Newspaper Clippings

Rumors Of Production At UniRoyal Unfounded

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Rumors Of Production At UniRoyal Unfounded

Rubber Strike

6-30-67

Rumors Of Production At UniRoyal Unfounded

Rumors were running hot and heavy around the borough this morning that work would begin at the UniRoyal Footwear plant next Wednesday.

The rumors were two-fold; first that settlement of the strike was imminent and the other version was that the Footwear plant would start production on its own.

However, Thomas Nelligan, labor relations manager of UniRoyal Footwear Plant, told the NEWS this morning, that to the best of his knowledge no production was anticipated at the plant Wednesday, either through the settlement of the strike or by the company.

The Footwear plant officials had asked Local 45 if it would permit oilers to come into the plant and lubricate machinery that had been standing idle for the 10-weeks of the strike, according to Nelligan. He said that as yet, the company, had not received an answer to this request from the Local.

Raymond Mengacci, vice-president of Local 45, verified the fact that the company had requested the union to allow mechanics to enter the plant for the purpose of maintaining the machinery. Mengacci said that he and other union officials toured the plant this morning to inspect the machinery. The union officials were meeting at press time today to decide on the request.

UniRoyal Footwear plant officials had agreed before Superior Court Judge Leo V. Gaffney, not to run production lines in the plant using non-bargaining personnel until the Judge has ruled on the application submitted to the court by Local 45 seeking a restraining injunction against the Footwear division of UniRoyal.

The issue in point in the restraining injunction is whether or not the company violated an agreement made with Local 45 on April 18 not to produce using non-bargaining unit personnel and whether or not the agreement was in effect or had been previously violated by the Local.

Factory Manager Jack Smith testified in court that he considered the agreement no longer in effect following the two days of violence in the first week of May. However, no written notice of this had been given to the Local, according to testimony, only an oral announcement.

Company officials repeatedly testified to the necessity of producing sample shoes and having them available by August 1. This, according to the company, would be to the benefit of union members as well as to the company.

This, Judge Gaffney said, was beside the point; the issue was the agreement of April 18 which called for an orderly shut-down and maintenance of the plant and orderly picketing in exchange for no production at the plant during the strike and permission for the union to make tours of inspection of the facilities during this period.

AKRON, Ohio (UPI)—Progress toward a wage contract settlement was at a standstill today in the 10-week-old strike by the United Rubber Workers Union (URW) against major rubber companies.

A spokesman for the URW said a wage offer of 43 cents an hour from the General Tire & Rubber Co. and 38 cents from the other four members of the rubbery industry’s “big five” remain unchanged.

Meanwhile, merchants and city officials here hoped the strike would end soon.

Finance Director Daniel Zeno said the walkout has reduced

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Rumors Of Production

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6-30-67

Rumors Of Production

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the city’s income tax revenues.
The Chamber of Commerce said
retail store sales also dropped
off in May and June and banks
reported a heavy draw on savings.

It also was reported that
many wives of strikers had gone
to work and that strikers themselves were finding jobs.

URW President Peter Bommarito said Thursday that a $1
million check from the United
Auto Workers union to bolster
the URW’s nearly depleted
strike fund would enable the union to “carry out our strike benefit plan indefinitely.”

The union’s strike fund stood
at $6.5 million when the strike
began.

About 50,000 rubber workers
were on strike against Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., B.F.
Goodrich and Uniroyal. The
firms were struck April 20.

Another 4,000 workers were
idled last week when the union
struck two plants of the General Tire & Rubber Co.

Work at the Goodyear Tire &
Rubber Co. continued on a day-
to-day basis.

Peace resumed in Akron
Thursday after mass picketing
incidents the last two days. Local 5 members met with union
officials and Summit County
Prosecutor James Barbuto and
aired a list of grievances that
triggered the picketing. Included was a charge college students were hired to do production work, which was denied.

Uniroyal, URW to File Briefs In Union Injunction Request

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Uniroyal, URW to File Briefs In Union Injunction Request

Uniroyal, URW to File Briefs In Union Injunction Request

6-2-67 [handwritten date in top right corner]

Uniroyal and the striking United Rubber Workers have until Wednesday to file briefs arguing whether the company should be forbidden to make footwear samples at the Naugatuck plant during the strike.

Judge Leo V. Gaffney in Waterbury Superior Court yesterday set the Wednesday deadline, as he reserved decision on a union request for an injunction to halt the production of sample shoes.

The judge said he would rule on the injunction request by the end of next week.

The company has stopped production of sample shoes, pending the court’s decision.

Joseph Foley, picket captain of striking Local 45, testified yesterday that violence might result if supervisory personnel continued to produce shoe samples. He was supported by Raymond Mengacci, union vice president.

Jack M. Smith, manager of and Thomas J. Nelligan, industrial relations supervisor, said the company would suffer serious loss of business unless it continued to produce shoe samples. They said such business loss might force a reduction of employment.

Strikers Rush To Apply For Unemployment Funds

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Strikers Rush To Apply For Unemployment Funds

8—Waterbury Republican, Saturday, July 1, 1967

Strikers Rush To Apply For Unemployment Funds

NAUGATUCK — A new type of rumor circulated the borough Friday to the effect that strikers

Naugatuck

might be eligible for unemployment compensation.

As the rumor spread around the area large numbers of the Uniroyal strikers rushed to Waterbury to join long lines of people signing up.

No one was flatly refused, but strikers were told they would receive final word during the coming week.

Few Strikers Seek Aid

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Few Strikers Seek Aid

From Welfare Agency

7-4-67

Few Strikers Seek Aid

The extended strike at Uniroyal, Inc. in Naugatuck, has had little effect on the city Welfare Department according to Peter Pocius, superintendent.

At a Welfare Board meeting on Monday night, Pocius said the reason for this is that many strikers are eligible for aid from state funds which have become available since June. Only 14 strikers have requested aid from the city.

Caseworkers reported 191 active cases carried over from the previous month; 114 new applications received during the current month; 141 recurrent cases, and one case transferred from another caseworker for a total of 447 cases handled.

One case was transferred to another caseworker and 233 cases, most of them involving strikers, were discontinued or referred, for a total of 213 active at the end of the month.

There were 200 home visits, 1,329 office interviews, 200 service calls, and 54 cases refused or referred at intake.

The Children’s Division handled four cases active from the previous month and reported three children in foster homes and one child in an institution.

Hospital division caseworkers reported five active cases, 10 recurrent and 12 new. Four cases were accepted, 21 refused; two are pending. Eight home and 20 office visits were reported.

The clinic at St. Mary’s Hospital accepted 25 cases and refused three while the clinic at Chase Dispensary accepted eight.

The outpatient department at St. Mary’s Hospital accepted 15 and refused four and at Waterbury Hospital’s outpatient department seven were accepted and two refused.

Work relief reported that 64 men and 17 women were employed for a period of 22 days. A total of $6,618.00 was given as basic aid to men; $1,786.00 was given to women. Total reimbursements were $5,328.00 from men and $417.00 from women.

Three men found private employment; two were eligible for state aid and one for unemployment compensation.

Rubber Strike Negotiations Resume Today In Cincinnati

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Rubber Strike Negotiations Resume Today In Cincinnati

Rubber Strike Negotiations Resume Today In Cincinnati

7-5-67 [handwritten]

Negotiations in the URW – UniRoyal strike are scheduled to resume today in Cincinnati for another try at reaching a contract settlement.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is the only one of the big five rubber companies continuing to operate with tire production from its plants assisting the other four companies in filling customers orders under a mutual assistance pact drawn up by the five companies prior to the strike.

Sources close to the negotiations said the bargaining has bogged down into a “sticky and confusing” situation with purely local grievances at times blocking the progress toward settlement. While agreements have been reached on several occasions, sources on both sides have become cheery about predicting an early settlement.

Economic issues, including pay boosts and details for a union – proposed full – employment or guaranteed annual wage program, continued to dominate the stale-mate, which has made the dispute the longest work stoppage in the history of the industry.

Economic pressure would appear to be the greatest on the union negotiators, however, despite the financial aid of $1 million lent the URW by Walter Reuther’s United Auto Workers Union with more pledged if requested. The $15 a week benefit check for strikers, reduced from $25, for the 54,000 employes off their jobs represents a weekly drain of more than $800,000 on the union’s resources.

Reuther’s willingness to help

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Rubber Strike Continued From Page 1

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Rubber Strike Continued From Page 1

7-5-67

Rubber Strike

Continued From Page 1

the Rubber Workers is interesting aside from his friendship with Peter Bommarito, URW president. The URW begins its new contract negotiations with the auto companies next Monday and Reuther has let it be known that a guaranteed annual wage, a key hurdle in the rubber talks, will be an agreement “must” in the auto bargaining.

Meanwhile, pressure on the companies to resume production is eased by the combination of high tire inventories, an estimated 50 per cent of the industry still at work, auto manufacturers’ switchover to 1968 models coming earlier than usual and the industry’s mutual assistance pact.

Consequently, the companies can be expected to remain firm on the basis of their latest contract offers, which they say rep-

resents additional employment costs in wages, fringe benefits, pensions and insurance of some 70 cents an hour over three years. But URW officials contend the offer, which they claim adds up to about 60 cents an hour, is inadequate.

Locally, the URW Local 45 and the UniRoyal footwear plant is awaiting the decision of Judge Leo V. Gaffney on the request for a restraining injunction to be issued against the Footwear plant. The Judge is expected to make his finding known sometime the latter part of the week.

The Footwear plant seeks to start production on some 45,000 pairs of sample shoes using non-bargaining personnel. The Local is blocking this move, bringing into court an agreement made between plant officials and the Local, April 18.

The Judge must find whether this agreement was in effect at the time the company sought

No Break In 76-Day-Old Rubber Industry Strike

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No Break In 76-Day-Old Rubber Industry Strike

No Break In 76-Day-Old Rubber Industry Strike

7-6-67 [handwritten]

The five major rubber companies and the United Rubber Workers union resumed talks yesterday in Ohio. Representatives of the borough’s three Locals and UniRoyal representatives met again in Cincinnati with other talks being conducted in three other Ohio cities.

No indications of a break in the 76-day-old strike were forthcoming, according to sources.

The offer of Akron Mayor John S. Ballard to assist in negotiations of the four Akron based firms of Goodyear, Goodrich, Firestone and General and his appeal for around the clock negotiations was not eagerly accepted by all concerned.

Goodrich and Firestone, among the companies and the union, replied to the request, citing their willingness to conduct negotiations continuously. Doubt was expressed, however, that third-party participation for a single community would be helpful, since talks embrace company plants in numerous cities.

According to sources many local issues have bogged down the negotiations.

Third Ward Republican Burgess Edward McGrath had appealed to Gov. John Dempsey to help in the negotiations; however, the Borough Board was informed that he was watching the situation. No concrete action in mediation was mentioned in his communication.

Locally, picketing remains quiet at all gates of the three UniRoyal plants in the borough with strikers taking their turns on the picket line as matter of course.

The financial drain on the strikers is becoming more evident with each passing week. The $15 a week union benefit check is far from sufficient to maintain a family. An increasing number of borough residents are finding it difficult to maintain their installment payments, although local banking institutes have been most understanding of the situation.

Striking UniRoyal workers are looking forward to receiving vacation pays to give them a temporary financial lift.

AKRON, Ohio (UPI) — The president of the B. F. Goodrich Tire & Rubber Co. said today if the record-long strike against the rubber industry continues much longer the firm’s operations here will be reduced.

“We will not leave Akron but the operation will become smaller,” said J. W. Keener. “The longer the strike goes on the less certain we are to maintain customers.” Goodrich employes about 5,000 workers here.

Keener said reduced operations would result “because of the inability to stay in some businesses by becoming non-competitive.”

The strike, in its 77th day, was called against Goodrich, UniRoyal Inc., and the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. when United Rubber Workers (URW) contracts expired April 20.

General Tire & Rubber Co. was struck June 21. Work has continued at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. on a day-to-day basis.

