**Date:** 5-3-67
**Source:** Unknown
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If the Uniroyal strike continues much longer the city welfare rolls will swell appreciably with strikers, Welfare Superintendent Peter Pocius said Monday.
Atty. Catherine DeLeon asked whether welfare payments to strikers constitutes “subsidizing labor.”
Pocius said Welfare payments are based on need and the reasons for it are not questioned. He pointed out, however, that the usual requirments that recipients be available for work must be met.
Al Maccarelli pointed out that Park Superintendent James Curtin has cited a critical need for help.
“I hope the strike doesn’t continue, but if it does Mr. Curtin will have some help,” Pocius said.
Pocius cited a case of one couple, both of whom work at Uniroyal, who applied for welfare in view of the strike, but were told to apply again next week.
He said five days before applying, the couple, which has five children, had received $140 in pay.
Pocius said strikers are being paid $25 per week out of the union’s strike fund. He said any welfare payments would make up the difference between the union payments and the regular standards of welfare payments.
The couple in question, Pocius said, protested not being immediately accepted for welfare payments.