CHEMICAL & ENGINEERING
NEWS VOLUME 42, NUMBER 4
The Chemical World This Week
JANUARY 27, 1964
Chemical Labor Unions Face Big Decisions This year may see merger of two chemical unions, more precollective bargaining talks, measures to deal with unemployment The coming year may prove to be one of sharp change for the major chemical unions. The Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW) and the International Chemical Workers Union (ICWU) stand on the brink of merger. The success and growth of joint labormanagement committees mean change and a new departure from traditional bargaining practices. President Johnson has proposed a new remedy for unemployment by making overtime more costly. Against a backdrop of continued strong business and an impending tax cut for both corporations and employees, both unions and management will be less interested in taking showdown positions. Merger. The merger of OCAW and ICWU is possible this year. The timetable calls for the two unions—working through high-level committees—to have initial agreements worked out by March. If the two committees come up with a merger plan, OCAW will call a special convention in Miami, separate but concurrent with ICWU's October convention. Ratification of the plan by convention vote in both unions would merge the two unions. A combined OCAW-ICWU would shift the balance of power among chemical labor groups. It would claim about 150,000 chemical production workers—about one out of every three workers in the chemical and allied products industry. Roughly half of the 500,000 production workers in the chemical and allied products industry belong to either the ICWU, OCAW, or District 50—United Mine Workers. The bulk of the remainder belong to independent unions. Bargaining. A bellwether of change in union attitude could be
OCAW's decision to forgo wage increases in negotiations with the petroleum industry. OCAW's national committee on bargaining policy for petroleum proposes that the union's bargaining units ask for the money equivalent to a 5% wage increase to be divided at local option among any or all of the following fringe benefits: increased hospital and medical coverage, improved pension plans, higher severance pay, and improved vacation plans. How much OCAW's posture in bargaining with oil companies will affect the demands of its locals in the chemical industry isn't clear. Chances are
that the spill-over will be slight and that wage demands will dominate negotiations in the chemical industry. The catalog of cures for unemployment continues to grow. President Johnson, in his State-of-the-Union message, recommended legislation "authorizing the creation of tripartite industry committees, to determine, on an industry-by-industry basis, as to where a higher penalty rate for overtime would increase job openings without unduly increasing costs and authorizing the establishment of such higher rates." Chemicals will probably be one of
MERGER TALKS. ICWU president Walter L. Mitchell (left) and OCAW president O. A. Knight head six-man committees working on plans to merge their two unions JAN.
2 7,
1964 C & E N
25
the industries where restrictions on overtime will not become a thorny issue in forthcoming talks. Unions are stressing to their locals that the work must be shared. But a few hours of overtime per week, even at doubletime rates, are less costly to plants than fringe costs for new workers, according to a spokesman for one union. O. A. Knight, president of OCAW, strongly endorses legislation calling for elimination of overtime in the chemical and petroleum industries. Mr. Knight estimates that a ceiling on overtime would provide 40,000 additional jobs in those industries. Two of the fringe benefits OCAW proposes for bargaining in the oil industry are aimed at curbing unemployment, according to a spokesman for the union. Higher severance pay would shift the economics of laying people off by making it more costly to dismiss workers. And improved vacation plans, possibly similar to the sabbaticals adopted in the steel and aluminum accords of last year (C&EN, Aug. 5, 1963, page 24) would impose larger work forces on plants. District 50 has developed its own approach to combating unemployment. Elwood Moffett, president, says the ultimate answer will probably be a combination of a shorter work week and an added work shift. He stresses the fact the District 50's plan is a longrange one, which would require extensive training of workers. It should be widely discussed in labor-management committee meetings. District 50 has no immediate plans to demand a shorter work week or work day in the chemical industry, he adds. The tax cut, if enacted this year, will have little impact on wage demands in the labor arena. Both factions agree that increased consumer spending stemming from a tax cut will boost employment. With higher employment rates and an increased output of goods crowding capacity, each
Most of the Deferred Wage Increases in the Chemical Industry Will Be About 6 Cents per Hour This Year Cents per Hour
No. of Workers
Increase
Affected*
Under 5 5 to 6 6 to 7 7 to 8 8 to 9 9 to 10
6,000 12,000 13,000 7,000 1,000 2,000
* In contracts involving 1,000 or more workers. Source: U.S. Department of Labor
26
C&EN
J A N . 2 7, 1 9 6 4
party will be less interested in taking showdown positions at the bargaining table, according to one labor specialist. Deferred Increases. There will probably be a continuation of the trend to longer contracts containing deferred wage increases. Mr. Moffett says District 50 is proposing that local units ask for three-year "closed" contracts wherever the company and union can reach a satisfactory agreement. Closed contracts do not contain wage reopening provisions but do provide for automatic or deferred wage increases. In the ICWU, the pattern is for twoyear contracts with deferred wage increases. Some contracts provide for wage reopening after the lapse of one year in addition to the automatic increase, the union says. The long-term contract finds favor with production management. It tends to ensure continuity of operation and permits accurate projection of labor costs. However, in the case of a deferred wage increase, some of the morale lift a worker feels in any wage increase is lost because he discounts the raise by anticipation, one industrial relations manager points out. The popularity of deferred wage increases in the chemical industry runs counter to the national trend. Deferred wage increase provisions are being dropped from contracts in other industries. One large chemical firm estimates that about half of its contracts contain deferred wage increases either with or without wage reopener clauses. In contrast, U.S. Labor Department data for all industries show that the number of workers scheduled to receive deferred wage hikes has dropped from 5 million in 1957 to 2.3 million in 1964. One new issue likely to crop up with more frequency in contract talks this year is union demands for dental and psychiatric care similar to hospital and medical insurance programs now in effect. Admitting that dental insurance is a long-range program, Mr. Moffett says he has, nevertheless, recommended that local units place it on their agenda in coming talks. One result of the labor-management conference program started by District 50 last year (C&EN, Aug. 12, 1963, page 28) has been the large amount of evidence unearthed concerning injury to domestic chemical producers from imports. The union held 120 such conferences last year and plans to hold about 250 meetings at chemical plants in 1964.
Edward J. Brenner Nominated Patent Commissioner President Johnson has nominated Edward J. Brenner as the new Commissioner of Patents. The nomination is subject to confirmation by the Senate. Mr. Brenner is patent counsel for Esso Research and Engineering Co., Elizabeth, N.J. As such, he supervises Esso Research's patent activities relating to petroleum processes and products, engineering and marine activities, and pipelines. Mr. Brenner succeeds David L. Ladd, who resigned from the post Oct. 2, 1963, and is now with Schneider, Dressier, Goldsmith & Clement, a patent and trademark law firm in Chicago, 111. Mr. Ladd had been nominated by the late President John F. Kennedy on March 21, 1961, and assumed the office on April 17, 1961. Mr. Brenner was born in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., on June 26, 1923. He attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and after serving in the U.S. Army, received a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 1947. He then continued his studies at Wisconsin, receiving a master's degree in chemical engineering in 1948 and a law degree in 1950. He joined the Esso organization in 1950 as a chemical engineer at the Baton Rouge, La., refinery. In 1953, he transferred to Esso Research as a patent attorney. He worked in the fields of radiation, lubricants, polymers, and catalytic cracking. The commissioner-nominee is a member of the Wisconsin Bar Association, the New Jersey Patent Law Association, and the ACS. He is married and has four children. He and his family reside in Westfield, N.J.
