Dunlop Outlines Plan For Possible Freeze On Construction Wage

Dean Dunlop, a leading labor economist and chairman of President Nixon's Committee on Construction, met with labor officials in Bel Harbour, Fla., Monday to outline a temporary freeze on wages, prices, and profits being considered by the Administration for the construction industry.

The mere consideration of such drastic action represents an abrupt reversal of Administration policy. Nixon flatly rejected any kind of limitations on prices and wages a few days after coming to office and stuck to this position until he recently became quiet on the subject.

Dunlop, who has served as a labor consultant for every president since Franklin D. Roosevelt '04, has discussed the wage and price spiral during the last month with officials of the 17 national unions which constitute the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO.

A Labor Department spokesman said that Dunlop also met Monday with Secretary of Labor James D. Hodgson and that the two men "explored all the possibilities," including a freeze on wages and prices, in talks on spiralling building costs. Their recommendations were not expected to reach the President before midweek, the spokesman said.

Dunlop declined yesterday to give any specific details of his talks with labor, management, and Goverment officials. He said that any statement would have to come from the Labor Department.

The President gave the construction industry a 30-day deadline to come up with its own proposals for halting the wage and price spiral, but that deadline expires today.

Union officials said Monday that there was a possibility that President Nixon

might extend the deadline by a month. They added, however, that he probably would move to create stabilization machinery by executive order.

George Meany, president of the AFLOIO, acknowledged at a news conference Monday that "there is a problem of construction costs," but added that he would oppose controls placed only on construction industry wages.

Meany said the AFL-OIO would only support wage and price controls that affected all portions of the population fairly.

Some labor officials at the Florida meeting said that Nixon might be considering a freeze on the construction industry as a warning to steel, and other major industries with contract negotiations this year, to reach non-inflationary settlements.

Nixon could freeze wages and prices until the end of March under authority given him by Congress last year. However, the President has criticized last year's legislation, which was supported by organized labor.

Instead, Nixon could turn to the Defense Production Act of 1950 for authority to impose a wage-price freeze.

Dunlop said controls could be imposed either through a general order issued by the President or on a case-by-case basis. He implied Monday that no decision has yet been reached at the White House, adding, "I can't tell you what's going to happen."

The board Dunlop heads is part of a larger group of union, contractor, and government representatives, the Construction Industry Collective Bargaining Commission, which Nixon formed in September of 1969 to help fight inflation in the construction industry.

Patrick Gannon, a director of information in the Labor Department, said yesterday that no further information would be available until after Dunlop meets with Nixon. Dunlop told reporters Monday that he plans to report to Nixon by February 18.