“With the offer that we made to this union our costs are increased to a degree greater than the small companies with

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Few Strikers Seek Aid

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Few Strikers Seek Aid

From Welfare Agency

7-4-67 (handwritten)

Few Strikers Seek Aid

The extended strike at Uniroyal, Inc. in Naugatuck, has had little effect on the city Welfare Department according to Peter Pocius, superintendent.

At a Welfare Board meeting on Monday night, Pocius said the reason for this is that many strikers are eligible for aid from state funds which have become available since June. Only 14 strikers have requested aid from the city.

Caseworkers reported 191 active cases carried over from the previous month; 114 new applications received during the current month; 141 recurrent cases, and one case transferred from another caseworker for a total of 447 cases handled.

One case was transferred to another caseworker and 233 cases, most of them involving strikers, were discontinued or referred, for a total of 213 active at the end of the month.

There were 200 home visits, 1,329 office interviews, 200 service calls, and 54 cases refused or referred at intake.

The Children’s Division handled four cases active from the previous month and reported three children in foster homes and one child in an institution.

Hospital division caseworkers reported five active cases, 10 recurrent and 12 new. Four cases were accepted, 21 refused; two are pending. Eight home and 20 office visits were reported.

The clinic at St. Mary’s Hospital accepted 25 cases and refused three while the clinic at Chase Dispensary accepted eight.

The outpatient department at St. Mary’s Hospital accepted 15 and refused four and at Waterbury Hospital’s outpatient department seven were accepted and two refused.

Work relief reported that 64 men and 17 women were employed for a period of 22 days. A total of $6,618.00 was given as basic aid to men; $1,786.00 was given to women. Total reimbursements were $5,328.00 from men and $417.00 from women.

Three men found private employment; two were eligible for state aid and one for unemployment compensation.

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No Break

7-6-67

Continued From Page 1

which we compete,” Keener said.

General has offered 43 cents an hour in wage increases over three years, 80 per cent supplemental unemployment benefits, an additional paid holiday, and an increase in pension payments from $2 to $5.50 a month for each year of service.

The other firms offered 38 cents an hour to tire workers, 31 cents to non-tire workers, an added 10 cents an hour to skilled tradesmen, 75 per cent unemployment benefits and pension payments of $5.25 per month.

Keener turned down an offer from Mayor John Ballard to assist in marathon bargaining sessions. He said marathon negotiations and formal mediation efforts did not offer the best hopes for an early settlement.

Ballard received no reply Wednesday from the URW and General, but both indicated answers were forthcoming. Firestone declined the offer.

Raymond C. Firestone, board chairman of the Firestone Company, said the firm would meet regularly with union negotiators until a settlement is reached.

“We are deeply concerned with the extended strike and the interests of our 17,000 employes who have been out of work in 11 cities,” Firestone said.

Nationally the strike has idled 54,000 URW members in 34 cities.

Negotiations On Strike Settlement Stalemated

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Negotiations On Strike Settlement Stalemated

Negotiations On Strike Settlement Stalemated

7-7-67

Negotiation talks continued yesterday in Cincinnati between the United Rubber Workers Union and UniRoyal, Inc. However, sources indicate that negotiations are still stalemated.

Some progress has been noted since the beginning of the sessions, but the wage differential is said to be a barrier against settlement. Also, according to reports, the union’s

The office of the Clerk of Waterbury Superior Court, when contacted by the NEWS this morning, said that a decision from Judge Leo V. Gaffney on the Local 45 suit seeking a restraining injunction against the footwear plant of UniRoyal had not been handed down as yet.

Judge Gaffney had said at the end of the two-day court hearings, that he would reach a decision as soon as possible and hoped for one by today.

insistence of a guaranteed annual income is barring settlement.

According to a statement in a New York financial news-

paper, “Another worry to auto makers is the special interest Walter Reuther is taking in the rubber industry negotiations, where guaranteed annual income is a key unresolved issue. Officials of the United Rubber Workers union have consulted with the UAW on strategy and recently borrowed $1 million from the UAW after their strike fund was depleted.

“There is a strong suspicion in Detroit that Reuther is trying to engineer, by proxy, a breakthrough on guaranteed annual income in the rubber industry and then get an improvement on the rubber pattern from the three auto makers.”

William Simkin, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, has issued no recommendation following the three-day talks in Pittsburgh. It appears that the government has bowed out after a brief attempt to mediate.

AKRON, Ohio (UPI) — A statement that the 78-day old strike against the rubber industry could jeopardize future operations of the B. F. Goodrich Co. here brought a sharp retort from the United Rubber Work-

ers Thursday.

URW President Peter Bommarito criticized Goodrich President J. W. Keener for using “the good offices” of Mayor John Ballard to “threaten employes and counter with retaliatory action against the employes” who are exercising their right to strike.

Ballard had offered to assist in mediating the strike and called for round-the-clock bargaining sessions if they were needed to halt the walkout. He got a polite no.

Keener said Goodrich would not shut down its Akron plant, but might be forced to reduce the size of its local operation because of loss of competitive power.

He said the strike had “serious implications for the future of the company’s operations.”

Bommarito said Keener’s statements were “not conducive to a quick or durable settlement” and added the union will accept nothing less “than that to which they are entitled under sound economic logic and social morality.”

Bommarito said the union appreciated Ballard’s offer, but said he could not commit the five URW policy committees to marathon sessions.

“Each policy committee decides its own course of action outside the URW International,” he said.

More than 54,000 rubber workers have been idled by the strike against Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., Goodrich, Uniroyal, Inc., and the General Tire & Rubber Co.

Work at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has continued on a day to day basis.

The latest General offer, higher than the others, called for

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State Refunds $2,885

Negotiations On Strike

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Negotiations On Strike

7-7-67

Negotiations On Strike

Continued From Page 1

increases of 43-cents an hour over the next three years and an 80 per cent supplemental unemployment benefit plan.

The other companies offered 38-cent an hour raises to tire workers and 31-cents to non-tire workers and a 75 per cent unemployment plan.

The union was not happy with either offer. It wanted greater wage increases, a 95 per cent supplemental unemployment plan and elimination of differentials between tire and non-tire workers.

There have been no signs a settlement was near.

Naugatuck Locals May Quit Talks, Seek Own Accord With Uniroyal

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Naugatuck Locals May Quit Talks, Seek Own Accord With Uniroyal

Naugatuck Locals May Quit Talks, Seek Own Accord With Uniroyal

7-9-67 [handwritten]

By PATRICK KEATING
Register Staff Reporter

NAUGATUCK — Speculation was growing here this weekend that striking Locals 45, 218 and 308 of the United Rubber Workers, AFL-CIO, may pull out of talks between their union’s International Policy Committee and the management of Uniroyal, Inc., and go their own way in an attempt to end the 80-day-old walkout.

The three locals — representing, respectively the Footwear, Chemical and Synthetic Divisions of Uniroyal here — have a membership of more than 5,000.

Their representatives, together with officials of other United Rubber Workers locals striking against Uniroyal, B. F. Goodrich and the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. have been engaged for several weeks now in talks at Cincinnati with the rubber panies.

Last week, Local 45 held an executive board meeting in Naugatuck with George Froehlich, local president, in attendance. There was reportedly strong talk or ordering Froehlich and the local’s other representatives on the International Policy Committee to return home this weekend if no firm progress were made.

Indications were that the other locals would follow Local 45’s lead.

It was also indicated that there is a widening of a breach between the tire plant workers of Uniroyal and non-tire employes, including those in Naugatuck. This disagreement reportedly stems from the wage increase differential between tirement and the non-tire group.

If the Naugatuck locals decide to bargain on their own, union sources said, it would not necessarily be considered a desertion of union principles.

Although union officials here were not available for comment on the rumor, progress reports from Cincinnati from time to time indicate that URW negotiators have been meeting separately with their respective companies.

URW Locals Deny Rumor Of Breach

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7-10-67

URW Locals Deny Rumor Of Breach

Local 45 (Footwear division), Local 218 (Chemical Division) and Local 308 (Synthetic Division), United Rubber Workers Union, issued a joint statement today to emphatically deny the rumors that the three locals were considering pulling out their respective policy committee members from the master contract negotiations with UniRoyal, Inc.

“At no time was any such action considered by any of the three locals executive boards or memberships,” Cy Blanchard, vice-president of Local 218, said this morning as spokesman for the three Locals.

“All locals give their full support to their policy committee members in Cincinnati. We have the utmost confidence in the policy committees’ ability to reach an equitable and satisfactory settlement for all URW members.

“There is no breach between the tire and non-tire workers of the UniRoyal policy committee section as they are solidified in their intent to reach a settlement with the company with the common interest of all the URW membership at heart,” Blanchard said.

Drawing up the statement were Blanchard, Raymond Mengacci, vice-president of Local 45, and Joseph Arbachauskas, vice-president of Local 308.

Blanchard said the vice-presidents searched today for the source of the rumor but could not pin it down.

A negotiating session between UniRoyal and the United Rubber workers unions representatives was held Saturday in Cincinnati. Additional meetings are scheduled for today in an effort to narrow the differences separating the two sides.

UniRoyal president, George Vila, issued a letter July 7th, mailed to the company’s stockholders, describing the issues in the strike of 22,000 employes and its impact on the company’s second-quarter earnings.

The letter notes that negotiations with the union are continuing, and there has been some progress; however, it is very slow.

When the strike was called, the company had sizable inventories in many product lines which helped to cushion the impact of the strike sales. However, the impact on earnings is severe because necessary fixed costs in the striking plants continue without the production necessary to absorb them. As a consequence, net income for the second quarter will sharply lower than the $1.06 a common share in 1966.

The strike has closed 19 plants and idled 22,000 workers. These plants represent 50 per cent of the employes and over 70 per cent of the sales.

The letter states that four days of negotiations by the major rubber companies and the union with Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service took place in Pittsburgh late in June. Federal mediators, not finding it possible to conclude agreements, discontinued these talks after an extensive exploration of the issues.

Vila spelled out to the stockholders the company’s latest wage, pension and insurance offer to the union and explained the differential between tire workers and non-tire workers pay is because competitors in the non-tire segment of the company’s business do not pay the same high wages and benefits and do not provide the same increases as UniRoyal does.

“Strong Possibility”

Rubber Walkout Might Include Goodyear Tire

AKRON, Ohio (UPI) — Negotiations were to resume today in the 80-day old rubber industry strike with a warning from a union official here that the walkout could spread.

John Nardella, president of Local 2, United Rubber Workers, said “a strong possibility” existed a strike deadline would be called in negotiations with the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

Other union sources indicated the deadline might be midnight Wednesday.

Nardella said Goodyear negotiators had indicated the company was ready to make a move on its offer, but had not yet done so.

Nardella gave a detailed report Sunday to the Local 2 membership on progress in contract negotiations. He said union policy committee “would initiate a new course of action” if no settlement was reached soon.

As of Friday, all contractual issues with Goodyear had been resolved except economic questions, including wages, pensions and vacations, Nardella said.

Work at Goodyear has continued on a day to day basis since April 20 when the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., UniRoyal Inc., and the B. F. Goodrich Co. were struck. General Tire & Rubber was struck June 21.

A strike against Goodyear would idle some 21,000 men at 11 plants in addition to the 54,000 men already on strike across the nation.

The union has rejected as “inadequate” the latest offers from the five firms.

General has offered 43 cents an hour in wage increases over three years and an 80 per cent supplemental unemployment plan.

The other four firms have offered wage increases of 38 cents an hour to tire workers, 31 cents to non-tire workers and a 75 per cent unemployment plan.

Long Rubber Strike Seen Test of Labor’s Strength

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Long Rubber Strike Seen Test of Labor's Strength

THE WORKER. JULY 11, 1967

Page 3

Long Rubber Strike Seen Test of Labor’s Strength

By PHIL BART

AKRON, O.—This rubber city with some 300,000 population is in the throes of a long drawn out strike that has passed its 80th day. There are 52,000 on strike in 36 cities, about 15,000 of them here. They work in Firestone, Goodrich and Uniroyal whose base is in Detroit.

Two weeks ago the workers in General Tire joined the strike. Goodyear with 21,000 workers, 10,000 of them in Akron continue to work on a day-to-day basis. It is one of the longest strikes in this industry. Its outcome may help influence negotiations in other major industries.

