**Date:** 4-21-67
**Source:** Unknown
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About 5,500 members of the United Rubber Workers struck the Uniroyal plant at Naugatuck as part of a nation-wide strike against three of the Big Four rubber companies. Contracts expired at midnight. More than 50,000 union jobs were affected by the action — the first company-wide strike since 1955 when the rubber workers manned picket lines against the U.S. Rubber Co., now Uniroyal. The companies affected are Firestone Tire and Rubber Co., B. F. Goodrich Co. and Uniroyal. The Sponge Products Division of B. F. Goodrich in Shelton is not affected. Employees are not covered by union contract. Shortly after midnight the three locals at Naugatuck set up about 15 pickets at gates of the company’s three divisions—footwear, chemical and synthetic. The locals said the pickets would continue through today and then daily from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. or until a contract agreement is reached. Word of the breakdown in Firestone negotiations came at about 10:30 p.m. Thursday. The Goodrich strike was announced shortly after midnight, and Uniroyal was struck a few minutes later. Picket lines across the country. PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 11
Strike- Continued from Page 1
try were manned, according to a URW spokesman, while negotiations continued with Goodrich early today.
The union, said Firestone officials, were willing to renew negotiations today, but a company spokesman had no comment on the statement.
No talks were planned in the Uniroyal dispute.
Negotiators for about 21,250 workers at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. voted to continue work on a day-to-day basis. Sessions were scheduled to resume with Goodyear at 10 a.m. today.
The four rubber companies and the General Tire and Rubber Co. agreed, effective April 1, that they would give mutual aid to any one of the five struck by the rubber workers.
General’s contract expires May 15. Negotiations got under way Monday in Cleveland.
The union continued its joint policy with the rubber industry of not releasing details of negotiations until bargaining is completed.
When negotiations began last month, however, the rubber workers said its goals included a “substantial wage increase,” plus increases in skilled trades rates, elimination of “unwarranted wage differentials” and a “full employment earnings program.”
The earnings program as outlined by the union would boost benefits for laid-off workers to 92½ per cent of regular pay.
The union said the program could be financed by raising the employer’s contribution from the present five cents to seven cents an hour per worker.
The supplemental unemployment benefits now pay up to 65 per cent of the laid-off worker’s regular pay for 26 weeks, union researchers estimate.
Present wages range from $3.25 to $3.35 an hour for semi-skilled or unskilled labor. A URW spokesman said recent U.S. government reports indicate the tire and tube division employes, considered the highest paid in the industry, make about $3.67 an hour.