THERE'S NOT much to see or do in downtown Detroit. There is no theater to speak of, little music and less art. But what Detroit lacks in culture, it makes up for in cars.

None of the 100 bus routes in the Department of street Railways (DSR) system runs in a straight line. It is said by some that a cartographer would need about an hour to map a bus route to the city from a starting point ten miles away. So if you live ten miles away from your job, you either take five buses to work, or you buy a car.

The Detroit metropolitan area is an economic dependent of the automobile industry. In fact, Highland Park and Hamtramck, the two small cities that sit in the center of Detroit, have only one industry--Chrysler.

In 1970, the UAW struck against the General Motors Corporation for 67 days, paralyzing production of Chevrolets, Buicks. Oldsmobiles and Cadillacs, and shifting the Motor City into low gear. That strike was not of record breaking length.

But the duration of last week's walkout against the Chrysler Corporation, the baby of the Big Three auto manufacturers, did challenge the record books: It was the shortest in UAW history. In comparison to past UAW actions, the cost of the shut-down to Chrysler was inconsequential.

The strike--the first nation-wide shutdown of Chrysler plants since 1950--ran up a daily cost to the corporation of about 7400 cars and 1100 trucks in lost production for the ten days of picketing. The price was still low, however, compared to the production toll taken by the 1970 strike against G.M., the giant of the Big Three auto companies.

Chrysler, albeit the baby of the three auto makers, is the largest employer and largest taxpayer in the Detroit metropolitian area. Of the 127,500 UAW-represented Chrysler workers throughout the U.S. and Canada, 95,000 work in the Detroit metropolitain area.

The strike had an indirect impact on the large percentage of Detroit's working population that is employed in jobs directly related to auto production. When the strike began September 14, Chrysler directed its suppliers to curb shipments of steel, tires and parts. As a result, the Budd Company, a Detroit-based supplier, laid off 250 of its 2500 employees.

But in general, last week's strike was expensive for the UAW. The shutdown reportedly cost the UAW about $5 million a day in strike benefits alone. The UAW gives each striking employee $30 to $40 a week, based on the striker's number of dependents.

The UAW decision to strike against Chrysler when contracts with all three manufacturers came up for renewal this year was no coincedence. In a record-breaking year of Chrysler sales, the corporation's employees had conducted several wildcat strikes to protest working conditions. The cited poor ventilation, oily floors, excessive heat and dangerously faulty equipment.

As usual under compulsory overtime, record sales meant employees worked nine hours a day, six days a week, and it was not unusual for some to work twelve hours a day, seven days a week. The Chrysler management held to its traditional prerogative to require extra working hours from employees to meet the demands of production.

The workers were essentially aiming for improved working conditions and fringe benefits. The financial side of the coin was secondary. UAW officials hailed the new contract, tentatively initiated with Chrysler on September 17, as the most far-reaching ever negotiated by the union. But although the union's rank-and-file members ratified the settlement this weekend and returned to their stations on the assembly lines Monday, not all is peaches and cream.

DIFFERENCES over the relative importance of the two major issues polarized the younger assembly line workers and their older colleagues. The senior employees wanted "30 and out," eligibility for full pension benefits after 30 years of service, regardless of age, and an increase over the current size of pension benefits. They got both.

For the younger workers, the prime issue was non-compulsory overtime. The new contract handed them only a very limited victory--assurances that they would not be forced to work twelve hours a day, seven days a week.

The overtime compromise stipulates that workers will not be required to work more than nine hours a day six days a week; they cannot be forced to work Sunday; and they will be entitled to every third Saturday off if they tell their supervisor of their intentions on the previous Monday. So the issue of truly voluntary overtime remains a big one within the UAW ranks.