Steel Executive, Union Man Mull Issues of Strike

"The steel union ended all chances of settlement by insisting on a non-contributory benefit program," Edward Myers of the United states Steel Corporation said last night in an HLU-sponsored debate with Kenneth Glynn of the United Steel Workers Union.

Myers, addressing a Brooks House audience composed mainly of Business School students and Steel Union members, pointed out that his company has agreed to lay out ten cents per hour for an old age and insurance benefit program as requested by the Presidential Fact-Finding Board, but only on the condition that the workers also contributed to the program.

Workers Would Submit

Glynn explained that the workers had originally demanded a 23-cent security program, but that they had agreed to submit to the findings of the Board.

"The Company has forced the workers to strike by not submitting to the decision of the Board," he said.

There was a dispute over figures as Myers countered by saying that three out of every four security programs instituted in the past years were on the dual-contribution basis. Glynn pointed out that only the small companies used this program and when numbers of workers involved is considered, the percentages are reversed.

Meyers ended the discussion by telling how a Union friend of his approached him during the Fact-Finding Board proceedings and said the Union was going to get Bloody Mary from the show "South Pacific" to mount the stand and recite the most famous line in the play, "You cheap bastards!"