Evening star., 1948-04-17

While two-thirds of the miners
were back at work, the others were
reported waiting to see what the
Federal court does about John L.
Lewis"
Mr.. Lewis will learn Monday the
decision of District Court Justice T.
Alan Goldsborough in his contempt
of court case tried this week. The
contempt charge grew out Of the
failure of the UNIV chief to end
the coal walkout in accordance with
court order. If he is found guilty,
Mr.. Lewis faces possible Jail SEN
tence and fines. In a similar con-
tempt case in 1916 Justice Colds
borough fined Mr.. Lewis $4,000 and
the UNIV $3,500,OOO. The union
eventually paid 100000 penalty.
The General Motors announce
ment brought an immediate state
ment from Walter P. Reuther, CIO
United Auto Workers president, in
which he said:
"It seems to us highly credible
that the announced layoff may be
more closely related to collective
bargaining negotiations now in
progress than to an alleged short
age of steel"
Reuther Hits Shutdown.
Mr.. Reuther said GIN representa-
tives during the last week had re-
fused a National Labor Relations
Board request for five-day notice
of shutdowns, so that union secur-
ity elections could be scheduled
when most employees were at work.
The General Motors announce
ment said the car assembly plants
will continue in operation as long
as material permits"
Regardless of whether the final
assembly plants continue through
next week, the suspension of foun-
dry and machine shop operations
eventually will cut into car and
truck assemblies.
Wards Automotiye Reports, esti-
mating the production of cars and
trucks in the United States and
Canada this week at 104,740 units,
against 100000 LAST week, said today
the industry seems determined to
continue producing cars until
stocks of steel are depleted and then
close down.,
+ It added that a number of car
factories may have to close for from
one to two weeks to rebuild their
iron and steel inventories.
Full Supplies Awaited.
Throughout the country, steel
companies and railroads hesitated
I'd recall 125,060 to 10000 workers
until they feel assured that coal
mining will be resumed in full and
that supplies will be adequate.
One exception occurred at AL
toona, Pa, where the Pennsylvania
Railroad announced the recall of
1000 car shop workers, effective
Monday.
The coal-steel situation has not
affected Ford seriously because most
of its assembly lines have been idle
for 1949 model change overs.
Chrysler Corp, other member of
the car industry's Big Three" re-
ported today that it hoped to be
able to continue production"
So far this month the automobile
plants have produced about 235, 900
cars and trucks. But for the i'm
pending GIN shutdowns the April
total probably would have reached
5000. Right now industry sources
look for sharp decline in output
during the final 10 days of the month
and an even poorer showing in May.
Negotiations Getting Tough"
Aside from mounting uncertain
ties about raw materials, the car
makers have begun to worry about
the labor outlook.
The effects of the coal tieup can
not be avoided They will be felt
in the car industry many weeks
from now in smaller finished steel
receipts. Equally disturbing are re-
ports that contract negotiations now
under way between the car makers
and their production workers are
beginning to get tough"
Thus the industry faces problems
in many ways similar to those of
last year.
Three months ago most industry
sources were sure there would be no
major work stoppages this year that
would affect their production pro-
grams. They already have seen one
in the coal mining suspension. There
have been numerous minor stop
pages within the assembly plants
that have forced shutdowns for from
few hours to several days.
All these have affected car and
truck production schedules and few,
if any, industry sources now Will
say further work stoppages in their
own plants or among their sup
pliers are improbable.
It has been said in some industry
quarters that the assembly plants
now are operating at close to a pre-
war normal and that the present
output level would turn out more
than 100000 vehicles this year
But there is only remote chance
the average output of the years
first quarter can be maintained
through the remainder of 194S.
A sizeable volume of output dur
ing the April-May-June quarter has
been lost by the Ford shutdown Tor
model change overs. Ford will get
some production on the new models
this month but the overall loss re-
sulting from the retooling shutdown
will run close to 80, 900 Ford vehicles.
Ford apparently does not expect to
make up much of this loss when the
assembly lines begin rolling again
Henry Ford II said this week that
original 1948 schedules had been re-
duced to some extent" because OF
the uncertain steel outlook.
Most industry sources say output
for May will be lower than that for
April. The return of Ford to volume
production in June may furnish the
impetus needed for half-m million
unit month, but more finished steel
than now is in sight will be needed.
There are indications the export
market will take fewer American
made passenger cars this year. More
than 26o 900 cars and nearly as many