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.”
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