7-17-67

Judge Issues Injunction Prohibiting Uniroyal From Resuming Production

A Superior Court injunction was issued today restraining Uniroyal, Inc., from resuming production at its strike-bound Footwear Plant in Naugatuck.

The order prevents the company from producing samples of its new line of footwear for distribution to potential buyers during the strike.

It enforces an agreement signed by the company and Local 45 of the United Rubber Workes Union April 18, three days before the current strike began. In that agreement the company said it would not perform any work done by bargaining-unit members by non-bargaining units members for the duration of the strike.

Judge Leo V. Gaffney said he was issuing the injunction in an attempt to forestall “acts of violence” by union members should the company be allowed to go into production with non-union help.

“If the company is not restrained from violating (the agreement),” the judge said, “all confidence (in the union) will be lost, its effectiveness as a bargaining unit will be destroyed and its control over its members will be lost, as well as any hope of restraining its members from acts of violence.”

As for the company’s claim that it would lose money through its failure to exhibit new samples to buyers, Judge Gaffney said “compare this with a destroyed bargaining unit which has enjoyed the trust and confidence of its members over a great many years.”

If the order had not been issued, Judge Gaffney said, the result “would necessarily lead to complete disillusionment of the union leadership by its rank and file members and would in-

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deed in the opinion of the court sound the death knell of its effectiveness.”

“Not to be overlooked is the welfare of the 3,500 members (of the union)on strike for 11 weeks, undergoing economic hardships and deprivations and being faced with a potential loss of their security,” the judge said.

“The injunction was requested by the union in June after the company announced that it intended to produce a total of 40,000 pairs of samples using non-union supervisory personnel. The company claimed that if it was not allowed to make the samples it would suffer “grave financial loss.” The union contended that any production would violate the April 18 agreement.