DEMANDS

Among their demands are a general wage increase, wage adjustments for skilled tradesmen and numerous grievances which remain unsolved. The United Rubber Workers Union (URW) opposes an attempt by the companies to institute a wage difrefential between tire production and non-tire plants. The only reason for this is to split the workers in the industry.

Pension matters are being negotiated separately.

Prior to the strike date of April 21 the companies stockpiled large reserves of tires. The big 5 in the industry arranged a mutual assistance pact similar to the one established among the air line corporations. The object is to have a financial kitty to help the struck companies continue to keep their workers out.

URW president, Peter Bommarito, charges that this pact is a “conspiracy” against the strikers. The union has filed unfair labor practice charges against the companies.

PRICE RISE CITED

The United Rubber Worker, union organ, states, that the cost of living since the beginning of 1966 has more than wiped out the 9 cents gain of the past year. Productivity has increased by more than 7 percent a year, according to J. Ward Keener, president of B. F. Goodrich Co. In addition, Mr. Bommarito shows that sales went up from 6 percent to 13 percent while profits jumped from 8.5 percent to 21.8 percent during the past year.

The Goodrich company in a letter to the strikers claimed it was offering them a 73 cents an hour package over three years. The union countered by pointing out this misrepresentation and said that the offer is closer to 60 cents over that period. Previous contracts ran for a period of two years.

COSTLY BURDEN

The union faces considerable financial problems. It is spending $1,500,000 weekly. The strikers were receiving $25 weekly, which has now been reduced to $15. Those with large families supplement their needs with food stamps. The union has received an initial loan of one million dollars from the United Auto Workers Union.

In talking to strikers one immediately recognizes the militancy and unity in their ranks. Some have had to pull in a notch in their belts but it does not show on their faces. There is a grim determination to win. Pickets are stationed at all gates. An injunction has reduced pickets to two at the Goodrich gates. Office and managerial personnel have been going into the plants daily. There is a feeling among the strikers that they are doing work inside. Sentiment is building up to keep them out.

EFFECT ON CITY

Akron is a rubber town. When rubber production stops the whole city feels it.

We talked to a local newspaper editor. Akron has a one percent income tax for capital improvements. He told us that the loss in income is around $14,000 a week. Where will funds come from for city improvements—that he does not know. It will be felt, however, in months ahead. In a conversation with a couple of small businessmen we were told that they already feel the pinch.

For 20 years wage adjustments in the rubber and auto industries have paralleled each other. These relations have become known as the “tandem relationship.” Evidently the rubber barons are trying to break these relations which have been beneficial to workers in both industries.

The effects of the attacks in rubber may be felt in the auto industry. We asked a union official whether he sees a protracted strike. He said it is possible. He added, that there is opinion prevailing here that the auto industry may be pressuring the rubber corporations to hold out longer and thereby influence negotiations in auto.

As the strike continues it serves as a warning signal against renewed anti-labor attacks. Pickets in Akron and 36 other cities are walking the line not only for themselves but for all labor. A growing movement of support to the rubber strikers is essential now. It is the kind of solidarity which helped advance the interests of the whole labor movement in the past and it must do so again.

Views Of The Naugatuck UniRoyal Strike Are Given In Nationwide Story By United Press International

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Views Of The Naugatuck UniRoyal Strike Are Given In Nationwide Story By United Press International

Views Of The Naugatuck UniRoyal Strike Are Given In Nationwide Story By United Press International

7-11-67 [handwritten date in top right]

EDITORS:

The industrial city of Naugatuck is in the steel grip of a 13 week strike involving 5,500 members of the United Rubber Workers Union of America and the area’s chief employer, the UniRoyal plant. The economic crush is reflected in various ways with the situation approaching the crisis stage for some, an occurrence unmatched during the Depression or in 1959 when a strike lasted three weeks. “Hell,” says one man,” that was just pie and ice cream compared to this.” Here is a special report.

By JAMES V. HEALION
UPI Hartford
NAUGATUCK, Conn. (UPI)— Anvil Agastio goes through the motions of wiping a counter top in his sandwich shop across the street from Building 2 with its blue-paneled windows. His shop both is empty and in pin-drop silence he says, “We probably feel the strike more than anybody else.” He glances at the chairs piled atop the tables and says, “We opened up two days after the strike began.”

Nearby is the small department store of William Rosenblatt, which has been in his family for 50 years. It is crammed chock-full of wearing apparel much of which he purchased before the strike began, April 20.

“Even the Depression wasn’t as bad as this. There’s nothing you can do but hope.” Rosenblatt points to the mounds of clothing, the dresses, the shoes. “Business is off 40 per cent,” he says.

“Look, if people aren’t working, they can’t buy. They make payments and you get new business. His shop both ways. I’m not pressing anybody for money. I know they haven’t got it. It’s bad, bad, I’m telling you,” he said.

Behind in Bills

A housewife whose husband is employed at the UniRoyal plant says, “We’re getting pretty far behind in our bills. I’ve got two children, one in college and one in high school. If this thing isn’t settled pretty soon, I’m not sure the one in college is going to be able to go back.”

Even if the negotiators in Akron, Ohio, do reach agreement in the next two weeks, it seems apparent that the plant would not return to normal until almost Labor Day because the annual vacation shutdown begins July 28.

The economic loss due to the strike is reflected in odd ways: short collections in the city’s churches; parking meter revenue is off 40 per cent, and in Sullivan’s tap room, they’re drinking beer instead of whiskey.

One big name in the strike is not connected with the rubber workers union. It is that of Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers, which issued an interest-free loan of $1 million to the strikers.

This is sometimes praised; sometimes criticized.

[PHOTO: Black and white headshot of a man in a suit]

JAMES HEALION

“They say you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth but Walter Reuther knows how to win friends and influence people. It could be that he might just want to take us under his wing,” says one striker.

This theory seems to have an element of possibility in it however remote, since the rubber workers appear more aligned with Reuther’s union than any other union, except their own, because a good portion of UniRoyal’s products are for the automobile industry.

The company itself is feeling the stinging impact of the strike in all its departments especially, however, in its footwear division, which is known as the mother plant. This division produces the “Keds” brand of sneaker, in addition to others.

At this time of year, 250 to 300 salesmen are on the road showing their samples to prospective buyers in the nation’s stores but this is not so this year because of an agreement being contested in the courts which stipulates the samples may not be produced during the strike.

Salesmen Idle

UniRoyal, thus, is the only one of the big rubber companies whose salesmen are not displaying their footwear lines. The effect will probably be felt through the autumn and into the Christmas season, according to one source.

Another source says that when the strike ends, the company expects to recruit about 500 new employes for the ones known to have found other full-time employment since the walkout began in April.

Thomas G. Hogenauer, manager of the State Employment Office in nearby Waterbury, says about 200 rubber workers applied for part-time work since the strike started. Forty found work through the office.

There appears to be no surface hard core animosity borne by any of the parties to the strike. The local, in fact, allowed 25 mechanics and millwrights to go into the plant recently to oil and maintain machines that otherwise might have rusted or fouled.

Shipping Goods

While the plant is not manufacturing, supervisory personnel are shipping merchandise. Seventy-five per cent of the incoming orders are being filled, according to one source.

The spinoff effect of the strike is felt in the stores, the service stations and the supermarkets, where layoffs in the city’s two largest stores have occurred.

Lester Odell, who operates a service station, says,”The strike has slowed everything down.” His business has been out by 50 to 60 per cent, he says, “I wish to God it would be over tomorrow.”

Maryann San Angelo, who operates a beauty parlor, says she has about 75 UniRoyal customers — the plant employes about 1,000 women. “Some have stopped coming in and won’t be back until the strike ends. However, we have taken several on credit — we think we should do that much for them,” she says.

Banks Concede

The lending institutions in the city are making concessions. John G. Moni, a vice president of the Naugatuck Savings Bank, says “there is a reverse psychology in this kind of circumstance. Everybody is not trying to withdraw, they’re trying to save. It’s a disaster, in essence.”

Please turn to Page 10

Union Sets Deadline At Goodyear

by

Union Sets Deadline At Goodyear

7-11-67

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — United Rubber Workers sources said Monday that 21,00 employes at 11 Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. plants are set to join the rubber strike at midnight Wednesday.

The announcement said the workers would walk out unless there is significant progress in negotiations which resumed Monday in Cincinnati.

Goodyear is the only member of the nation’s big five rubber companies still working in the strike which began April 2 against Firestone, Uniroyal, and Goodrich. General Tire & Rubber was struck three weeks ago.

The statement followed a vote of confidence to the URW bargaining team by Local 2 at Goodyear here.

John Nardella, president of Local 12 said the vote was taken “in case some other course of action should become necessary within the next few weeks.” Nardella said none-economic issues in the strike had been settled by Friday.

So far, the strike has idled more than 52,000 rubber workers.

Federal Intervention Possible In Strike

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Federal Intervention Possible In Strike

7-12-67

If Goodyear Workers Strike

Federal Intervention Possible In Strike

The United Rubber Workers Union has notified the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., that unless settlement is reached it will strike its plants at 12:01 a.m. Friday.

The 21,000 workers at Goodyear’s 11 plants have continued working on a day-to-day basis since the termination of their contract, April 20.

In the event Goodyear’s plants are closed, there has been some speculation that the government would invoke the Taft-Hartley Act providing for an 80-day “cooling off” period. During this time, presumably all the struck companies would return to work while negotiations continued for contract settlement.

However, one source indicated some doubt the administration would seek an injunction at least immediately, although he conceded a strike at Goodyear would ultimately make a move for an injunction more likely.

In another move to force the issue, the United Rubber Workers called a strike last Saturday against Schenuit Rubber Co. in Baltimore, a smaller concern producing aircraft and industrial tires. This possibility will bring added government pressure for a settlement among the five major concerns because of military aircraft tire requirements.

Schenuit was struck by Local 293 of the union, also in a dispute over a new contract, idling about 400 workers. Schenuit’s aircraft tire production goes entirely to the government and represents about 20 per cent of its aircraft tire requirements, according to industrial sources.

William E. Simkin, director of the U.S. Mediation and Conciliation Service, appeared in Columbus, Ohio Monday to as-

sist in negotiating a contract settlement between B.F. Goodrich and the union. Peter Bommarito, International President

of the union, also went to Columbus from Akron, Monday to join the negotiations.

Please Turn to Page 14

A conciliation service spokesman in Columbus discounted the government’s aircraft tire position as being Simkin’s reason for seeking a Goodrich strike settlement. Rather, he said, he believed Simkin felt “it would be more fruitful to start with Goodrich” in seeking company-by-company settlements among the five major concerns.

Officials of the Schenuit Rubber also were meeting with union bargaining representatives in Baltimore yesterday with mediation service personnel taking part in the talks. The Schenuit contract had expired June 30 but workers continued on their jobs on a day-to-day basis until Saturday.

AKRON, Ohio (UPI) — The United Rubber Workers (URW) plans to shut down the nation’s largest tire producer, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., if no contract agreement is reached by Thursday midnight.

A strike against the fifth member of the “big five” tire producers prompted fear of government intervention.

Some 54,000 URW members ready are on strike against our other major rubber companies. Three of them have been closed for the past 82 days the longest strike in industry history.

Kenneth Oldham, a member the union’s Goodyear Policy mmittee, said Tuesday in ncinnati that about 22,000 un members will walk off their ps at 11 Goodyear factories ross the country at midnight ursday, if negotiations, taking ice in a Cincinnati hotel, were successful.

The strike vote was taken by individual URW locals at Goodyear plants.

Negotiations with Goodyear and the B. F. Goodrich Co. intensified.

In both sets of talks, agreement was reported reached on all non money issues.

URW President Peter Bommarito and Chief Federal Mediator William Simkin sat in on the Goodrich negotiations in hopes of reaching a pattern setting agreement that could end the strikes at other companies.

About 51,000 workers have been on strike against Goodrich, Firestone and UniRoyal since April 20, when contracts expired.

Another 3,000 URW members struck two general tire plants June 21.

