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FAIR
High-85
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Hot, muggy,
nasty
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t
*Wednesday, August 18, 1971
Ann Arbor, Michigan
News none: tbL-U L
Workers warned
against strikes
in freeze period
By The Associated Press
The Nixon administration asked all striking workers
yesterday to go back to work during the 90-day wage-price
freeze, and asked organized labor not to start any new
strikes during the period.
4 Leaders of several unions strongly objected to Nixon's
wage and prize freeze, saying it favors business over the
workers.
The chief federal labor mediator, J. Curtis Counts, an-
nounced the policy, saying that, "I am requesting that the
labor and management leaderships cooperate by termina-
,tion stoppages and returning to the begaining table during
the period of the wage-price freezes."
Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said yesterday
the balance-of-payments deficit dropped to an all-time
low in the second quarter of the year. Production in the
nation's factories fell more sharply in July than in any
other month since last November.
Steel manufacturers postponed price increases on steel
products, and both General Motors, Co. and Ford Motor
Co. announced they would offer 1972 cars at 1971 prices.
Rent increases were stopped and prices of utilities
were fixed as well.
Although federal officials have encouraged labor and
4 management to continue negotiations on money issues
which could become effective after the freeze, some nego-
tiators called off talks or put them into low gear.
"How can you negotiate a wage increase when you
can't negotiate a wage increase," said Jack Hogan, vice
president of a longshoreman's local in San Francisco.
Spokesmen on both sides of the contract talks said the
, President's actions would slow down efforts to settle the
seven-week longshoreman's strike tying up West Coast
ports.
The price freeze has done little to calm many labor
leaders who felt Nixon's action hit the working man hard-
est.
AFL-CIO president George Meany said the p 1 a n fav-
ors industry and is "patently discriminatory as far as
American workers are concerned."
Leonard Sprague, business manager for Local 222 of
the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in
Massachusetts, warned:
"If the freeze means we are not going to get a wage
increase until the end of the 90-days, then we're going to
Praise hell."
And in Minnesota, Myra Wolfgang, international vice
president of the Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union, said
her members would ignore the President's Freeze.
See LABOR, Page 6
PRESIDENT NIXON CHATS with Terence Cardinal Cooke in New York last night before address-
ing a meeting of the Knights of Columbus at the Waldorf Astoria hotel. The President appealed
for public support for his new economic policies, presenting them as the road to rebirth of the
American heritage of hard work and success. "It's easy to sit back and criticize," Nixon said. "It's
hard to make the sacrifices, do the work, make the extra effort that makes the difference between
a nation on the' way down and a nation on the way up,"
OEP: Swamped after
Nixon freeze decision
WASHINGTON ( 0- O n
specifics of the most personal
economic question of the day -
how does President Nixon's
wage-price-rent freeze affect
me and my business - the gov-
ernment is totally confused,
"I'm sure there have been a
lot of incorrect answers given
out," says a spokesman for the
Office of Emergency Prepared-
ness, which is charged w it h
giving out the answers.
In fact, the OEP has q u it
responding to specific que s-
tions, "Obvious answers should
be given," says the OEP spokes-
man, Dave Pattison, "but we've
gotten far beyond that."
Reporters tapping knowledge-
able sources, have gotten con-
flicting information. The Trea-
sury Department will answer a
question one way. The Depart-
Dollar stays afloat in European
money pool; trade war threatens,
ment of Housing and Urban
Development will answer it the
opposite way.
"We are trying to develop
guidelines," Pattison said. "We
won't have anything in g r e a t
detail until the end of t h e
week. We are trying to inter-
pret the questions implicit in
the President's executive order.
We cannot give specific an-
swers to specific questions until
the policy council decides."
Nixon set down the basic rules
for freezing prices, wages and
rents of America's 207,830,f696
people with 161 words and a
stroke of his pen. He also es-
tablished a Cost of Living Coun-
cil composed of- top department
heads who don't get on the
phone to answer the lady in Os-
awatomie, Kan.
That chore, the President de-
legated to OEP, a friendly little
agency that in the givernment
colossus of 2.8 million em-
ployes ranks as an earwig to a
hippopotamus. Its 402 employes
in Washington and across the
country put OEP on a par with
the American Battle Monu-
ments Commission which h as
two fewer,
This, then, is the agency
struggling to answer questions
such as the one from a soft-
drink bottler who had a sale in
July's heat and wants to know
whether he can go back up to
a dime a bottle.
