The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-02-15

House waited for word that the steel strike was settled. It waited ia
 Union and industry sources made lt plain that the United States Steel Corp, hellwether of the indus try, would accept Mir. Tramans January proposal for settling the wage dispute by raising pay iels cents an hour, The company baked, however, at making the inc crease retroactive. to January I, Tor the three-week perlod before the walkout, The retroactive eaes- ton and the termination date of the new contract were tho Issues reported Still in dispute.
 Steel Prices Withheld
 The Administration still withheld its steel price announcement, but authoritative sources said it called for Q boost of eS a tsn, about o per cent, for both carbon and special steels.
 MT. Truman's wage-price stabiliza- ton order specifically made his steel wage proposal approvable un- der the new policy. It did the same for fact-finding board recom- mendatons e l9h cents an hour for striking General Motors Corp, employees and IS cents for the meat packing industry.
 At the same time, the President appointed Price Administrator Ches- ter Bowles to administer the new program, replacing John c. Collet as director of Economic Stabiliza- ton. MT. Truman also borrowed Paul A. Porter from the chairman ship of the Federal Communications Commission to succeed Bowles as head of the OpA. Collet is ex. pected to return to his Missouri Federal judgeship, from which he has been on leave.
 Encourages Employers
 MT. TTuman's wage-price order was designed to encourage employ- CTS to grant wage increases. Thus he hoped to allay industrial unrest Nhlch has hlndered reconverSion and 1dled about 100000 workers in current strikes.
 Tn statement accompanying his order, the President explained that he had hoped that a return to free collective bargaining would spur re- conversion. However, he said, col- lecttve bargaining broke down in many eases and vital production Jagged because of strikes,
 T am now modifying our wage- price policy to permit wage increas- eS within certain limits and to permit any industry placed in a hardship position by an approved increase to seek price adjustments without waiting until the end of a six months test period, as previously required" he said.
 May Stick tO Pattern
 The new policy set these stand ards for the Wage Stabilization Board to approve wage increases as a basis for immediate price re- lief:
 l. Wage adjustments may be
 approved if they are consistent
 with the general pattern of
 wage and salary adjustments es-
 tablished in the industry or lo-
 cal labor market area since
 August IS, l945. That pattern
 generally has been for increases
 of from l6 to % per cent.
 2. Where there is no such
 pattern, raises may be approved
 the ito eliminate gross in-
 equities as between related in-
 dustries, plants or job claSsifi-
 cations" to eliminate substance
 ard wages and to keep wages in
 line with the cost of living.
 The six-month waiting period was eliminated. Employers still may grant unlimited wage boosts without WISE approval if they never intend to ask price relief. Once they put raises into effect without Government approval, however, they forfeit the right ever to use the wage increase to justify higher prices.
 For that reason, some Govern inent officials believed that nearIy all employers would keep the door open for price relief by seeking WSB approval. The exceptions prob- ably would be a relatively small number whose labor costs repre- Sented a small proportion Of total busineSs expense.