**Date:** 4-12-67
**Source:** Unknown
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NAUGATUCK—The first day of picketing by the three United Rubber Workers’ Naugatuck locals—45, 218 and 308—passed very quietly, with no official reports of disturbances being heard.
Negotiations between Uniroyal and the URW were suspended throughout Friday, with the next session scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday.
As of Friday evening, picketing by Locals 45 and 308 was suspended at 6 p.m. for the weekend, with resumption scheduled at 6 a.m. Monday. Local 218, chemical plant personnel, continued to picket one gate throughout Friday night and is scheduled to continue until 6 p.m. There will be no picketing Sunday.
The three locals joined other locals of the URW across the country shortly after midnight Thursday in a strike against Uniroyal, Firestone Tire and Rubber Co., and B. F. Goodrich Co. after a month of negotiations failed to produce agreements.
The fourth and fifth members of the rubber industry’s “big five”—Goodyear and General Tire and Rubber Co.—were not struck.
Although Goodyear’s contract with the union expired at the same time as the struck firms, negotiations continued in Cincinnati on a day-to-day basis.
Following the strike order from union officials in Cincinnati, the three borough locals manned their picket points after machinery was shut down.
Third shift personnel in the local operation manned their posts throughout the night, keeping spirits fairly high despite nippy temperatures.
Starting at 6 a.m. Friday, the first day picket teams worked in two-hour shifts, permitting management personnel to pass through the lines. Although police stood by, the atmosphere was one of almost extreme calm as the teams talked and marched.
Both union and management negotiators for the struck companies declined to discuss issues, but sources said wages and a guaranteed annual income were the principal matters in dispute.
Uniroyal said management offered “substantial increases in wages and employee benefits” but the offer was rejected.
The average wage for a worker in the rubber industry is $2.80 an hour. Wages in the tire and tube facilities average $3.76 an hour.
Plants idled by the walkout included the world’s largest tire factory, a Uniroyal plant in Detroit which makes more than 10 million tires a year. About 60 per cent of them are sold to auto makers for use on new cars, the Uniroyal spokesman said.