72–1

Conversation No. 72-1

Date: September 10, 1971
Time: 10:13 am - unknown before 12:39 pm
Location: Cabinet Room

The President met with I[lorwith] W. Abel, Joseph A. Beirne, John H. (“Jack”) Lyons, George
Meany, Leonard Woodcock, Frank E. Fitzsimmons, [Joseph] Lane Kirkland, John B. Connally,
James D. Hodgson, George P. Shultz, Arthur F. Burns, Paul W. McCracken, and Willie J. Usery,
Jr.; Ronald L. Ziegler and photographers were present at the beginning of the meeting

[General conversation/Unintelligible]

Program

The economy
-Phase I, forthcoming Phase II
-Herbert Stein’s group
-Objectives
-Meetings
-Formal consultation
-Congress
-Workable solutions
-Form, extent, duration of Phase II
-The President’s role
-Development of follow-up program
-90-day freeze
-Consultations
-Schedule and time span
-Business group
-Agriculture group
-Congressional group
-Consumer groups
-Cost of Living Council
-Deadline
-Span
-General consultations
-Ideas
-Cooperation necessary
-Government sanctions
-Freeze
-Preferable program
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Necessity of consultation
-Effectiveness of present meeting
-Notes of meetings
-Labor views
-Business views
-Public view of freeze
-Labor leaders’ view
-Suddenness of freeze imposition
-Effect on prices
-Board or councils
-Rules and regulations
-Future policy
-Announcement of future action
-Wage price controls
-Permanent versus temporary imposition
-Free collective bargaining
-Free market system
-Flexibility of policy
-Voluntary compliance
-Minimum government compulsion
-Informal consultations
-Standards
-Government sanctions and controls
-Present situation
-Opposition of wage-price control
-Exceptions to action
-Government sanctions
-Effectiveness of voluntary action
-Examples
-Steel company
-Price raise and government action
-Construction
-Davis-Bacon Act
-Stockpiles
-Jawboning
-Labor and business leaders
-Wage-price controls
-Bargaining
-Economic patterns and areas
-Voluntary action
-Free market
-Freeze
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-War Labor Board example
-Duration
-Policies
-Labor
-Management
-The President’s role
-Pledge
-Labor
-History of War Labor Board
-Voting
-Unanimity
-December 1941
-National Defense Mediation Board [NDMB]
-Pearl Harbor attack
-US reaction
-Franklin D. Roosevelt
-Frances Perkins
-Labor and management
-Will Davis
-Vice Chairman, NDMB
-Moderator of meeting with Elbert D.
Thomas of Utah
-Meeting in Federal Reserve building
-Burns
-Rules and regulations
-Letter to Roosevelt
-Subjects
-No strikes, lockouts during the
war
-Settlement of disputes by agency
-Roosevelt’s role in issuing
executive order
-Roosevelt’s response
-War Labor Board
-12 members
-Presence of government
officials
-Fringe benefits
-Effect on inflation
-Decisions with voluntary method
-Comparison with controls
-Views of industry and labor
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Present economic situation
-Phases I and II
-The President speech, September 9, 1971
-Limits of Phase I
-Follow-up
-Government control
-Sanctions
-Need for discussion
-Price control
-Internal Revenue Service [IRS]
-New York City
-Extent of price control
-Success of voluntary methods
-Labor’s cooperation with the President
-Control of business and labor
-Increase of productivity
-Interest rates
-Effect on inflation
-Equitable nature of possible action
-Deferred wage increases
-Legal contract
-Binding nature
-Public interest
-Money supply
-Inflation
-Amount of products versus money
-Voluntary controls versus government controls
-Strikes
-History
-Effect of wartime situation
-1941
-Cessation of strikes
-Korean war period
-Guidelines
-Handling of strike issues
-World War II
-Wage and price control
-IRS
-Employees
-The public’s view
-Cooperation of construction industry
-Trade
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Management’s view of the future
-West Coast strike
-Employees, operators
-Issues
-Independent contractors
-California
-Phase II
-Situation
-Machinery involved in freeze
-Inequities
-Duration of freeze
-Public acceptance
-Comparison with end of World War II
-Phase II
-Christmas 1971
-Construction industry stabilization program
-Lyons
-Stability of program
-Executive order
-Effect of wording
-Relief of inequities
-Production of inequities
-Labor management group
-Voluntary nature
-Labor Department building
-Wage Stabilization Board
-Court orders
-World War II programs
-War Labor Board
-Owensboro, Kentucky plant
-Wages paid employees
-Flexibility
-Establishment of Wage Stabilization Board
-James F. Byrnes
-1972
-Forthcoming wage settlements
-Automobile workers, steelworkers, railroads, coal industry workers,
longshoremen
-Airline employees and aerospace workers
-Oil workers
-Tripartite nature of action
-Voluntary cooperation
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Cost of living protection
