Masonry Magazine May 1974 Page. 21
Washington Wire
Democrats are already itching to give the President discretionary power to impose restraints.
LABOR IS MAKING THE COST-OF-LIVING ES-CALATOR
a top bargaining demand. With living costs up 8.8% last year and rising at two-digit rates recently, unions will seek to sweeten or win new mechanisms based on consumer prices. Demands for new, improved clauses will be pressed very hard by rail unions, the mine workers, and the communications workers as prices keep climbing. The new Glass Bottle Blowers contracts regain provisions abandoned in 1971. The recent steel labor pact included an improvement in the escalator clause.
Even 600,000 non-union production workers are now covered by clauses, as well as 4 million-plus under union agreements.
CONSTRUCTION WORKERS WILL SOON BE PRESSING
for large wage demands, despite the pleadings of union leaders for the exercise of some restraint. This industry is now free of controls for the first time in three years. But some union members are thinking of wage hikes of roughly $3 per hour.
Building-trades leaders caution that demands must be kept reasonable. They warn that sensational boosts might mean the quick return of controls. And large increases in wages would also mean more job losses to the non-union workers.
STEEL-PRODUCT PRICES ARE GOING SHARPLY HIGHER
as 1974 rolls along. Higher raw materials prices, especially for scrap, make boosts inevitable. And now the industry must recover the cost of its new bargaining agreement. Price increases totaling 17% to 18% would be needed by the steel companies to equal higher employee compensation, expected to rise by $3.25 an hour. Steel companies aren't likely to increase their prices by 18% all at once. That would risk arousing public opinion and bringing government retaliation.
SWEEPING NEW TRADE LEGISLATION MAY WELL DIE
in Congress this year, despite passage by the House and fairly widespread support in the Senate. If Congress doesn't act, the bill will have to start all over again in 1975. This would mean that the coming international trade talks would be aborted. The problem in the Senate is more one of time than any general opposition, although a provision involving trade with Russia is highly controversial.
But a bigger problem is a lack of enthusiasm, especially from the general public. With little or no popular clamor for the legislation, many senators are somewhat apathetic.
PLANS TO COMPLY WITH U.S. SAFETY RULES MAY GROW COMMON
in industry. The Labor Department just settled a nationwide pact with a major company covering noise control at 83 of the company's plants. It may be followed by several other compliance agreements.
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masonry
May, 1974