**Source:** Unknown
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bers of the rubber industry’s Big Four-around midnight Thursday as two-year contracts expired.
Most of the 21,250 rubber workers members employed by the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., the other Big Four mem- ber, were on the job after union negotiators voted late Thursday to work on a day-to-day basis as bargaining continued.
Goodyear negotiating sessions are to resume at 10 a.m. Mon- day in Cincinnati where Uniroyil negotiators will meet Wednesday. Firestone sessions will be in Cleveland and Good- rich’s at Columbus.
Contract to Expire
A contract with the nation’s fifth biggest rubber producer, General Tire & Rubber Co., with 3,052 employes, expires May 15. Negotiations are under way in Cleveland.
A mutual aid agreement be- tween General Tire and the Big Four went into effect as the rub- ber workers put up picket lines across the country, a company spokesman said.
Peter Bommarito, the union’s international president, criti- cized the mutual-aid agreement under which the two working companies would lend financial assistance to those struck.
The union has shown more militancy since Bommarito be- came president in September, and observers say apparently it is his full employment earnings program which is a major issue in negotiations.
The program would boost un- employment benefits from 65 to 92 1⁄2 per cent of regular weekly pay for laid-off workers.
The union also is demanding a “substantial” wage increase plus improved fringe benefits. Present wages for highest paid workers average $3.67 an hour, according to the union.