**Date:** 6-23-67
**Source:** Unknown
—
As representatives of the union and management, respectively, in the current stalemate involving the rubber industry in the United States, you are the logical ones to whom any missive such as this must be addressed.
It may be that there are others whose attention should be called to what we have to say and which we feel must be said. That we shall leave to your individual judgment.
As this is written, 62 days have passed since some 5,500 employes of UniRoyal in the Naugatuck area laid aside their tools and turned to the picket lines instead. At first, the strike was perhaps regarded by many a something of a lark, a change of pace, a vacation of sorts. We will be willing to gamble there is no one today who regards the strike in any such light. No one.
Today there are all sorts of rumors rampant — that the strike will last at least until after the July 4th holiday; that it will last at least another month; that it will last until after Labor Day.
There are as many reasons for these rumors as there are rumors — perhaps more. And this is inevitable in a situation such as presently exists in Naugatuck — for men’s tempers are on edge and their reason highly susceptible to extraneous and not always logical influences.
It must be obvious to all right now, except those who will not see, that the strike has passed the point of no return, so to speak, No one is going to “win” this strike now. It has gone far beyond that.
The losses in wages and salaries to Naugatuck area people right now cannot possibly be recouped for years, if then, and even if the most favorable terms are granted in the final agreement.
Equally, UniRoyal has jeopardized its image with thousands of customers and lost millions of dollars worth of business to competing companies which have not been strike-bound.
It must be equally obvious to both sides in this dispute that there is a crying need to bring this strike to an end, for humanitarian reasons if for no other. Too many people are being badly hurt in this struggle which has now gone down in history as the longest rubber industry strike in the nation’s history, something of which neither side should be especially proud.
It seems to us that reasonable men of good intentions should be able to reach agreement on such issues as the length of the contract, pension and insurance clauses and working conditions. It should not have taken this long, and there can no longer be any justification for continuing the battle along present lines.
It is hard for the objective viewer of this increasingly difficult situation to believe that there is no room for compromise, no possibility of a meeting of minds. We believe you, gentlemen, more than any other individuals, are in a position to remedy this situation through a willingness to seek an answer rather than adopting an unrelenting stance.
We urge that you do just that, if you share any slight concern for the thousands who presently stand uncomfortably awaiting a decision that will put them back to work.