Word: pensionable
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Henry Ford II got an eye-opening, if dispiriting lesson in labor relations. Three months ago, he had agreed to U.A.W.-C.I.O. demands for a pension plan that would cost the Ford Motor Co. around $200 million (TIME, July 7). Young Henry's plan was as revolutionary as his grandfather's $5-a-day wage was in 1914. The U.A.W., which had threatened to strike if it did not get the plan, apparently agreed. It loudly proclaimed that the joint U.A.W.-Ford pension plan would be a pattern for all other automakers to follow. But last week...
...elections Ford workers had two choices: 1) 7?-an-hour increase plus the pension which C.I.O. actuaries estimated would amount to a "real" raise of 22? an hour, or 2) a straight 15?-an-hour average increase without the pension...
...only a hope. The pension plan seemed doomed, and partly it was because of union politics. U.A.W. President Walter Reuther, an old enemy of Leonard's, was naturally jealous of the prestige which a pension plan might give his rival. So his henchmen, according to union gossip, quietly urged the plan's defeat. In this, they found themselves working with their arch enemies, the Communists. As long as they thought that Young Henry would not agree to pension, the Communists (who dominate Local 600) were for them. When Ford agreed to them, they turned against the whole business...
Both they and the Reutherites argued that the plan was inadequate; the Ford company could discontinue it in two years if it wished, though anyone pensioned in that time would continue to get his pension for life. (The Ford company said the two-year limit was set only so that it could make any changes found necessary after the plan was operating. It had no intention of dropping it in the future...
...first started here. But here I am. The young fellows think they'll go on to better things. But things like debt and family illness can stick you like it did me. Twenty years from now, most of them will still be here and wishing they had the pension...