B.J. Widick Archive   |   ETOL Main Page

Walter Jason

Steel Settlement Strengthens Murray;
Relations with Reuther Strained

(1 November 1949)

From Labor Action, Vol. 13 No. 45, 7 November 1949, p. 1.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).

CLEVELAND, Nov. 1 – A major event affecting the outcome and outlook of this CIO convention was the announcement last night by CIO President Philip Murray that the strike at Bethlehem Steel has been settled on terms that the Murray spokesmen claim are superior both to the fact-finding board recommendation and the United Auto Workers settlement at Ford.

We want to emphasize that this is what the Murray forces claim. There is at present available only a press release on the general provisions of the Bethlehem agreement. It reads well, but leaves many questions unanswered.

UAW spokesmen have no official viewpoint yet, and UAW leaders are studying the Bethlehem agreement to make a comparison. But it is clear that the Murray forces feel they have “gone one better than Walter Reuther,” and this is going to have repercussions in the CIO, for one of the most significant underlying developments here is the strain between the 1 Murray forces and the Reuther leadership of the UAW.

Murray forces no longer feel the tension of the steel strike. They expect an early break in Big Steel. Now the ousting of the Stalinists seems even less grave and important to them. Nor are they suffering from any inferiority complexes before the “bright boy” from Detroit.
 

Better Than Ford’s?

The CIO press release says the following about the Bethlehem pension plan:

1. Completely paid for by the company.
    
2. Provides for a minimum of $100 a month after 25 years of service at the age of 65. (They remind you that the Ford plan calls for 30 years’ seniority. Of course, Bethleherh already had a pension plan amounting to nearly $50 a month, with retirement after 26 years of seniority, so the gain isn’t as big as it sounds at first.)
    
3. The present seniority provisions of the contract between Bethlehem and the union govern pension qualifications – and the press release adds very significantly that the pension is not calculated on the number of hours worked in a year. (The Ford contract calls for 1,800 hours of work a year to get full credit toward a pension.)

No details on administration are available. The duration of the contract is supposed to be for five years, with the union having the right to strike after two years if the company seeks to weaken the pension. There is no information available if the union can in two years improve the plan

One of the outstanding independent insurance experts here says he thinks the plan is superior to the Ford pension plan. Final judgment must rest until all the facts are,before us.

But what is significant is that this break in the steel strike tightens Murray’s iron grip on the CIO and sharpens the antagonism between the UAW leaders and the Murray forces. We wondered yesterday, for example, why the only CIO leader introduced who did not get any. applause from the right-wing delegates was Walter Reuther. And what Murray meant by his crack when he called Reuther to take the chair over: “I guess Reuther’s caucusing again.”

Behind the love feast that takes place in public, the growing clash between the conservative forces in the CIO, represented mainly by the Steel Union officialdom, and the UAW . leadership pressed by its militant and democratic ranks may well be one of the most important developments coming from this convention.

 
Top of page

B.J. Widick Archive   |   ETOL Main Page

Last updated: 10 December 2022