblig-ed to pay higher prices for their steel, higher wages wag-es to their employees, and still have the prices for their own products subject to OPA control. Such a high and unjustified wage scale might well spell financial disaster for many of the smaller steel companies and for a large number of steel fabricators fabri-cators and processors. The nation needs the out-' out-' put of these companies. Increased wages and increased in-creased prices which force companies out of business busi-ness can only result in irreparable damage to the American people. In our judgment, it is distinctly in the public interest to take into account the injurious effect upon American industry of an unjustified wage increase in the steel industry. After a full and careful consideration of your proposal, we have reached the conclusion above stated. Respectfully yours, Benjamin If. Fairless, President, United StaeSteel Corporation United States Steel Corporation -'-11 ,111111 |