**Date:** 4/11/67
**Source:** Wall Street Journal
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AKRON — Peter Bommarito, international president of the United Rubber Workers Union, said disclosure this week by the five major rubber companies of a mutual assistance to share costs if any of them is struck creates a ‘doubt about their good faith.’
Four of the concerns, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., Uniroyal Inc. and B. F. Goodrich Co., now are in contract renewal negotiations with the union. Present contracts expire April 20. General Tire & Rubber Co. begins talks with the union later this month to renew a contract expiring May 15.
‘The Big Five rubber companies have a far greater responsibility to the public and to their employes than they have to each other,’ he contended. ‘After all, the Big Five are supposed to be competitors with each other.’
The rubber companies’ mutual assistance agreement was signed April 1, prior to start of contract negotiations. Mr. Bommarito said the union ‘is determined to continue its efforts to reach a realistic and reasonable settlement through honest and sincere collective bargaining.’
The rubber companies’ agreement provides that should any of the five be hit by a work stoppage it would receive ‘substantial’ financial assistance from the others, primarily covering fixed operating costs.
AKRON — Production at the General Tire & Rubber Co. Akron plant was closed down by a walkout of 60 workers in the mill room, causing the idling of some 1,800 employes. The mill room workers, members of Local 9 of the United Rubber Workers Union, left their jobs Monday in a dispute over relief workers in the mill room, where rubber and chemicals are mixed for production of finished products, principally tires, caused the idling of other production workers, a company spokesman said.
Officers of the local are urging the striking members to return to their jobs, but the dispute remained unresolved yesterday.