Evening star., 1951-09-01
|Kenneeott Agreement
Seen Paving Wayior
End Of Copper Strike
BY +hs As.oeioi.d Pres.

Settlement Of the strike at Ken
necott Copper Corp, producer of
35 per cent of the Nations cooper,
may have paved the way for an
early end Of the Nationwide
shutdown which threatened to
slow up the defense program.
= Kennecott and union leaders
reached an agreement yesterday
after President Truman called for
Federal action to end the strike
Negotiations behind the scenes
were started at once with the
three other major producers
There were hopeful signs that by
Monday. at least, settlements
would follow at the far-f1ung op-
erations Of Phelps-Dodge Corp.
American Smelling & Refining
Co.. and Anaconda Copper Co.
The latter probably will seek a
price increase if it bows to the Is
cent package" wage raise granted
by Kennecott to its more than g.
900 workers in Utah, Nevada and
New Mexico. Kennecott had agreed
earlier to set up pension system
which it estimated would add an
other Az cents to the cost of the
raise. ~
May Seek Price Rise.
Kennecott indicated it would
not go after price rise. But if
Anaconda, which has much high
er-cost mining operations below
the surface in Montana, gets an
increase from the Office of Price
Sterilization, the other firms may
follow suit.
While the secret bargaining
talks with the Independent Mine
Mill and Smelters Workers Union
and the AFL and railroad unions
involved went on without fanfare.
the Presidents board Of inquiry
continued checking into the facts
in the dispute seasi
AS soon as the board reports on
those facts. the President may ask
Attorney General : McGrath to
seek a court injunction to force
the balance of the $4,000 idle
workers to return to the lead, zinc
and copper workings.
Kennecott employees. after vot-
ing on whether to accept the Is
cent settlement, were expected to
be back at work in force by Tues
day.
Union Approves Package.
At his Denver headquarters
President John Clark of the Mine
Mill and Smelter Workers Union
said last night the package" offer
had been approved by a majority
of the % members of the unions
National Wage Policy Committee
President Truman cannot. under
the Taft-Hartley Act, which he
invoked Thursday night, seek ar
injunction until the Board of In
Iquiry has completed its study. He
gave the board until Tuesday to
do that.
The board. after hearing from
defense agencies last night on the
cost to the mobilization program
in ores and by-products of the
critical strike-bound industry
opens hearings this morning.
The 15-cent hourly increase by
Kennecott includes an 8-cent
wage boost to all workers and
another 7 cents broken up in job
reclassification. Probably most OF
the 7 cents will go to the craft
unions of experienced workers.
Increase Retroactive.
The laborer at Kennecott now
gets $11.05 a day. His new rate
would be $1169.
Top pay under the new wage
agreement would go to the elec-
trio shovel operator, who will gel
$16.49 a day.
The pay hike is retroactive to
July /, when the old contract ex-
pired. The new one is for one
year. but allows an opening on
wages next January /.
American Smelter g. Refining
Co., which has 13 operations shut
down by the present strike. was
hit in July by another walkout
of 5.400 CIO-steelworkers at its
Garfield, Utah, plants. That
strike was called off August 2 at
the request of the Wage Stabiliza-
ton Board.
The board. which will hold
hearings here next Tuesday in
that case, appeared likely to pro-
pose the same 15-cent settlement
which the other unions made
with Kennecott.