Or, whether the future cost
of living increases built into
wage contracts or provided by
management a r e exempt. On
that one,wthe answerpis no.
Or, how do you price new
products? You charge w h a t
your competitor charges. Or,
how does one apply for relief.
Guidelines, soon.
The OEP is used to helping
hurricane victims or plotting
how to get government togeth-
er after some other country
blows away two, four, or a doz-
en cities with nuclear bombs.
But in the area of President
Nixon's wage-price-rent freeze,
the OEP would be better nam-
ed the Office of Emergency
Unpreparedness.
"There are a hundred thous-
and gray areas," says Pattison
who handles congressional and
public affairs for OEP. "We are
obviously not all lawyers."
The agency has eight re-
gional offices in such places as
Maynard, Mass., Olney, Md.,
Denton, Tex. and Bothell,
Wash. It is now working w i t h
the General Services Adminis-
tration to put in offices in Bos-
ton, New York, Philadelphia,
Atlanta, Chicago, Kansas City,
Denver, Dallas, San Francisco
and Seattle.
Meanwhile the Cost of Liv-
ing Council is meeting to stamp
out guidelines, which are to be
passed to the OEP's command
center for distribution.
People lucky enough to get
in on one of the 20 lines
might get answers if they're
lucky enough to have a prob-
lem that's been resolved
Most calls so far, says time
OEP, have been from trade as-
sociations, the press, congress-
men, labor and business repre-
sentatives.
The number, in case anyone
cares to try, is 202-395581.
And good luck.
Congressional
leaders assure,
Nixon on plan
WASHINGTON W) - Presi-
dent Nixon got assurances yes-
terday from congressional lead-
ers that they will move swiftly
to consider his proposals to
curb inflation and stimulate
the economy, the White House
reported.
Press secretary Ronald L.
Ziegler, reporting to newsmen
on a two hour and 15 minute
meeting between the President
and k-y congressional members
of both parties, described i t s
tone as positive and coopera-
tive.
Talking separately with news-
men, Rep. John W. Burns of
Wisconsin, senior Republican
member of the .W a y s and
Means Committee, said he ex-
pects the panel to conclude the
hearings in about 10 days and
move immediately toward shap-
ing the legislation.
Ziegler said Senate D e m o-
cratic Leader Mike Mansfield
of Montana promised prompt
action in the Senate.
By The Associated Press
Swiss banks cautiously floated the U.S. dol-
lar yesterday for the first time since President
Nixon severed its link with gold, and the Amer-
ican currency stood this first big test well.
Hardly a ripple resulted, despite the battering
the dollar has taken on international money
markets in recent weeks. The dollar sank only
about 1 % per cent on the Swiss market.
Nearly everywhere else foreign enchanges re-
mained closed but banks and tourist agencies
continued to satisfy the needs of tourists -
within limits. But American tourists had to pay
a premium in dollars to purchase foreign cur-
rency in most countries.
4 The Swiss National Bank authorized commer-
cial institutions to start unlimited trading in
the dollar but said it would not intervene to
steady the rate.
This meant the dollar was afloat in the open
market at the mercy of the forces of supply and
demand - worth only what people were willing
Ito pay for it.
Bank officials said trading was limited because
of continuing uncertainty over the future of ,the
international monetary system,
The dollar was quoted as high as 4.05 Swiss
franks but later declined to 4.00. This amounted
to a decline of just over 1 %/ per cent in the
value of the dollar from Friday's level, when
the American money was still being defended
by the Swiss National Bank.
West European governments, meanwhile, stud-
ied ways of defending their economies from the
threat of trade and monetary conflict between
the United States and Japan, a clash that many
Europeans feel would leave them in the middle.
The 12-man monetary committee of the Euro-
pean Common Market met in Brussels to study
the implications of Nixon's action Sunday in
cutting the ties with gold and imposing a 10
per cent surtax on a wide range of imported
foreign goods.
The trade war threat appeared to be forcing
the Common Market countries to draw closer to-
gether in the monetary field.
After the committee meeting, an Italian dele-
gate told newsmen: "It's a moment to do some-
thing for Europe, not just for our individual
countries."
"The six of us must get together - and the
seven too," said Pietro Micone, director-general
of the Italian treasury. He was referring to Brit-
ain who wants to join the Common Market.
The six appeared to be moving toward firmer
links between their own currencies while allowing
them to float jointly in relation to the dollar and
other money. This would lessen the impact of a
cheaper dollar.
See SWISS, Page 6