BOTH SIDES of the negotiating parties have come here to the White House studio with me tonight to report that they have now reached agreement on the terms of a settlement of the airline strike.
The agreement that was reached just a few moments ago in the Executive Office Building between the five airlines and the International Association of Machinists is essentially within the general framework of the Presidential emergency board recommendations as submitted by Chairman Morse, Mr. Ginsburg, and Mr. Neustadt, who were members of that Board.
Obtaining a settlement within this framework has been the objective of this administration ever since the board made its report to me.
The fact that productivity has advanced so rapidly in the airline industry means, according to all the participants in this strike, that this settlement that has been reached will not be inflationary.
Unit labor costs in the air transportation industry will continue to decline, thus assuring that this settlement will not contribute to any increase in the prices the public pays.
The details of this arrangement, which has just been agreed upon a few moments ago, will now be prepared and presented to--and we expect thoroughly discussed by--the members of this union scattered throughout the United States in order that they might act upon the recommendations of their leaders this Sunday.
As soon as the membership votes upon the matter, the full details of their vote and the settlement will be announced.
We are very pleased that these gentlemen have produced an agreement. [At this point the President introduced William J. Curtin, chief negotiator for the airlines, and P. L. Siemiller, president of the International Association of Machinists. The President then concluded his remarks.]
Thank you, gentlemen.
Good evening, and God bless you all.
Note: The President spoke at 9:52 p.m. in the Theater at the White House. His remarks were broadcast nationally.
During his remarks the President referred to Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon, Professor Richard Neustadt of Harvard University, and David Ginsburg, a Washington attorney, who made up the three-member emergency board to investigate the airlines dispute. For his remarks upon receiving the board's report on its findings, see Item 256.
The agreement offered union members wages and other benefits costing 72 cents an hour to be accrued over a 3-year period. The proposal was rejected by the machinists on Sunday, July 31, 1966, on the grounds that it did not include company-paid pensions and a cost-of-living escalator clause and that the effective date for fringe benefits was not satisfactory. Further negotiations resulted in the ratification on August 19, 1966, of a 3-year contract which allowed the union the gains of the cost-of-living clause and an earlier effective date for the fringe benefits.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks on Announcing an Agreement in the Airline Strike. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238256