With Goodyear also struck, about 75 per cent of industry capacity will be idled, and the flow of tires and other materials to the defense industry will be sharply cut.

Major stumbling blocks in all negotiations were wage increases, supplementary unemployment benefits, and pay boost differentials between tire workers and other production workers.

Tire workers average about $3.58 per hour and non-tire workers about $2.69.

The URW Tuesday confirmed reports of another “seven-figure” loan from the United Auto Workers to replenish the URW’s depleted strike funds.

The auto workers previously loaned the striking union $1 million.

Wants Fellow Rubber Workers To Help End The Strike

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7-13-67

Wants Fellow Rubber Workers To Help End The Strike

To the Editor of The Republican:

The time has come for us rubber workers to get together and let our bargaining negotiators in Cincinnati know that the strike is going on too long with no settlement in sight.

The money we workers lost will never be regained regardless of what the settlement will be. The longer the strike continues, the more we will lose. They talk about a fair and just settlement.

I don’t think it is fair and just for us workers who have to use our life’s savings after working so hard for it, and then go broke and in debt. Whoever is interested in getting back to work please send in a postcard to our Uniroyal

7-13-67

Letters To The Edit

negotiators in Cincinnati and ask them to get going for a quick settlement.

Give them seven days or we will take a vote to go back to work while they are negotiating, until a settlement is reached.

This way we will be earning wages and receive retroactive pay when the strike is over. This is plain common sense. Do it now. Enough time and money have been lost.

In my opinion the company is offering a fair and just settlement. I believe we should go back to work so that we could make sample footwear for the salesman to show to the buyers. This is to our own advantage and insures our jobs for the future.

I appeal to and urge every member to send in a postcard as soon as possible to Uniroyal negotiators in Cincinnati and let them know that we want to vote to go back to work and vote to accept the company offer.

ANTHONY ENSERO
Veteran worker of 31 years’ service
121 Tracy Ave.

Waterbury

Over 20 Strikers On Welfare Rolls

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7-13-67

Over 20 Strikers On Welfare Rolls

NAUGATUCK—It is no secret that virtually everyone in the borough has been affected to at least some degree by the rubber strike. The extent to which everyone has been hurt may never be known, but it was learned Wednesday that more than 20 strikers have resorted to borough welfare.

As the strike continues, said Welfare Supt. Catherine Brennan, the number of cases steadily increases.

June’s expenditures for “outside poor” totaled $3,951, up $1,175 from the May expenditures of $2,776 for the same item. The figure for May was up $1,183 from April’s expenditure.

The number of cases being handled by the Welfare Department have almost doubled due to strikers applying for assistance.

Monthly expenditures for “outside poor” in the past have hovered around half the amounts spent this past May and June. Expenditures in April, 1966, amounted to $1,868; in June, 1966 they totaled $1,886.

It was noted during Wednesday’s meeting, however, that were it not for the assistance strikers have received from veterans’ assistance programs, the borough’s welfare expenses would soar to crisis proportions in almost no time.

Exactly how many strikers have turned to veterans’ assistance is not known, but reliable sources indicated something in the area of 100.

Although the Welfare Board is not yet in a crisis, if the number of strikers on welfare continues its steady rise, the board will have to appeal for additional funds from the Board of Finance.

This would be only one of the Finance Board’s problems, since it is expected that the Police Department will have to seek additional funds for policemen who put in overtime on strike duty.

Strikers receiving assistance from the borough are far from having all their problems solved with the welfare payments, as they will be expected to pay back the funds granted them. This in addition to the unpaid bills, the extended credit and the depleted savings accounts which will plague most of the workers when a new contract is signed.

Only Economic Issues

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7-13-67

Only Economic Issues

Continued From Page 1

pay a worker 95 per cent of his wage. All the companies except General offered 75 per cent.

General upped the offer to 80 per cent and it was understood the union would accept this figure if the companies agreed to contribute to the benefit fund an extra penny per month for each employe with excesses from the fund to be distributed as Christmas bonuses.

The companies, however, refused to add the extra penny and want bonuses eliminated altogether.

General offered a 40 cent wage hike while the other firms offered 38 cents an hour to tire workers, who averaged $3.68 an hour under the old contract, and 31 cents to “non-tire” workers, who made $2.69 an hour.

The URW asked that non-tire workers receive the same pay boost as tire workers.

Rubber Strike Talks Recess For Weekend

by

Waterbury American, Saturday, July 15, 1967—5

Rubber Strike Talks Recess For Weekend

AKRON, OHIO (UPI)—With the nation’s rubber production down to 25 per cent of its total, negotiators for four major tire companies and the striking United Rubber Workers (URW) took a weekend break.

There was little hope a tentative agreement reached Thursday with General Tire & Rubber Co. would pave the way for a settlement between the union and Uniroyal, B. F. Goodrich, Firestone and Goodyear.

General Tire’s 3,000 idled workers could return to their jobs Sunday night.

A pay raise differential between the tire and non-tire workers appeared to be the major stumbling block in talks with Goodyear, the largest producer.

Tire workers averaged $3.58 an hour under the old contract and non-tire employes $2.69 an hour.

Goodyear offered a 43-cent-an-hour wage increase to tire workers — the same as General — but two cents to less to non-tire workers.

The tire workers’ increase would go into effect in steps of 15, 15 and 13 cents over a three-year period. A Goodyear spokesman maintained that although the non-tire workers’ increase was two cents lower, it would go into effect sooner and, in effect, eliminate the differential.

Resume Monday

A union spokesman called the offer “substandard.” It was the final offer when negotiations broke up for the weekend. Talks resume Monday.

Uniroyal, B. F. Goodrich, and Firestone have been closed the past 12 weeks. Goodyear was closed early Friday, bringing the number idled to 76,000.

The URW general agreement included a supplemental unemployment benefit plan that will pay a worker laid off 80 per cent of his salary.

URW President Peter Bommarito said the plan “Makes it possible for the blue collar worker to plan his family expenditures for months ahead.”

The rubber strike appeared to pose no immediate threat to the automobile industry.

Auto factories one-by-one are halting production for the annual model changeover and large supplies of tires will not be needed until production of 1968 autos starts in August.

Union Strikes Goodyear

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Union Strikes Goodyear

General Tire Reaches Accord

7-14-67

Union Strikes Goodyear

By Combined Wire Services

AKRON, Ohio—The United Rubber Workers (URW) struck Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., the nation’s top producer, early Friday less than 12 hours after reaching a contract agreement with another major rubber company.

Negotiators for Goodyear and the union met until late Thursday night then recessed talks until Friday morning at 10 a.m.

Goodyear spokesmen said the URW had rejected an offer “similar” to one it accepted from General Tire & Rubber Co. earlier Thursday.

URW spokesman George Scriven said, the Goodyear proposal was “not similar in all respects to the general offer.”

“It was substandard in some parts,” he said, “that’s all I want to say about it.”

The union’s move to add Goodyear workers to 53,000 members who have been on strike at Firestone, B. F. Goodrich and Uniroyal since April 21 followed a Thursday afternoon announcement of a tentative agreement with General Tire & Rubber.

General, smallest of the industry’s big five, has been on strike only since June 22, with 1,850 out at a plant here and nearly 1,200 others at Waco, Tex.

Goodyear has been operating on a day-to-day basis since expiration of the old URW contracts and the start of the strike against Firestone, Goodrich and Uniroyal 12 weeks ago.

The tentative agreement with General Tire & Rubber was heralded as a break in the longest strike in rubber industry history and a possible pattern for other settlements. But the four larger companies have many workers other than tire builders, who make up the union membership at General Tire, and so have additional bargaining problems.

The URW-General agreement was reached in negotiations at Cleveland, and Hamad said the offer amounted to a wage increase of 43 cents an hour over the three years — 15 cents in each of the first and second years and 13 cents the last year.

In addition there would be a 10-cent-an-hour increase the first year for skilled workers.

Tire builders in the top pay group currently average $3.88 an hour.

Vacations were improved, Hamad said, to give workers with 22 years service five weeks, and 30-year veterans six weeks. Formerly workers received five weeks after 25 years.

Supplemental unemployment benefits, a reported key point in negotiations, were increased from 68 to 80 per cent a week for laid-off workers. These benefits extend for 39 weeks, the same as before.

Workers also received a 10th paid holiday, and the company’s contribution for pensions and insurance was increased from $3.25 to $5.50 a month for each year of service.

In the past, the first agreement with the union has set a pattern for others. This seemed even more likely this year since the Big Five entered into a mutual aid pact before the strike.

The pact was the first in the rubber industry’s bargaining history and provided that those companies not struck would give “substantial” aid to those shut down.

Goodyear has been the only major rubber company working since June 22, but all the Big Five had stockpiled products early in the year as a strike-hedge.

Rubber Negotiators

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Naugatuck, Conn.

Established 1885

Rubber Negotiators

SATURDAY, JULY 15, 1967
10 PAGES
Price Seven Cents

Take Weekend Break

AKRON, Ohio (UPI) — With the nation’s rubber production down to 25 per cent of its total, negotiators for four major tire companies and the striking United Rubber Workers (URW) took a weekend break.

There was little hope a tentative agreement reached Thursday with General Tire & Rubber Co. would pave the way for a settlement between the union and Uniroyal, B.F. Goodrich, Firestone and Goodyear.

General Tire’s 3,000 idled workers could return to their jobs Sunday night.

A pay raise differential between the tire and non-tire workers appeared to be the major stumbling block in talks with Goodyear, the largest producer.

Tire workers averaged $3.68 an hour under the old contract and non-tire employes $2.69 an hour.

Goodyear offered a 43-cents-an hour to wage increase to tire workers—the same as General—but two cents less to non-tire workers.

The tire workers’ increase would go into effect in steps of 15, 15 and 13 cents over a three year period. A Goodyear spokesman maintained that although the non-tire workers’ increase was two cents lower, it would go into effect sooner and, in effect, eliminate the differential.

A union spokesman called the offer “substandard.” It was the final offer when negotiations broke up for the weekend. Talks resume Monday.

UniRoyal, B.F. Goodrich, and Firestone have been closed the past 12 weeks. Goodyear was closed early Friday, bringing the number ideled to 76,000.

The URW general agreement included a supplemental unemployment benefit plan that will pay a worker laid off 80 per cent of his salary.

URW President Peter Bommarito said the plan “makes it possible for the blue collar worker to plan his family expenditures for months ahead.”

The rubber strike appeared to pose no immediate threat to the automobile industry.

Auto factories one-by-one are Halting production for the annual model changeover and large supplies of tires will not be needed until production of 1968 autos start in August.

Raymond Mengacci, vice-president of Local 45, URW, said yesterday afternoon he had talked with George Froehlich, president of the Local and who is in Cincinnati, yesterday at noon time.

Froehlich told Mengacci the UniRoyal negotiators had asked for the afternoon off to discuss the offer made by General Tire and were expected to begin negotiations again this morning at 9 o’clock.

Mengacci said Froehlich told him the negotiating teams will keep talking “Saturday and Sunday, if necessary.”

Froehlich said he expected UniRoyal to make an offer to the URW very similar to that of General Tire.

Uniroyal Worker Replies To End-The-Strike Advocate

by

MARIAM C. SCHLICHT
Chairman,
Democratic Town Committee

Roxbury

7-16-67

Uniroyal Worker Replies
To End-The-Strike Advocate

To the Editor of The Republican:

As a member of Local 45 URW I would like
to answer Mr. Anthony Ensero’s letter to the
editor which appeared in The Republican July
13.

Mr. Ensero is a badly confused and mis-
informed individual. His expressed desire to
have postcards sent to our negotiating commit-
tee in Cincinnati telling them “to get going”
shows a great lack of the common sense he
professes in his letter to have.

Just what does he think they have been
doing? Is he aware of the deep concern these
men have for the members of their respective
locals? Does he know of the long tiring hours
they have been putting in (without pay) to try
to reach a settlement that will be beneficial to
all of us.

Mr. Ensero states that, in his opinion, “the
company is offering a fair settlement.” I agree
their offer sounds very generous. There are
however, too many clauses which they have
included that render it unacceptable.

