**Date:** 1967-07-26
**Source:** Naugatuck, Conn.
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Negotiations between UniRoyal and the United Rubber Workers union ran well into midnight this morning in Cincinnati with apparently no agreement reached.
In the event of a settlement during the annual scheduled footwear plant shut-down, striking URW members are being asked if they desire to work instead of vacationing in this period.
Local 45, URW, is cooperating with the officials in the footwear plant in permitting this survey to be taken. A spokesman for the union said that they understand the company’s problem and in consideration of the need for samples, will go along with this.
No one is being pressured into working during the shut-down. Both the union and the company stressed that this is purely on a volunteer basis.
Jack Smith, factory manager of the Footwear plant, said this morning that the response has been gratifying. A large number of people, he said, signed up to work all or part of the vacation period. He added several persons, uncertain yesterday when queried, returned this morning, after checking at home or with the union, to sign up.
UniRoyal employes are in their 96th day of a strike which is the longest in the industry’s history. The talks, according to sources, are stalled on local issues.
AKRON, OHIO (UPI) – Negotiations continued today in an effort to bring the fifth and final settlement in the 96-day rubber industry strike.
UniRoyal, Inc., with headquarters in New York, is the only one of the big five rubber companies that has not reached a settlement with the United Rubber Workers. A union spokesman said Tuesday disagreement over working conditions was now the major barrier to a settlement.
Some 5,500 rubber workers at Naugatuck, Conn. are among those involved in the strike. UniRoyal has three major plants in the city.
A company spokesman charged the ‘URW continues to press demands on a number of issues which involve the right to manage.’ He did not elaborate.
The union spokesman said the ‘provisions under discussion may not have come up in previous negotiations, but that is because they involve working conditions present only in this particular system.’
UniRoyal said it had offered the 22,000 striking employes proposals matching those in four previous agreements. They included wage increases of 43 cents an hour over the next three years and an 80 per cent supplemental unemployment benefit program.
UniRoyal Tuesday reported an 89.2 per cent drop in its second quarter net income and a 7.7 per cent drop in sales compared to the same period last year. The strike has closed 70 per cent of UniRoyal’s domestic operations for all but two weeks of the second quarter.
Work has resumed at the General Tire & Rubber Co. and the B. F. Goodrich Co. and Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. are in the process of resuming production.
Some 21,000 workers vote today and Thursday on an agreement reached Monday night with the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
At its height, the strike idled 75,000 men and cut the industry’s production capacity to 25 per cent.