The Labor Month in Review

IN MID-DECEMBER, Arthur J. Goldberg was designated as Secretary of Labor in the cabinet of President-elect John F. Kennedy. Mr. Goldberg, who had been counsel for the Steelworkers and special counsel to the AFL-CIO, resigned these posts, as well as his many other union associations, and ended his relationships with his two law firms shortly afterward. By early January, additional departmental appointments had been announced as follows: W. Willard Wirtz as Under Secretary; Jerry R. Holleman, an Assistant Secretary; George L-P. Weaver, Special Assistant to the Secretary and scheduled to become an Assistant Secretary on July 1, 1961; Charles Donahue, Solicitor; and Esther Peterson, an Assistant to the Secretary and Director of the Women's Bureau.

On December 22, outgoing Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell was named chairman of the Presidential Commission to study work rules in the railroad industry. The other public appointees were John T. Dunlop, professor of economics at Harvard University; Charles A. Myers, professor of industrial relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and arbitrators Francis J. Robertson and Russell A. Smith.

Early in January, steel union and management officials met at the request of David J. McDonald, president of the Steelworkers, to discuss unemployment in the steel industry and agreed to a series of conferences on the subject. United Auto Workers President Walter P. Reuther suggested periodic plant shutdowns of 1 week, rather than short workweeks or layoffs in the auto industry to minimize hardships for workers and further contraction of consumer purchasing power.

Economic conditions that for the past several years have "severely affected the coal industry and have caused a large decline in the revenues of the trust fund" were responsible for reducing

the pensions of 65,000 retired soft-coal miners from $100 a month to $75, effective February 1, 1961, according to a statement on December 30 by the United Mine Workers Welfare Fund.

On January 1, a committee appointed by President-elect Kennedy and headed by Senator Paul H. Douglas, announced its program for economically depressed areas. Among its recommendations were an increase in the quantity and kinds of surplus foods being distributed, enactment of area redevelopment legislation, emergency extension of unemployment compensation to those whose benefits have been exhausted, and a public works program.

IN RESPONSE TO CHANGING TECHNOLOGY in their industries, an Akron local of the Rubber Workers and the oilers on diesel tugboats in New York harbor agreed to management proposals for changes in their respective collective bargaining contracts. The Rubber Workers, threatened by a prospective shutdown of an obsolescent tire plant, agreed to Goodyear's offer to put in the latest equipment and rehabilitate the plant in return for the workers' promise to operate the equipment at the same rate it could be used elsewhere. The Transport Workers Union agreement with seven railroads operating harbor tugboats will progressively do away with about 125 oiler jobs. Workers with 20 years' service may stay on the job, others must take a severance allowance ranging from 6 weeks' pay for those with 6 years' service to 50 weeks for those with 20 years who choose to leave their jobs. Smaller groups represented by the United Mine Workers and the Teamsters signed. similar agreements with an eighth railroad, although there was dissatisfaction with the plan voiced by some members of all three unions.

MAJOR SETTLEMENTS occurred in the oil and trucking industries during December. The Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers were asking 18 cents an hour in 1-year contracts, while the major producers were offering 5 percent (averaging slightly over 14 cents) in 2-year contracts. On December 16, the OCAW announced a 1-year contract covering some 9,000 employees of the Sinclair Oil Corp., with an across-the-board increase of 14 cents an hour.

The Teamsters signed contracts that will be effective February 1 with about 40 Midwest truck