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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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.