There are some instances in which members
are subjected to unfair working conditions. Are
these to be ignored? Can an extra holiday or a
few cents more an hour compensate for this?
Perhaps for Mr. Ensero, but not for me nor for
the majority of my fellow workers who feel
they have certain rights that the company
must recognize and accept.

It is true we will not regain the money we
have lost, but we will have retained our dignity
and our determination to move forward. With
both my husband and I working at Uniroyal we
feel the same, if not a greater, strain on our
purse strings as Mr. Ensero. We don’t, howev-
er, have his belly ache.

Some sacrifices have to be made if we are
ever going to get ahead. In the history of the
American Labor Movement there have been
many struggles, and the benefits we now enjoy
have been obtained for us through the efforts
of others. Are we so small that we can do noth-
ing for ourselves or for those who will come af-
ter us.

If Mr. Ensero must “appeal to and urge” his
fellow workers, let it be to give our negotiating
committee a strong vote of confidence, and a
sincere word of thanks for their dedication.

I cast my vote for these men two years ago,
and I firmly believe now, as I did then, that
they will do the best they can for me and for
all of us, including Mr. Ensero.

THERESA N. MORGADO
Member Local 45

471 Willow St.
Waterbury.

Settlement Is Reached At Goodrich

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7-16-67

Settlement

Is Reached At Goodrich

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Negotiators for the B.F. Goodrich Co. and United Rubber Workers Union announced in Columbus on Saturday they had

(In Naugatuck, a three-month-old strike of Uniroyal by the United Rubber Workers continues. The union settlement with the General Tire Co. on Thursday encouraged negotiators in the belief that a breakthrough was at hand. (Related story on Page 24.)

reached a tentative agreement to end a marathon strike against the company.

In Akron, after the agreement was announced, Goodrich President Ward Keener said pay

See GOODRICH Page 2

Uniroyal Talks Resume; New Accords Lift Hopes

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Monday, July 17, 1967

BEACON FALLS

Uniroyal Talks Resume; New Accords Lift Hopes

Negotiations were to resume today in Cincinnati between the United Rubber Workers, AFL-CIO, and Uniroyal in an atmosphere of optimism over recent settlements in the rubber industry.

Union agreements with two members of the industry’s big five — B. F. Goodrich Co. and the General Tire and Rubber Co. — have lifted hopes for an accord with Uniroyal, which has plants in Naugatuck and Beacon Falls. Uniroyal has been struck since April 21.

Negotiations were also to be resumed today by Goodyear at Cincinnati and Firestone in Cleveland.

The Goodrich company was ready today for a quick start – up of production at its nine plants in eight states after an agreement was reached in Columbus Saturday.

A tentative settlement was reached with General Tire Thursday in Cleveland.

Union members are expected to ratify both pacts in votes not yet scheduled.

Both the Goodrich and General agreements provide for a total of 43 cents in hourly pay raises-15 cents this year and again next year and 13 cents in 1969. There is an additional 10 cents hourly in the first year for skilled workers. Present hourly top scale is $3.88, the union said.

An increase to 80 per cent of normal pay for supplemental benefits to laid-off workers was hailed by Peter Bommarito, URW international president, as a “giant step forward in reaching the goal of the guaranteed annual wage.”

Judge Issues Injunction Prohibiting Uniroyal From Resuming Production

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Judge Issues Injunction Prohibiting Uniroyal From Resuming Production

7-17-67

Judge Issues Injunction Prohibiting Uniroyal From Resuming Production

A Superior Court injunction was issued today restraining Uniroyal, Inc., from resuming production at its strike-bound Footwear Plant in Naugatuck.

The order prevents the company from producing samples of its new line of footwear for distribution to potential buyers during the strike.

It enforces an agreement signed by the company and Local 45 of the United Rubber Workes Union April 18, three days before the current strike began. In that agreement the company said it would not perform any work done by bargaining-unit members by non-bargaining units members for the duration of the strike.

Judge Leo V. Gaffney said he was issuing the injunction in an attempt to forestall “acts of violence” by union members should the company be allowed to go into production with non-union help.

“If the company is not restrained from violating (the agreement),” the judge said, “all confidence (in the union) will be lost, its effectiveness as a bargaining unit will be destroyed and its control over its members will be lost, as well as any hope of restraining its members from acts of violence.”

As for the company’s claim that it would lose money through its failure to exhibit new samples to buyers, Judge Gaffney said “compare this with a destroyed bargaining unit which has enjoyed the trust and confidence of its members over a great many years.”

If the order had not been issued, Judge Gaffney said, the result “would necessarily lead to complete disillusionment of the union leadership by its rank and file members and would in-

(Cont’d on Page 8—Uniroyal)

Uniroyal 7-17

(Continued from Page One)

deed in the opinion of the court sound the death knell of its effectiveness.”

“Not to be overlooked is the welfare of the 3,500 members (of the union)on strike for 11 weeks, undergoing economic hardships and deprivations and being faced with a potential loss of their security,” the judge said.

“The injunction was requested by the union in June after the company announced that it intended to produce a total of 40,000 pairs of samples using non-union supervisory personnel. The company claimed that if it was not allowed to make the samples it would suffer “grave financial loss.” The union contended that any production would violate the April 18 agreement.

Injunction Against UniRoyal Imposed

by

Injunction Against UniRoyal Imposed

7-11-67 [handwritten]

Judge Leo V. Gaffney ruled today in favor of Local 45, United Rubber Workers, and imposed a restraining injunction against the Naugatuck Footwear plant of UniRoyal, Inc.

The order restricts the footwear plant from performing any work by non-bargaining personnel for the duration of the strike with the exception of work that had been performed at the plant before June 21.

The plant had attempted to start production on sample shoes, using non-bargaining personnel to perform work normally done by bargaining unit personnel, on June 22.

Local 45 immediately went into Waterbury Superior Court before Judge Gaffney requesting an injunction. Following two days in Court the Judge studied the testimony and rendered the above ruling.

The negotiating session scheduled yesterday in Cincinnati between UniRoyal and URW was canceled. According to a source, UniRoyal negotiators went to New York Sunday to meet with the Board of Directors of UniRoyal. The next scheduled meeting is tomorrow.

Raymond Mengacci, vice-president of Local 45, said this morning that he expects the strike will end by 6 p.m. tomorrow.

Two of the “big five” rubber companies have settled with the URW; UniRoyal is expected to be the next. General Tire settled Friday and B.F. Goodrich reached agreement Saturday.

Soon after the Goodrich accord was announced, the company began calling back its maintenance employes to prepare its idled plants for a resumption of production, probably later this week.

Peter Bommarito, who has been URW president less than a year, apparently is on his way to wrapping up the most costly pay and welfare contract agreements in the union’s history. He termed the Goodrich and General Tire pacts “giant steps” toward realizing the union’s goals. “We achieved everything we had hoped for,” he said.

The Goodrich and General Tire agreements are much the same. However, Goodrich calls for the 43-cent an hour pay boost for all employes over a three year period, disregarding the differential between tire and non-tire workers.

Goodrich has agreed to unemployment compensation would be made at 80 per cent of straight time wages for one year to all employes with up to five years service and on a graduated scale up to four years of payment for employes with 25 years of service or more.

The Goodrich agreement includes a revamped vacation schedule but doesn’t provide an additional paid holiday as did General Tire’s. Goodrich’s liberalized program will provide two weeks’ vacation after one year, three weeks after five years, four weeks after 15 years, five weeks after 22 years and six weeks after 30 years.

Like the General Tire settlement, Goodrich’s provides a first year additional pay increase for skilled trades workers of 10 cents an hour; a boost in monthly pension payment to $5.50 from $3.25 for each year of service; company-paid life insurance coverage of $7,500, up from $6,500 previously, and increased hospitalization, medical and dental, visiting nurse and sickness and accident benefits.

The boost in pension payments will mean an increase of $56.25 in monthly payments to those who retire with 25 years’ service. Those now retired also will receive a boost of $1.50 a month for each year of preretirement service.

The new contract runs to April 20, 1970, and contains an “umbrella clause” providing for continuation of pension and welfare provisions for up to 90 days in the event the union cancels the agreement at its expiration date. This reflects an innovation for the industry, which heretofore has had one contract for wages and fringe benefits and another for pensions and welfare issues. Both contracts were expiring this year, however, with the wage accord running out April 20 and the pension pact expiring Sept. 15. During four months’ negotiations, the union finally agreed to putting all the issues into a single package.

AKRON, Ohio (UPI) —Three major rubber manufacturers returned to the bargaining table today with hopes for an end to an 88-day strike, while two firms readied their plants to resume production.

The B.F. Goodrich Co. began preliminary maintenance work within hours after announcing a tentative agreement with the United Rubber Workers Saturday. It planned to start production as soon as possible and to call workers back as the preparations proceeded.

The General Tire & Rubber Co. had tentatively scheduled work to resume Sunday night, pending a ratification vote by URW locals at its plants here and in Waco, Tex. The local executive boards met Friday but put off scheduling a vote because complete texts of the agreement were not available. They planned to meet again Wednesday.

In the Goodrich agreement, the union achieved its goal of equal raises for tire and non-tire workers. The pact calls for 43-cent an hour raises for all employes in steps of 15, 15, and 13 cents over the next three years. Skilled workers are given an additional 10 cent increase, effective immediately.

Same Hikes

The General pact, announced Thursday, offers the same pay raises, but no non-tire workers are involved.

Both agreements provide a supplemental unemployment benefit plan guaranteeing laid-off employes 80 per cent of their wages. They formerly got 65 per cent.

Under the old contracts, tire workers averaged $3.68 an hour and non-tire workers averaged $2.68.

URW International President Peter Bommarito said he was “very confident” the agreement would be ratified. approval send 12,000 of 76,000 strikers back to work.

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Injunction Against

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Injunction Against

7-17-67

Continued From Page 1

William E. Simkin, head of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, congratulated both Goodrich and the URW for completing what he called “extremely difficult negotiations”

He and Bommarito had assisted in the Goodrich negotiations in Columbus.

The Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., and UniRoyal Inc. were scheduled to meet today. Firestone, Goodrich and UniRoyal were struck April 20, General June 21 and Goodyear last Thursday.

Goodrich President J. Ward Keener said the contract would mean price increases throughout the product line.

Forecast

UniRoyal Won’t Appeal Injunction Decision

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UniRoyal Won’t Appeal Injunction Decision

7-18-67 [handwritten]

BULLETIN

UniRoyal officials reported at noon today that the giant rubber firm had decided late this morning that it will not appeal the decision of Superior Court Judge Leo V. Gaffney to impose the injunction against the company.

A company spokesman said this morning that the Footwear Division of UniRoyal will appeal the restraining injunction imposed upon them by a ruling of Judge Leo V. Gaffney in Waterbury Superior Court.

The order issued by the court bars the company from producing sample shoes using non-bargaining personnel for work ordinarily performed by bargaining personnel.

The footwear officials and officers of Local 45 URW had signed an agreement April 18 in which the company agreed not to use supervisory personnel for work usually performed by striking URW members in exchange for an orderly shut-down of the plant and plant maintenance during the strike duration.

Local 45 claimed in Waterbury Superior Court that the company had violated this agreement when it started production on June 22; however, the company claimed during the hearing that the Union had violated the agreement when violence broke out at the gates the first week of May and the company no longer considered the agreement in effect.

Footwear officials testified at the hearing to the necessity for sample shoes to be produced for showing on the market by Aug. 1st if the company expected to compete with other lines. The company contended this was for the striking employes’ benefit as well as the company.

The local footwear plant is the only plant stopped completely from producing. Both the local Chemical and Synthetic plans are on limited production.

Vacation pay checks will be issued to employes of the Footwear plant of UniRoyal next Tuesday. It is expected that the company will issue a schedule later this week for employes to pick-up their checks.

UniRoyal negotiators will sit down at the tables again today in Cincinnatti. It is believed that the company negotiators and United Rubber Workers Union are not far from agreement and settlement may come at anytime.

AKRON, Ohio (UPI) — Talks were expected to resume today between the United Rubber Workers (URW) and the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. after mass picketing brought a day’s interruption.

