**Date:** 6-25-61
**Source:** Unknown
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(Continued from Page One)
Uniroyal counsel J. Kenneth Bradley questioned Mengacci at some length about ‘flare-ups’ at the gates early in May when pickets attempted to keep office personnel from entering the plant.
71 Arrests
The three days of clashes between pickets and police resulted in arrests of 71 strikers and a warning from Judge Gaffney that he would issue an injunction against the union if the violence didn’t stop.
The judge Tuesday gave some hint as to how he will accept such a defense, when he interrupted Bradley during questioning about a meeting between union officials and John Smith, plant manager.
Mengacci quoted Smith as saying at that meeting that in his opinion, no agreement existed because of the picket line troubles.
Judge Gaffney declared, ‘I’m not concerned with what some Mr. Smith thought about whether the agreement was null and void–it does not substitute for my judgment.’
At another point, while Bradley cross-examined Mengacci about alleged offers by the company to have union members perform certain jobs at the plant, the judge chided the lawyers to ‘come to the issue here, whether or not there’s been a violation of this contract.’
Mengacci also claimed that the company had announced at a May 8 meeting that ‘it needed to get samples out and they (company officials) intended to start production on samples with supervisory help.’
The union official said that after union protests, Local 45 leaders at a meeting a week later ‘would honor the agreement’ not to go into production and plans to start work on the samples would be dropped.
Mengacci said the company announced at that time that it wanted to produce 400 to 500 pairs of shoes a day.
Joseph DeCarlo, a member of the union negotiating committee, and Walter Beckwith, a picket captain, also voiced the opinion that violence would break out in the picket lines if production is allowed to begin.