INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH

This may be the first you’ve heard of the Industrial Policy Study Group, but it probably won’t be the last. For nine months, a bipartisan group of 19 business, labor, education and government leaders has been working to formulate policies on United States industry. This month, they should finish.

The study group was formed by three of the country’s leaders on industrial issues: Felix Rohatyn, father of the MAC revitalization program for New York City; Lane Kirkland, president of the AFL-CIO; and Irving Shapiro, a retired chairman of DuPont Corp. The three men tapped 16 other opinion leaders for the project, including Sens. Edward Kennedy and Bill Bradley, retired Secretary of the Treasury Mike Blumenthal, Chrysler head Lee Iacocca, and former Secretary of Defense Bob McNamara. The only member from the Southwest is Dallas’ Mort Myerson. president of Electronic Data Systems.

According to Myerson, there are “10,000” governmental branches working on industrial issues through tax legislation, trade tariffs and labor relations, but there isn’t a consistent policy.

Rohatyn, who says the idea for the study group came from Cyrus Vance’s Center for National Policy, says the report will be given to Congress, the President and various labor leaders. The three major points addressed in the study are the formation of a congressionally approved forum with representatives from business, labor and government; a development bank, which would provide credit assistance with loan guarantees matched by private funds; and a research and development team, which would retrain workers displaced by technology and conduct research in areas where individual companies may fall short. He says it’s important to stress what the report is not-“a giant government body imposing their will on the people.”