Several hundred pickets who gathered at the Goodyear headquarters here dispersed after an injunction was issued in Summit County Common Pleas Court. It limited pickets to two at each gate.

A Goodyear spokesman said the firm had been assured salaried employes would be allowed to enter the plant today.

In addition to Goodyear, the URW was to continue to meet with Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. and Uniroyal, Inc.

Tentative settlements were reached last week with General Tire & Rubber and B. F. Goodrich, the first breaks in the now 88-day-old strike. The strikes idled 76,000 workers.

Firestone was the only company to meet Monday with the Union. It was reported to have placed the same offer on the bargaining table that produced the two other settlements.

The General and Goodrich agreements call for wage increases of 43 cents an hour over three years and a supplemental unemployment benefit

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7-18-67 [handwritten]

program giving laid-off workers 80 per cent of their regular pay. Tire workers average $3.68 an hour under the old contract.

The URW was allowing maintenance and service workers to go back to work at the two General and nine Goodrich plants to prepare them for resumption of production. No date had yet been set for a ratification vote on the agreements.

A union spokesman indicated workers may return at Goodrich before the agreement is ratified.

Picketing In Akron Interrupts Resumption Of Contract Talks

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Picketing In Akron Interrupts Resumption Of Contract Talks

Picketing In Akron Interrupts Resumption Of Contract Talks

7-18-67 [handwritten date in top right]

AKRON, Ohio (UPI) —Talks were expected to resume today between the United Rubber Workers (URW) and the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. after mass picketing brought a day’s interruption.

Several hundred pickets who gathered at the Goodyear headquarters here dispersed after an injunction was issued in Summit County Common Pleas Court. It limited pickets to two at each gate.

A Goodyear spokesman said the firm had been assured salaried employes would be allowed to enter the plant today.

In addition to Goodyear, the URW was to continue to meet with Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. and Uniroyal, Inc.

Tentative settlements were reached last week with General Tire & Rubber and B. F. Goodrich, the first breaks in the now 88-day-old strike. The strikes idled 76,000 workers.

Firestone was the only company to meet Monday with the Union. It was reported to have placed the same offer on the bargaining table that produced the two other settlements.

The General and Goodrich agreements call for wage increases of 43 cents an hour over three years and a supplemental unemployment benefit program giving laid-off workers 80 per cent of their regular pay. Tire workers average $3.68 an hour under the old contract.

The URW was allowing maintenance and service workers to go back to work at the two General and nine Goodrich plants to prepare them for resumption of production. No date had yet been set for a ratification vote on the agreements.

A union spokesman indicated workers may return at Goodrich before the agreement is ratified.

“Samples” Made In Japan?

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"Samples" Made In Japan?

“Samples” Made In Japan?

7-18-67 [handwritten date]

A court injunction has been issued restraining UniRoyal, Inc. from resuming production of footwear at its strike-bound Naugatuck plant, thus enforcing an agreement between the company and the United Rubber Workers union which was signed before the current strike began.

The court has found for the union in this instance, partially on the ground that failure to restrain the company from resuming production would mean the loss of all confidence in the union . . . “its effectiveness as a bargaining unit will be destroyed and its control over its members will be lost, as well as any hope of restraining its members from acts of violence.”

The company cannot, as a result of the decision, produce samples of its new line of footwear for distribution through salesmen to potential buyers—which raises an interesting question.

If salesman cannot deliver samples, they will have nothing to sell. With nothing to sell, they are not going to be taking any orders. Without any orders, there isn’t going to be much work for the members of the United Rubber Workers when and if they finally get back to their jobs. It strikes us that this, too, might have a detrimental effect on the future of the union. A bargaining unit can be destroyed in more ways than one.

Has anyone on either side of the UniRoyal impasse attempted to reach a compromise on this matter of sample shoes? If the union will not allow the company to use supervisory help to produce the samples, might it not be logical for the URW to suggest that on a seniority basis a certain number of production workers would be allowed back to work to produce the vital samples?

From the company point of view, wouldn’t it be better to produce the samples now under any agreeable arrangement than to have no samples at all?

It would be of mutual benefit to both company and union if some arrangement could be worked out on this matter, without in any way affecting other issues in the current impasse.

Of course, UniRoyal could always go out into the open market and pick up “samples” with that “Made in Japan” label on them. There’s no shortage of those around.

After all, it’s generally accepted that the Japanese are pretty clever at copying American-made products of all kinds. Why not reverse the process?

Uniroyal Settlement Still Sought

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Uniroyal 7-19-67

Settlement

Still Sought

NAUGATUCK—Although there was no settlement Tuesday of the United Rubber Workers’ strike against Uniroyal, a union source said that union and management were meeting in small groups late Tuesday night.

The groups will meet as one today to resume large-scale talks in an attempt to reach accord.

In Akron, Ohio, talks between the union and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. resumed Tuesday after mass picketing brought a day’s interruption.

An injunction was issued against the union in the Summit County Court of Common Pleas limiting pickets to two at a gate after several hundred pickets had gathered at the Goodyear headquarters gate.

Tentative settlements were reached last week between the union and General Tire & Rubber and B. F. Goodrich, the first breaks in the now 89-day-old strike.

Firestone reportedly placed the same offer on the bargaining table that produced the two other settlements.

The General and Goodrich agreements call for wage increases of 43 cents over three years and a supplemental unemployment benefits totaling 80 per cent of regular pay in the case of a lay-off.

No Appeal Scheduled By Uniroyal

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7-20-67

No Appeal Scheduled By Uniroyal

NAUGATUCK—Uniroyal, Inc., will not attempt to appeal to the State Supreme Court in an effort to overturn an injunction issued against the company Monday, an attorney for the firm said Wednesday.

In accepting the injunction, Uniroyal will not be able to produce sample shoes carried by salesmen.

Atty. Raymond E. Baldwin said Uniroyal officials agreed late Tuesday not to appeal the injunction which was handed down by Superior Court Judge Leo V. Gaffney at the request of Local 45 of the United Rubber Workers Union.

The order restrains the company from using non-union personnel for the production of sample footwear.

Meanwhile, B. F. Goodrich and General Tire prepared to call back 15,000 workers on the basis of tentative agreements reached Saturday.

Some 60,000 workers for Uniroyal, Goodyear and Firestone remain out of work as talks continue in the longest and largest strike in United Rubber Workers history.

Settlement Appears Close

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Settlement Appears Close

Naugatuck, Conn.

Established 1885
WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 1967
12 PAGES

Firestone Next?—

Settlement Appears Close

AKRON, Ohio (UPI) — Observers looked for further breaks in the 88-day-old rubber industry strike today with attention focused on the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. talks in Cleveland.

United Rubber Workers International President Peter Bommarito was in Cleveland to assist at the negotiations.

A Firestone spokesman said, “We’re hopeful something will come soon, but there have been no indications yet.”

Future settlements were expected to follow substantially the same pattern set in agreements reached last week with the General Tire & Rubber Co. and the B. F. Goodrich Co.

The agreements provided all workers an increase of 43 cents an hour in steps of 15, 15, and 13 cents over the next three years and a supplemental unemployment benefit plan that gives laid off workers 80 per cent of their regular pay.

The Goodrich agreement achieved a major union goal of equal raises for tire and non-tire workers, eliminating a differential in previous contracts.

The union was expected to ask the other companies to also eliminate the differential.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. resumed talks with the URW Tuesday after mass picketing cancelled a day at the bargaining table. The firm Monday had refused to meet with the union until the number of pickets was reduced to comply with a restraining order.

UniRoyal, Inc., also resumed talks Tuesday with the URW.

URW Local 9 was to vote here today on the tentative agreement reached with General. No vote had been set by Local 312 in Waco, Tex.

Local 5 here scheduled a Sunday vote on the Goodrich offer and other locals at eight Goodrich plants around the country were expected to schedule weekend meetings.

Both General and Goodrich prepared to resume production. The URW permitted maintenance and service employes to go back to work before ratifi-

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Settlement Appears 7-19

Continued From Page 1

cation to prepare the plants.

The strike, which idled 78,000 men nationwide, was called April 20 against Firestone, UniRoyal and Goodrich; June 21 against General and July 6 against Goodyear, largest of the nation’s rubber producers. The walkout cut the industry’s production capacity to 25 per cent.

Ohio Talks Hold Key To Settlement

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Ohio Talks Hold Key To Settlement

Rubber Strike

7-20-67

Ohio Talks Hold Key To Settlement

Striking United Rubber Workers employed at the UniRoyal plants in Naugatuck are anxiously waiting news from Cincinnati. With two of the “Big Five” rubber companies settling their differences, local residents are hopeful that a settlement with UniRoyal will come next.

Although negotiators met yesterday jointly following several small group meetings Tuesday that lasted into the night, no immediate news of progress has been released.

Local workers eager for settlement are wondering about the annual footwear plant shut-down scheduled for three-weeks beginning July 28.

If the strike should end this week, the question now is when would the employes start back to work. Some have planned vacations that they feel can not be cancelled even though they have been out on strike for 90-days.

Negotiators were scheduled to meet again this morning at 9 a.m. A few issues are still to be resolved according to sources, and agreements must be stated in terminology acceptable to both the company and the union before settlement is gained.

AKRON, Ohio (UPI) — Signs of optimism were apparent today in the 90-day-old rubber industry strike.

There also were further signs of the walkout’s growing financial toll, as the B. F. Goodrich Co. reported its second quarter net income was down 92.5 per cent.

Goodrich and General Tire & Rubber Co. reached agreement with the United Rubber Workers (URW) last week.

UniRoyal, Inc., of Naugatuck, Conn., Firestone Tire & Rubber and Goodyear Tire & Rubber continued negotiations with the URW.

Among the hopeful signs was approval of the General three-year contract by Local 9 here. Despite a heated feud over the method of voting, the union’s executive board ruled Wednesday that a four-to-one favorable vote — First by a show of hands and then a standing vote — would be upheld.

Production in some departments at the General plant here resumed last midnight. The company said it expected to be going full steam sometime next week. Local 312 in Waco, Tex., will vote on the same agreement Saturday.

Akron Local 5 will vote on the Goodrich agreement Sunday and locals at eight other Goodrich plants also were expected to vote during the weekend.

Industry spokesmen reported growing hopes other settlements would come soon.

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Ohio Talks Hold Key

7-20-67
Continued From Page 1

At UniRoyal one official described it as an “optimistic but cautious” attitude.

Future settlements were expected to follow substantially the same pattern set in the General and Goodrich agreements.

The contracts provide all employes with wage increases of 43 cents over three years and an 80 per cent supplemental unemployment program.

The Goodrich agreement eliminated a pay raise differential between tire and non-tire workers and the URW was expected to ask the other firms to do the same. Non-tire workers were not involved at General.

Goodrich reported its net income fell to $1,007,732 or 11 cents a share from $13,403,086 for the second quarter last year. Sales for the quarter were off 10 per cent.

Goodrich was the first of the “Big Five” firms to release figures showing the nearly full impact of the strike. Goodrich plants have been closed for all but three weeks of the second quarter.

Firestone, UniRoyal and Goodrich were struck April 20, General on June 21, and Goodyear on July 6.

At its peak the strike had idled 76,000 men.

300 Rubber Workers Return to Jobs

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300 Rubber Workers Return to Jobs

Globe & Nation

7·20·67 [handwritten]

300 Rubber Workers Return to Jobs

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — About 300 General Tire & Rubber Co. workers went back on the job at midnight Wednesday, and the company said all of the remaining 1,500 employes who went on strike June 22 would be called in by Friday afternoon.

United Rubber Workers Local 9 by a 4-1 margin Wednesday ratified a new three-year contract at a noisy meeting attended by 1,100 members, Ray Campbell, local treasurer reported.

A ratification vote at General Tire’s other plant employing 1,250 at Waco, Tex., is scheduled for Saturday.

At B. F. Goodrich Co., where a strike of 12,000 United Rubber Workers rounds out its third month tonight, employes will vote Sunday on an agreement reached last Saturday.

