Telegram to Labor and Management Leaders Urging a Just Settlement in the General Motors Negotiations.

Topics:  General Motors

President John F. Kennedy
5 September 1961

I WISH to emphasize to you, the parties participating in the automobile negotiations, the high degree of responsibility you bear to the country to achieve a settlement before the deadline. While the hour is late, I am confident that you can, by exercising industrial statesmanship, achieve a settlement which is fair and reasonable to both shareholders and workers and which preserves. price stability in the industry.

I urge that in the hours that remain before the deadline, you, the representatives of the General Motors Corporation and the UAW make an all out effort to achieve a just settlement. Our country at this juncture in our affairs can ill afford a shutdown in this important segment of our economy.

JOHN F. KENNEDY

Note: This is the text of identical telegrams addressed to Louis Seaton, Vice President, General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich., and Walter P. Reuther, President, United Automobile, Aircraft and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, Detroit, Mich.