Memorandum of Discussions Between Benjamin Fairless, Philip Murray, and John Steelman

Memorandum of Discussions Between Messrs. Fairless, Murray and Steelman At approximately 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 3 Dr. Steelman requested Messrs. Murray and Fairless to meet with him in Mr. Hassett's office for the purpose of an informal discussion of the issues. No one else was present other than the three mentioned. Mr. Fairless expressed disagreement with the Wage Stabiliza- tion Board's recommendations but al so indicated a strong desire to conclude a settlement. In the discussion that followed Mr. Fairless advanced the offer of an hour wage increase and the fringes recommended by the Board effectivie during the year 1952. This excluded the quarter time for Sunday as such effective January 1, 1953 and also excluded the union shop. Mr. Fairless emphasized that his conversation with Mr. Murray and Dr. Steelman was exploratory and was not intended as a negotiation. Mr. Murray said that he understood this and that the discussions could proceed on this basis. Mr. Murray then discussed the question of retroactivity and said that this was an important issue since the men were relying upon the retroactive application of the wage increase as recommended by the Wage Board. Mr. Fairless then indicated that retroactivity was a negotiable matter and that the companies were prepared to do more than the Government would do if the Government put into effect a wage increase. On the wage increase Mr. Fairless then indicated that the industry was opposed to the step ups of each on July 1, 1952 and January 1, 1953 respectively because the industry felt that this represented a recognition of an improve- ment factor of 50 per year. Murray said that the Union did not regard this step up as an improvement factor since it had not asked the Board for one as such but that rather the Union looked upon it as a deferred wage increase. Murray then asked what al ternative Mr. Fairless was ready to consider which, while eliminating the step up, would give the Union the same money pack age as recommended by the Board.