Vacation Pay Due Strikers In Naugatuck

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7-23-67

Vacation Pay Due Strikers In Naugatuck

NAUGATUCK — Striking employes of the Footwear Division of Uniroyal, Inc., will receive more than $2 million in vacation checks on Tuesday and Wednesday as the plant prepares for its scheduled three-week shutdown beginning Friday.

Footwear officials reminded those eligible that checks will be distributed on both days from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Water Street gate.

As the employes prepare to go on vacation here, workers for the General Tire & Rubber Co. in Waco, Tex. ratified a new three-year contract Saturday between the company and the United Rubber Workers, AFL-CIO. Union members in General’s Akron plant previously approved the contract.

It was also announced here that regardless of the present contract negotiations, plans have been made to fulfill the scheedule of closing for the three weeks.

This policy has been set to provide vacations for the hundreds of management personnel including foremen, supervisors and office employes who have been on the job since the walkout on April 21.

It was pointed out that the vacation schedule is set up early in the winter with the approval of Local 45 officials. This procedure allows for a uniform shutdown during the first three weeks in August.

94-Day Uni Royal

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behalf of that group.

94-Day UniRoyal

7-24-67

Continued From Page 1

Under the old contract, tire workers averaged $3.68 per hour and non-tire workers $2.68. A pay raise differential between the two was eliminated in both the Goodrich and Firestone pacts. General employs no non-tire workers covered by the URW contract.

The settlements set an industry precedent by wrapping up wages, working conditions, pensions and other benefits in single three-year contracts. Traditionally wages and working conditions have been negotiated every two years, pensions and benefits every three years, in separate contracts with separate expiration dates.

Goodrich Union OKs New Pact

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Goodrich Union OKs New Pact

7-24-67

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — Rubber workers in Akron voted overwhelmingly Sunday to accept a three-year contract with the B.F. Goodrich Co.

A spokesman for Local 5, United Rubber Workers, said the standing vote was “about 3,000 for and 25 against.” Goodrich has 10,930 union members in nine locals and the Akron local has about 4,900 workers.

If other rubber workers at Goodrich plants follow the Akron settlement, it will be the second ratification among the industry’s big five companies.

General Tire & Rubber Co. employes here and in Waco, Tex., have ratified a similar contract. The union has reached a tentative agreement with the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co.

A spokesman for Firestone Local 7 in Akron said a vote will be taken by members tomorrow night. It appears each of the 11 Firestone locals will set its own date for a ratification vote.

Meanwhile, talks between the URW and the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and Uniroyal continue in Cincinnati. The two companies represent about 43,000 of the 71,000 URW members.

Uniroyal, UAW Still Carrying On Talks In Effort To Reach Accord

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Uniroyal, UAW Still Carrying On Talks In Effort To Reach Accord

Uniroyal, UAW Still Carrying On Talks In Effort To Reach Accord

7-24-67 [handwritten]

NAUGATUCK — Despite settlement between the United Rubber Workers and three of the “big five” in the rubber industry, negotiators were still seeking accord this morning between Uniroyal and the URW in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Uniroyal and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. remain the only firms who have not yet been able to reach an agreement with the URW. Talks reopened early this morning, according to a Local 45 spokesman here who was in contact with Union officials by telephone in Cincinnati.

More than $2 million in vacation checks will be distributed by the Uniroyal Footwear Plant Tuesday and Wednesday. Bargaining unit employes may pick up their checks at the Water St. gate between 9 a. m. and 4 p. m.

The company Friday said that it would go through with it’s scheduled three-week vacation at the Footwear Plant, which will begin officially next Monday, whether agreement is reached before that date or not.

Locals in Akron and Miami, Okla., voted Sunday to accept a new contract from the B. F. Goodrich Co., bringing the 94-day strike, longest in rubber industry history, closer to an end.

Negotiations with Goodyear and Uniroyal did not arrive at a settlement hoped for during the weekend.

Some 4,000 URW members jammed the auditorium of Akron University to shout approval of the new Goodrich contract. Local 5 in Akron has 4,900 members, almost half of the 11,000 employes covered in the contract.

Voice Vote Approval

In Miami, where the Goodrich employes have been back working since Friday, Local 318 approved the contract by a voice vote. Other votes from other locals arouns the country were expected today at URW international headquarters in Akron. A majority of locals must retify the contract before it is officially accepted.

General’s two tire factories, in Akron and in Waco, Tex., were expected back in full production this week, following the vote by Local 318 in Waco to ratify the contract Saturday. All 3,000 URW members in the General Tire factories have approved the contract.

Some 17,000 Firestone employes, in 11 locals in nine states, were to begin voting on their settlement today.

A majority of the more than 75,000 strikers, however, are still idled. About 22,000 of them have been out since April 20th when Uniroyal was struck. The 21,000 at Goodyear did not strike until July 14.

A Goodyear spokesman declined to make any comment about what was holding up negotiations.

They were also taking place in Cincinnati.

The settlements, when they are acheived, were expected to conform closely to the pattern already set.

The three settlements will all provide raises of 43 cents per hour to production workers, in steps of 15, 15 and 13 cents. The contracts will include a supplemental unemployment benefit plan giving laid off workers 80 per cent of their regular wages.

Under the old contract, tire workers averaged $3.68 per hour and non-tire workers $2.68. A pay raise differential between the two was eliminated in both the Boodrich and Firestone pacts. General employs no non-tire workers covered by the URW contract.

The settlements set an industry precedent by wrapping up wages, working conditions, pensions and other benefits in single three-year contracts. Traditionally wages and working conditions have been negotiated every two years, pensions and benefits every three years, in separate contracts with separate expiration dates.

Quick End To Strike At UniRoyal Dimming

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Quick End To Strike At UniRoyal Dimming

gatuck, Conn. Established 1885 TUESDAY, JULY 25, 1967 14 PAGES Price Seven Cents

Four Down, One To Go

Quick End To Strike At UniRoyal Dimming

With four of the “Big Five” rubber companies settled with the United Rubber Workers Union, prospects for an early settlement between UniRoyal, Inc. and the URW don’t look particularly good today.

The annual three-week vacation shutdown of the UniRoyal plants throughout the nation begins Friday.

The firm began distributing vacation checks this morning to some 4,500 local UniRoyal employes who are members of Local 45, URW.

At the same time, UniRoyal officials are asking workers if they would be willing to work during the vacation shutdown, in the event the strike is settled during the vacation. It is not known what response the firm is getting to the request.

Many workers have scheduled trips during the vacation shutdown and won’t be available for work, should local production lines start up. For this reason, company officials are asking workers what week or weeks they would be available for work.

The company received cooperation from officials of Local 45. George Froehlich, president, is involved in negotiations in Cincinnati, Ohio.

A reliable source said this morning that apparently negotiations are being held up in Ohio on non-wage issues. UniRoyal said today that the firm “has offered the United Rubber Workers proposals which match the settlements achieved in their negotiations with Goodrich and Firestone last week.

“To date, the URW has not seen fit to accept the UniRoyal proposals and continues to press demands on a number of issues which involve the right to manage,” a high-level source said.

Although the company did not officially disclose the issues preventing settlement, one knowledgeable source said one of the issues is a demand by the union for a differential in pay increases for certain plants.

One plant is asking for a two-cent hike over that offered the other plants and another plant is seeking a one and one-half cent increase, the source said. Neither of the plants is local, the source said.

One of the main issues of the 95-day-old strike has been the union demand for the same hike for non-tire workers as tire workers. The above demand for a pay increase differential is in direct contrast to previous demands for the same pay increase for all workers, if the source is accurate.

URW International President Peter Bommarito is currently participating in the negotiations with UniRoyal in Ohio. He actively took part in settlements with the other members of the “Big Five” and his participation is thought to have hurried settlements in the other four firms.

UniRoyal, Inc. today issued a statement telling of diminished net profits of the firm due to the strike.

The strike, involving more than 70 per cent of the domestic operations of UniRoyal, Inc. which started April 21 and continues, caused net profit for the second quarter of 1967 to drop to $1,551,000, compared with $14,309,000 in the same period last year, a decline of 89.2 per cent, the company announced today.

Earnings for the quarter after provision for dividends on the preferred stock were two cents a share of common stock compared with $1.06 a share in the same quarter of 1966.

Sales for the second quarter totaled $321,375,000, which were 7.7 per cent lower than the $348,164,000 in the same quarter a year ago.

For the full half-year ending June 30, net profit was $11,100,000 or 53.9 per cent below the $24,061,000 in the first half compared with $1.75 a year earlier.

Sales for the six months came to $636,962,000, compared with $667,050,000 in the previous year, a reduction of 4.5 per cent.

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Working Conditions Final Barrier In 96-Day-Old UniRoyal-URW Strike

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Working Conditions Final Barrier In 96-Day-Old UniRoyal-URW Strike

gatuck, Conn. Established 1885 WEDNESDAY, July 26, 1967 12 PAGES Price Seven Cents

Working Conditions Final Barrier In 96-Day-Old UniRoyal-URW Strike

Negotiations between UniRoyal and the United Rubber Workers union ran well into midnight this morning in Cincinnati with apparently no agreement reached.

In the event of a settlement during the annual scheduled footwear plant shut-down, striking URW members are being asked if they desire to work instead of vacationing in this period.

Local 45, URW, is cooperating with the officials in the footwear plant in permitting this survey to be taken. A spokesman for the union said that they understand the company’s problem and in consideration of the need for samples, will go along with this.

No one is being pressured into working during the shutdown. Both the union and the company stressed that this is purely on a volunteer basis.

Jack Smith, factory manager of the Footwear plant, said this morning that the response has been gratifying. A large number of people, he said, signed up to work all or part of the vacation period. He added several persons, uncertain yesterday when queried, returned this morning, after checking at home or with the union, to sign up.

UniRoyal employes are in their 96th day of a strike which is the longest in the industry’s history. The talks, according to sources, are snagged on local issues.

AKRON, Ohio (UPI) — Negotiations continued today in an effort to bring the fifth and final settlement in the 96-day rubber industry strike.

UniRoyal, Inc., with headquarters in New York, is the only one of the big five rubber companies that has not reached a settlement with the United Rubber Workers. A union spokesman said Tuesday disagreement over working conditions was was now the major barrier to a settlement.

Some 5,500 rubber workers at Naugatuck, Conn. are among those involved in the strike. UniRoyal has three major plants in the city.

A company spokesman charged the “URW continues to press demands on a number of issues which involve the right to manage.” He did not elaborate.

The union spokesman said the

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Continued From Page 1

“provisions under discussion may not have come up in previous negotiations, but that is because they involve working conditions present only in this particular system.”

UniRoyal said it had offered the 22,000 striking employes proposals matching those in four previous agreements. They included wage increases of 43 cents an hour over the next three years and an 80 per cent supplemental unemployment benefit program.

UniRoyal Tuesday reported an 89.2 per cent drop in its second quarter net income and a 7.7 per cent drop in sales compared to the same period last year. The strike has closed 70 per cent of UniRoyal’s domestic operations for all but two weeks of the second quarter.

Work has resumed at the General Tire & Rubber Co. and the B. F. Goodrich Co. and Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. are in the process of resuming production.

Some 21,000 workers vote today and Thursday on an agreement reached Monday night with the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

At its height, the strike idled 76,000 men and cut the industry’s production capacity to 25 per cent.

Goodyear, Union Agree

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Goodyear, Union Agree

Goodyear, Union Agree

7-25-67 [handwritten]

AKRON, Ohio (UPI)— Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and the United Rubber Workers Union (URW) reached agreement on a new three-year contract Monday.

Goodyear is the fourth of the “big five” rubber companies to come to terms in the 95-day strike, longest in the industry’s history. Negotiations continued with Uniroyal Inc., which has 5,000 employes at plants in Naugatuck.

Financial terms in the settlement followed those reached in agreements between the union and General Tire & Rubber Co., B. F. Goodrich Co. and the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co.

Ratification votes on the Goodyear accord will be held Thursday.

URW locals in Woodburn, Ind., Miami, Okla., and Akron ratified the Goodrich contract Sunday. Reports on votes at seven other plants had not been received by the union’s international headquarters here.

The general pact was officially ratified Saturday when workers in Waco, Tex., added their vote of approval to earlier balloting by Local 9 in Akron.

