A 37 percent wage hike, albeit with loss of the cost-of-living clause won in 1974.

The company broke from an industry-wide bargaining group, which had agreed to an 8.5 percent wage hike over three years.

Its members struck after Hormel imposed a 23 percent wage cut that officials said was necessary to remain competitive.

Prices have risen far more than the 10 percent wage increase the Government allowed in a recent pact with labor and business.

He said he would save another $70 million by imposing a 10 percent wage cut on city workers.

Many teachers, she said, complain that the furlough would essentially nullify the 5.5 percent wage increase the union won in October.

Gus Bevona, the union's president, is demanding a 3.8 percent wage increase a year for workers over the next three years.

Only months after agreeing to give the machinists the industry's most generous contracts, executives are asking for a 10 percent wage cut starting Sept. 1.

As an example, he cited the controversial 5.5 percent wage increase teachers won in negotiations with him.

In negotiating sessions since the strike began, however, the company has offered a 3 percent wage hike effective April 1, 1991, and additional bonuses.