94-Day UniRoyal Strike Continues

7-24-67 [handwritten]

No break has yet been reported in the 94-day United Rubber Workers-UniRoyal strike. According to sources an all-day session was held yesterday in Cincinnati with small committees meeting through the night.

URW International President Peter Bommarito moved into talks Friday between the union and the two remaining rubber companies, UniRoyal and Goodyear.

Hope ran high Friday in the borough that a settlement would be reached sometime during the day. However, another weekend has past and the mood has returned to the passive waiting of previous weeks.

Vacation pay checks are scheduled to be distributed tomorrow and Wednesday to employes of the Footwear Plant. Many workers have planned vacations for the next two weeks, settlement or not. Other employes have been waiting for these checks to give their finances a boost.

Chemical and Synthetic plant workers have been scheduling their vacations at various times during the strike. These plants do not have a general shutdown as does the footwear plant.

AKRON, Ohio (UPI)—United Rubber Worker locals in Akron and Miami, Okla., voted Sunday to accept a new contract from the B. F. Goodrich Co., bringing the 94-day strike, longest in rubber industry history, closer to an end.

The process of ratification continued at Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., and General Tire & Rubber Co. during the weekend. Negotiations with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and UniRoyal Inc., did not arrive at a settlement hoped for during the weekend.

Some 4,000 URW members jammed the auditorium of Akron University to shout approval of the new Goodrich contract. Local 5 here has 4,900 members, almost half of the 11,000 employes covered in the contract.

Voice Vote Approval

In Miami, where the Goodrich employes have been back working since Friday, Local 318 approved the contract by a voice vote. Other votes from other locals around the country were expected today at URW international headquarters here. A majority of locals must ratify the contract before it is officially accepted.

General’s two tire factories, here and in Waco, Tex., were expected back in full production this week, following the vote by Local 318 in Waco to ratify the contract Saturday. All 3,000 URW members in the General Tire factories have approved the contract.

Some 17,000 Firestone employes, in 11 locals in 9 states, were to begin voting on their settlement today.

A majority of the more than 75,000 strikers, however, are still idled. About 22,000 of them have been out since April 20th when UniRoyal was struck. The 21,000 at Goodyear did not strike until July 14.

A Goodyear spokesman declined to make any comment about what was holding up negotiations.

They were taking place in Cincinnati.

Conform To Pattern

The settlements, when they are achieved, were expected to conform closely to the pattern already set.

The three settlements will all provide raises of 43 cents per hour to production workers, in steps of 15, 15 and 13 cents. The contracts will include a supplemental unemployment benefit plan giving laid off workers 80 per cent of their regular wages.

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