Local 7 in Akron was to vote Monday night on the Firestone pact.

The agreements all give production workers hourly wage increases of 43 cents over the next three years. They also provide supplemental unemployment benefit plans giving laid-off workers 80 per cent of their regular pay.

Goodyear and Uniroyal employ the majority of the 76,000 men who were idled when the 94-day-old strike was at its height. Some 22,000 are to strike at Uniroyal and 21,000 at Goodyear.

Both General and Goodrich are in process of resuming production. Firestone hoped to begin preparations for start-up as soon as the contract was ratified.

Under the old contracts, tire workers averaged $3.68 an hour and non-tire workers averaged $2.68. A pay raise differential between the two was eliminated in the Goodrich and Firestone agreements.

Footwear Division Vacation Checks To Be Spent On Variety Of Things

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Footwear Division Vacation Checks To Be Spent On Variety Of Things

Footwear Division Vacation Checks To Be Spent On Variety Of Things

7-26-67 [handwritten]

By Cynthia Baran

Many UniRoyal Footwear Division employees will be spending this summer vacation on home grounds according to a survey taken of those on picket duty and those picking up their vacation pays in the past few days.

The answers are many and varied to the question: “What is the first thing you are going to buy with your vacation pay?”

By far the most frequent response was “Pay my bills,” but many admit they will at least take one or two-day trips.

One worker told us, “I’m not picking up my vacation check. I don’t really need the money because I’ve been doing odd jobs. I’ll leave it there until I go back to work and have to start paying bills again.”

Others are at a loss as to what to do with the money.

“There’s so many things that have to be done with that check, I don’t know where to begin.”

“My vacation pay is going to be stretched and restretched. I have bills galore.”

On the whole, UniRoyal employees are cheerful as they come to pick up their checks. Quite a few intend to have a good time with the money.

“I’m going to spend it at Green Mountain.”

Still others will attempt to hang on to the money for various reasons.

“I’m not going to buy anything. Why should I?”

“I’m putting it in the bank as fast as I can.”

“I’m saving it for Christmas.”

Local residents are thinking of taxes that are due this summer and said that their vacation pays would be used to pay property and car taxes.

Those informing us that they

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FRONT DOORS to many stores in the borough were jammed early this morning when they swung open at 9:30 to let in crowds of people in to take advantage of Vacation Sales Days here. Borough shoppers can be seen crowding around counters in this downtown store.
—(News photo by Baker)

Ratification Vote On Proposed Pact Set Saturday

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Ratification Vote On Proposed Pact Set Saturday

Naugatuck, Conn.

Established 1885
THURSDAY, JULY 27, 1967
10 PAGES
Price Seven Cents

Ratification Vote On Proposed Pact Set Saturday

Local 45 To Vote In H.S., 2:30 P.M.

By RUTH NICHOLS

At 8:45 last night the telephone call that has been awaited for three months came through from Cincinnati announcing the end of the UniRoyal—URW strike.

George Froehlich, president of Local 45, notified the local headquarters in Naugatuck that a tentative agreement had been reached, ending the record-breaking 97-day-old strike.

Negotiating sessions began at 10 a.m. yesterday and were conducted continuously through the day until an agreement was reached.

Membership of all three borough Locals began celebrating on receipt of the news. The around-the-clock pickets at the UniRoyal Chemical and Synthetic plants were called off the line and some tore up their picket signs in jubilation.

Warehouse employes at the footwear plant were called into work this morning with other workers being called back to their jobs as they are needed, a company spokesman said this morning.

Working on a list of names garnered earlier this week, the company will begin manning departments which are incidental to the starting up of production lines.

According to the company spokesman, there are many auxiliary departments which must be started first before actual production can begin.

A production line involving sample footwear for UniRoyal, Inc. salesman will be given “top priority,” the spokesman said.

Employes of the warehouse on Elm St. may report for work just as soon as possible, a Footwear Division management spokesman said today.

The firm asked employes Tuesday and yesterday if they would be available for work at any time during their vacations, should the strike end. The company had the opportunity to poll the workers as it handed out more than $2 million in vacation checks to the striking workers.

A spokesman said today the response was very good. About 1,000 employes signed up and indicated they would be available. More workers are signing up today, also, the spokesman said. The official said that about 25 per cent of those employes eligible signed up to work at some time during the vacation shutdown.

The official pointed out that any employe who has not worked at the firm long enough to earn a vacation may also sign up for work during the shutdown. They should report to the firm’s employment office.

Vice-president of Local 45, Raymond Mengacci, said this morning, “I want to thank all the members of Local 45 for

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PHOTO CAPTION:

REPARATIONS FOR getting UniRoyal, Inc., production lines back in operation were made this morning by officials of the local rubber firm and Raymond Mengacci, vice-president Local 45, United Rubber Workers. Factory Manager Jack Smith is seated. Standing, left to right, are Mengacci, Charles F. Welsh, general superintendent of fabric shoes sponge and shoe hardware, and Edmund W. Fossbender, general superintendent of the waterproof mill. —(News Photo by Baker)

Ratification Vote

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Ratification Vote

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Ratification Vote

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their cooperation during this long, hard strike.”

Mengacci, weary from the long weeks in charge of the local’s headquarters in the borough, said that he was extremely happy it’s over and added that he hopes the membership turns out in a goodly number to the ratification meeting Saturday afternoon in the High School auditorium at 2:30.

Mayor Joseph C. Raytkwich, in a statement this morning, said he wished to thank the officials of all the unions for their cooperation without which serious incidents might have occurred. The Mayor is thankful no one was hurt during the long strike period.

Ronald Pohl, industrial relations manager of the Chemical Division of UniRoyal, said that some employes will be called back into work at 3 p.m. today and the company hopes to be back to normal by tomorrow.

Some employes have been called to start work at the Synthetic plant at 3 p.m. today. Local 308 has called a meeting for Monday at 7 p.m. in the Portuguese Club to vote on ratification.

President of Local 45 George Froehlich will remain in Cincinnati working on the agreement. Another session was called for 9 a.m. this morning when the negotiators began work on the wording of the agreement and proof-reading the final copy.

Union officials stated that they would allow the membership to begin work immediately instead of waiting for official notice of ratification. With 19 UniRoyal plants located all over the country, each represented by a local, it will take approximately two weeks for official notification of agreement from the International Union headquarters.

AKRON, Ohio (UPI) — The longest strike in the history of the rubber industry ended Wednesday night when UniRoyal, Inc., became the fifth major producer to reach agreement with the United Rubber Workers (URW).

The strike, which at one time idled 76,000 men throughout the country and raised fears of a shortage of tires for defense and passenger vehicles, lasted 96 days.

The agreements, all within the last two weeks, gave workers the largest wage and fringe benefit package in industry history.

A vote will be taken Saturday by 5,500 URW men in Naugatuck, Conn. where the record walkout halted production at three UniRoyal plants. It was expected that the Naugatuck members would ratify the agreement almost unanimously.

The UniRoyal agreement, stalled by diagreement on working conditions, followed the same lines as earlier agreements with General Tire & Rubber Co., the B. F. Goodrich Co., Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

All production workers are provided wage increases of 43 cents an hour in steps of 15, 15 and 13 cents under the contract that expires April 20, 1970. Skilled workers receive an additional 10 cents per hour immediately. Under the old contract, tire workers averaged $3.68 an hour and non-tire workers $2.68.

The three-year contracts achieved two important union goals: elimination of a pay raise differential between tire and non-tire workers and a supplemental unemployment plan giving laid off workers 80 per cent of their average hourly pay. The plan is considered a major step toward a guaranteed annual wage.

The union also won increases in pensions and insurance payments from the company and other fringe benefits.

The General and Goodrich pacts have already been ratified and production was resumed. Votes on the Firestone and Goodyear are continuing and production is expected to start soon.

URW TREASURERS of two borough Locals go over some final figures this morning at Union headquarters on Rubber Ave. Art Calder, treasurer of Local 308, and Rita Ruggiero of Local 45 compare lists. –(News photo by Baker)

The U.S. Civil Air Patrol was organized as a division of the Office of Civilian Defense on Dec. 1, 1941.

Residents Relieved At End Of 97-Day UniRoyal Strike

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Residents Relieved At End Of 97-Day UniRoyal Strike

Residents Relieved At End Of 97-Day UniRoyal Strike

By Cynthia Baran
and
Holly Fitzsimmons

“It’s wonderful!” “It’s great!”
“Yippee!”

Such were the comments on borough streets this morning following the end of the 97-day strike.

Businessmen expressed relief that the long walkout has ended and hope that business will soon be back to normal.

Restaurant owners who depend almost exclusively on patronage from UniRoyal employees are looking forward to the end of the shutdown.

Barry Demirali, proprietor of Robinson’s Luncheonette, said, “It’s wonderful. We were very slow. Fortunately, we didn’t have to lay off any of our people.”

At the Coffee Shop on Maple St., John Fazo noted, “We’re very happy. People won’t suffer anymore.”

Carl Nickle of Donovan’s Pharmacy added, “I’m very enthusiastic; very happy. Business will pick up.”

Bariki Seit at the A&B Sub Shop, which opened two days after the strike began, commented, “It was too long.”

People may not eat in restaurants during a strike, but they still have to eat. Peter DeSanto, manager of First National Store, said that business was as usual. He admitted that he expected a slump in business and was surprised that it did not occur.

A checker at the grocery store noted that they bought less when they shopped, but came more often.

Other businesses in the borough also suffered as a result of the strike.

The Handee Variety Store on Water Street, which depends on UniRoyal workers for 90 per cent of its business, was forced to close in the afternoon for the duration of the strike as 80 per cent of its customers evaporated. The proprietor cancelled subscriptions to all afternoon newspapers.

The story at Vic’s Smoke Shop was slightly different. The number of papers in stock was decreased, but people continued to come in in the morning asking for the latest word on the strike.

“I’m glad it’s over,” said one employee. “I was getting tired of being the Town Crier.”

Conversely, the Teri Travel Agency reported that business remained normal. “We were hurt more by the airlines strike last summer than by the local strike. It was an opportunity for some people to have a real vacation.”

Man-on-the-street comments ranged from “I’m very happy” to “The whole strike was a big joke anyway.”

Richard Dlugokecki, a UniRoyal employee enjoying a peaceful breakfast in a local luncheonette, said about the settlement, “A better thing couldn’t have happened.”

“It’s a wonderful thing. I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time. I’ve been going crazy hanging around,” Gene Thomas added.

George Sprocca, retired, observed, “The strike was bad for the town. They’ll never make up all the money they lost.”

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Paul Bessette, chairman of NYAC, stated, “I hope both union and management are satisfied with the new contract. Certainly the town economy has been effected by the strike. Who knows how long it will take to recover?”

Danny Lamano, heaving a sigh of relief, expressed the borough concensus, “I’m thrilled over this … after 14 weeks … it was too long.”

Uniroyal Talks Still Going On

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Uniroyal Talks Still Going On

Uniroyal Talks Still Going On

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CINCINNATI, Ohio—Although negotiations between Uniroyal and the URW continued until past midnight Tuesday, a top level union spokesman said that no settlement was imminent.

Asked if it was at all unusual that the groups should meet so late, the spokesman said “not at all—we meet at all hours.” The late talks, he added, were not to be taken as meaning that Uniroyal and the union were about to reach accord.

AKRON, Ohio (UPI)— Disagreement over local working conditions has prevented an end to the United Rubber Workers (URW) strike against Uniroyal, Inc., a union spokesman said Tuesday.

Uniroyal, which employs 7,000 at plants in Naugatuck, Conn., is the last of the “big five” rubber companies to remain shut down. Settlements with General Tire & Rubber Co., B. F. Goodrich Co., Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., have been reached in the last two weeks.

A Uniroyal spokesman said the union “continues to press demands on a number of issues which involve the right to manage.” The spokesman, who declined to elaborate on the demands, said Uniroyal had offered the 22,000 strikers proposals that matched the other strike-ending agreements.

The union spokesman said “the provisions under discussion may not have come up in the previous negotiations, but that is because they involve working conditions present only in this particular system.”