**Date:** 2-26-69
**Source:** Unknown
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CLEVELAND (AP) – It’s three down and two to go, a United Rubber Worker spokesman said Thursday after the union and Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. agreed to a tentative three-year contract.
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and Uniroyal resume bargaining with the URW today.
Firestone, the B. F. Goodrich Co. and the General Tire & Rubber Co. all settled within one week for the same basic contract, setting a pattern that could be followed by the last two firms.
A Firestone spokesman said it was the “largest package negotiated in 30 years.”
If ratified, the company said 17,000 production workers in 11 plants will go back to work as rapidly as facilities can be re-opened and schedules established.
The hourly wage hike in the Firestone settlement is 43 cents over three years, with skilled workers getting an extra 10 cents the first year. Top hourly rate is now $3.88. The contract expires April 20, 1970. Various benefits also were increased.