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Show .I Who really profited in steel this year Steelworkers' increased pay outstripped owners' dividend increase by 86 to 1 it is no surprise to anyone that the nation's steel com- that is true. What you were not told is that production panies earned larger profits in the frenzied first half of and sales and payrolls, taxes and other costs also this year than in the first half of the recession-ridden established new record highs. year of 1958. After all, under pressure of strike fears, During this period the companies sold $9Ya billion customers bought a lot more steel nearly 3& billion worth of steel. And after covering their payrolls, taxes dollars worth more. and other costs all record highs they showed a profit But would it surprise you to learn that for every dollar of $783 million, less than 8 cents on each dollar of sales. of increased dividends received by the owners of the Let's see what happened to this profit, steel companies this year, the steelworkers received $86 One-Third Was "Phantom Profit. ' in increased wages and benefits?. . i A. eL i " A ! n Well that is the fact' Roughly one-third of the profit was "phantom pro-Out pro-Out 'of the increased profits the owners of steel fit" which had to to us , companies received $7 million more in dividends lf wonumt tools and faculties. This one-third this year than they did in the first half of last P1 ?othm ?OT owners-nothmg for expansion. year It had to be used just to stand still. The steelworkers, however, received $603 mil- Otherwise the steel industry would die a little each lion more in wages and benefits. vear 83 lts olants wore out Md 60 would J.obs J ...... . , ... , . . . its over 600,000 employees and the invested savings of And that increase, m any man's arithmetic, is 86 to 4, ' nvn , OT . . . , , , , .. .... . , its more than one million snareowners. one in favor of the steelworkers. But it still isn t enough j for the Union leaders. They want more and more - One-Third Was Reinvested and more. When they describe steel profits as "fantas- Another third or so of the profit went to meet the con- , tic," what word is then left to describe the gains of the tinuing need for improved or enlarged plants and equip- steelworkers? ment, necessary working capital, new sources of raw Let s Look at the Facts materials, new research facilities, and to improve produc- j I The steel companies have no complaint whatever to tive efficiency generally. J ! ! ; make about the greatly increased prosperity of the steel- TTiis was the "re-invested profit" that provides for ; ! ' workers. But they do protest vigorously when Union America's industrial growth, sustains job security, and j leaders-concealing the fabulous gains of their members steadily raises the standard of living of the American j seek to distort, magnify and misrepresent .the profit people. . picture in a brazen effort to foist another disastrous One-Third Went to the Onncrn ; ' round of wage inflation upon the American people. What was left of the profit $268 million went to the j ! We think the time has come, therefore, to look at the owners of the steel companies in the form of dividends. ! ' sober facts about payrolls and profits, and to put them This was the only payment they received from their f in perspective. - companies for the use of all the tools that their savings One Million Oicners Got $268 he P it represented an i annual return of Million Total Dividends aboutA 3 rcent on Present market value o meir i , .. investment. --v j The steel companies are owned by more than one mil- k about the retum get on lion stockholders whose invested sayings have provided account at the bank-less than on a Government Bond. the tools, the plants, and other capital facilities needed Not exactly fantastic fa &? . . . Especially since the to make steel. As payment .for the use of these facilities, companies - in order to attract the new savings they which cost m excess of $16 billion, the stockholders re- must have-must compete in the financial market place ceived $268 million in dividends during the first six against other ( . months of this year. ., 607 000 Em lo ees Got Remember This All-Important Fact nnnn . n ir Th3, then, is the simple, sober truth about steel profits $2,2ol,000f000 in Payrolls and payrolls in 1959; and from it you may draw your In this same period, the steel companies employed own conclusions. But there is one all-important fact that . an average of 607,000 men and women who provided should never be lost in the smokescreen of confusion I the brains, energy, skill and judgment necessary to pro- that the Union leaders have sought to create around ) duce and market the steel. For their services, they re- profits. And that fact is this: j ceived a total of $2,251 million in wages and salaries - Any increase in steel wage costs at this timo i more than eight times as much as the owners received. will give another dangerous twist to the upward Steelworkers Average Earnings spiral of inflation. Jumped $29.38 a Week Th3 k because steelworkers are already leading the More than 75 percent of the total payroll went to wage rade' a ftifUJ7' TT T wjuorceI?r 491,000 hourly-paid workers, whose average weekly H?"3 in of and trade to redoublo earnings have risen steadily, in every quarterly period, to " cI? "P" us waf Pxm since the beginning of 1958. In these eighteen months 00813 rLse onu Sldes; and 80 wU1 0081 of aknost alone the steelworkers' earnings jumped from $105.6-1 everything you buy. a week to $135.02 - a gain of $29.38 a week. THE STEEL COMPANIES COORDINATING COMMITTEE A Companies Sold $9 Billion Worth o, Steel You have been told that the steel companies made wvnrrl AnUnr nmflfa in h flrcf Violf nf KJa tnor anA s,e' Corporation . Republic Steel Corporation United State Steel Corporation record UOliar prOIllS in Uie nrSC nail OI IRIS year; and . Wheeling Steel Corporation . Th Youngstown Sheet and Tuba Company Nobody profits from inflation |