**Date:** 5-3-68
**Source:** Register
—
Fighting breaks out at Maple Street entrance to Uniroyal plant.
21 Held In New Uniroyal Row Company Asks Picketing Curbs
By JAMES FLEMING
Register Staff Reporter
NAUGATUCK — Fighting broke out at the Maple Street plant of Uniroyal for the second time in a row, and 21 employes were arrested Thursday.
It was later learned that Uniroyal will seek a restraining order in Superior Court in Waterbury today in an attempt to limit the union to a maximum of three pickets at each gate.
Brawling began at 6:50 a.m. today when office personnel attempted to cross picket lines. Pickets who had been circling near the entrance massed at the gate when the salaried workers tried to get into the company grounds.
Police struggled with pickets as they attempted to open lanes for the workers, and several fights broke out between the strikers and the police. Seven policemen were needed to subdue one worker, William Battles, 37, of Waterbury, who was charged with breach of peace by assault. He was taken to St. Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury afterward where he was treated and released after complaining of stomach pains.
Lt. George Smith went to St. Mary’s for examination after, told Chief Frank Mariano he had been kicked twice in the groin.
As more office employes arrived, company officials told them to wait on the nearby Naugatuck Green while management and union leaders conferred on allowing them to enter. About 300 employes walked to the Green, about half a block away in small groups.
Tension mounted in front of the plant while small groups of women pickets marched carrying signs hung around their necks and sang improvised songs such as “Go home boys in blue” aimed at the police.
Meanwhile, individual office workers without realizing that the others were waiting on the Green, would try to pass through the gate and would be pushed aside.
One woman screamed at the pickets, “Save your strength; you’ll need it when you go back to work.” Suddenly, the 300 persons on the Green began returning to the plant spontaneously in a massed group and the strikers began yelling as they saw them approaching. Some 25 policemen — half the total force in Naugatuck — rushed into the street between the two groups along with a Uniroyal official and told the office employes to go back to the Green.
The strikers continued to press forward to meet the office workers until the other group went back to the Green.
About half an hour later, the office workers again moved toward the plant and the strikers came toward them. Raymond