**Date:** 6-12-67
**Source:** Wall Street Journal
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AKRON—After a week of marked progress in negotiations, the United Rubber Workers union and five major rubber companies will re-open bargaining sessions at 10 a.m. today with some expectation of reaching a single-package settlement covering wages, pensions and wel- fare benefits before another week passes.
A settlement would end the strike against three of the major concerns—Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., Uniroyal, Inc. and B. F. Goodrich Co.—which has idled 51,000 workers for 53 days since former contracts expired April 20. It would also conclude negotiations with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and General Tire & Rubber Co. where production has continued on a day-to-day basis despite similar contract expira- tions.
Separate bargaining sessions with the five companies began making headway last week. Management offers a wage boosts totaling 36 cents an hour for tire workers and 31 cents for other production workers over three years, plus pension-and-welfare-contract improvements. The package was technically rejected by the union as inadequate, but it opened the door to several counter-proposals presumably being studied by the companies.
Differentials an Obstacle
At the weekend, General Tire was said to have sweetened its offer on several points, boosting the pay proposal for tire workers to 40 cents an hour over three years and offering further pension, vacation and supplemental un- employment benefit payments. General’s con- tract, negotiations, however, cover only 3,000 workers in two tire plants, in Akron and Waco, Texas, while those of the four other concerns cover other production workers as well. The proposed differentials between tire workers and other production employes could still be a difficult obstacle in this week’s talks.
General’s wage offer for tire workers would break down to 15 cents in 1967, 13 cents in 1968 and 12 cents in 1969. The 33-cent offer of the other concerns comprises 16 cents this year and 11 cents in each of the next two years.
Peter Bommarito, URWI international presi- dent, termed the offers of the four companies, other than General, as representing a gain of less than 4.5% compared with what he said has been a 5.8% raise granted in other manufac- turing industries. He also called for the naming of an independent fact-finding board to determine the “fairness” of the union’s demands.
Uniroyal, in a letter to employes, put the gain in wage and other improvements at “about 5%” and said its offer would cost the com- pany about 70 cents an hour, the largest pro- posal it had ever made to the union. Firestone and Goodrich also sent letters to employes dis- cussing the negotiations, with Goodrich also putting its offer as “in line with the 5% pattern” set in other industries.
Another improvement in General’s weekend offer, which Mr. Bommarito yesterday called “attractive” as a basis for a settlement, was an improvement in supplemental unemploy- ment benefits payments providing for 80% of average straight-time pay for laid-off workers or for those on short workweeks; this total would include unemployment compensation.
The union has demanded a a “full employ- ment” plan, or guaranteed annual wage, pay- ments of up to 95% of regular straight-time pay for laid-off workers, including unemploy- ment compensation. The union has put the company cost for this at 7 cents an hour per worker, up from the present 5 cents.
General’s offer also included a provision for six weeks’ vacation after 30 years’ service and two weeks after one year’s, along with existing intermediate vacations. The other companies made no provision for six weeks’ vacation but offered three weeks after five years’ service, along with other existing vacation allowances.
The pension-payment proposal by General also was a bit higher than the increase to $5.25 per month from $3.25 for each year of service proposed by the others. Though the General amount wasn’t specified, it was understood to be close to $5.50 per month for each year of service.
Mr. Bommarito also disputed the compa- nies’ claims that their “total-package” offers represented employment-cost increases of 70 cents an hour. He estimated them at about 64 cents for General’s package and 60 cents for the others.
Other Benefits
All the offers also included improvements in life insurance, hospitalization, sickness and ac- cident insurance, an additional increase of 10 cents an hour for skilled tradesmen and im- provements in grievance-pay allowances.
Should a settlement be achieved on a “sin- gle-package” basis, it would be the first time in the rubber industry. Pension and welfare matters have previously been reserved to a separate contract, the existing one due to ex- pire next Sept. 15. Previously, however, the wage contract and pension agreements have expired on at least alternate years. The proxim- ity of the pension-contract expiration this year to the wage contract’s conclusion was held to be an obstacle to an earlier settlement on wages.
The companies acknowledged they were re- luctant to “expose” themselves to a substantial wage-cost increase only to be faced in a few months with another strike threat over pension and other welfare matters. Until two weeks ago, however, the union apparently had been demanding about keeping the two contracts sep- arate.