-Cap
-Automobile prices
-Hodgson, Shultz
-Edward N. Cole’s speech in Philadelphia
-General Motors
-1945-65
-Productivity, labor costs
-Automobile price increases
-Wage price increases
-Contracts
-Ground rules post-November 14, 1971
-Personal savings
-Handling by the public
-Contracts
-Initial versus successive years
-Price guides
-”Meet the Press”
-Phase I
-Contracts
-Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service [FMCS]
-Government sponsorship
-Phases I and II
-Enforcement machinery
-Price review board
-McCracken’s comments
-Productivity
-Prices, wages
-Organizational structure or form
-Tripartite board
-Status of automobile industry
-Wages versus productivity
-Post-November 1971 phase
-Steelworkers
-Cleanup operation
-Grievances
-Steel
-Recent negotiations
-Court
-Freeze
-1946
-Philip Murray
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Strikes
-Editorial in Life magazine
-[Forename unknown] Berle
-Steel industry
-Wage and price increases
-Inequities
-1968 agreement
-Productivity improvements
-Arbitration
-Will Sinton [?]
-Steelworker benefits
-Effect of Phase I and II action
-Productivity goals
-Railroad development
-Archaic work rules
-Wage-price freeze
-Duration
-Phase II
-Examples in Washington, DC
-Printing industry
-Washington Post labor action
-Voluntary and tripartite approach
-World War I
-Preordained formula
-Congress
-Executive order
-Guidelines
-Bureaucracy
-Non-organized industries
-World War II examples
-Wages, salaries, executive compensation
-Prices
-The President’s August 15, 1971 speech
-Policing by consumers
-Executive order
-Interests of different groups
-Universities
-[Forename unknown] Davies [?]
-George Taylor Martin [?]
-James P. Mitchell’s tenure as Labor Secretary
-[Walter W.?] Heller
-Effect of guidelines set
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Bureau of Labor Statistics
-Contracts
-Cost of living
-Executive order
-Difference between formula and objective
-Present objectives
-Moderation of inflation
-Control of wages, salaries, compensation
-World War I
-World War II effects
-Korea effects
-Effects of set formulas
-Cost of living increases
-Airlines, machinists
-Missile Sites Labor Commission
-The administration’s instructions to public members
-Construction of stabilization machinery
-Executive order
-Deferred increases
-Commission’s role
-Contractors
-Renegotiations
-Kansas City settlement
-Connecticut
-Meany
-Trade unions
-Clause in the President’s executive order
-Deferred wages
-Commission’s authority
-Situation
-Abel
-Woodcock
-Consumers
-Renegotiation clauses
-Freeze
-Cost of living increases
-Management
-Establishment of price and rate structure
-Wage increases
-Price levels
-Industry
-Effect of contracts
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Non-organized workers
-Low paid industries
-Grievances
-Company unions
-The South
-Freeze
-Results
-Wage settlement
-World War I
-Phase II
-Length of time
-1971
-Projected working of program
-Public acceptance
-High prices
-Inflation
-Relation to reality
-Productivity
-Salaries
-Unions and stable prices
-Free market, collective bargaining
-Shultz
-Howard W. Johnson
-Automobile industry
-James M. Roche
-Meany
-Issues with automobile industry
-Automobile as utility
-Regulation
-Controls
-World War I
-Wage stabilization
-Korea
-Freezing of wages and prices
-Voluntary moves
-Free enterprise
-Deferred wage issue
-Industry
-Price increases
-Anticipated wage increases
-Need of cooperation
-Equitable and voluntary system
 10

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Wages and salaries
-Interest rates
-Capital Controls Act
-Treasury Bills
-Three-year notes
-Decrease
-Controls
-Need to decrease interest
-Prices, rents, interest
-Interest rates
-Burns
-Controls
-Banking analogy
-Government controls
-Extent
-Permanent system
-Voluntary controls
-US wage and price control system
-US public’s view
-Wage and price controls
-World War II era Office of Price Administration [OPA]
-Rising cost of living since 1969
-Effects
-Majority consensus for wage and price controls
-Economy’s future
-Public demand
-Effect of election on public
-Congress’s view
-Actions on majority view
-Control’s effects
-Accomplishment of result
-Convincing public of results from action taken
-Voluntary cooperation
-Labor
-Business
-Pacesetters
-Major businesses and labor
-Time table
-Submission of views of group
-October 1
-November 13, 1971 expiration date
-Phase II
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Guideline
-Mechanism for handling control
-Government board
-Ordinances
-Consultation
-Labor, business, Congress
-Implementation of Phase II
-Announcement
-Need for time lag for preparation

[General conversation/Unintelligible]

The President left at 12:12 pm; Abel, et al. left at an unknown time before 12:39 pm