82nd Year, Number 173
Dedicated To Community Public Service
[Handwritten note: 7-25-67]
STRIKING FOOTWEAR PLANT employes who have been without a pay for 13 weeks are shown collecting their vacation pays at the Water St. gate this morning. The UniRoyal Company is asking employes if they want to work during the scheduled shut-down, if the strike is settled, when they call for their checks. —(News photo by Baker)
Quick End To Strike
Continued From Page 1
AKRON, Ohio (UPI) —Labor peace returned to the rubber capital of the world today. The four largest rubber companies based here have signed contracts with the United Rubber Workers (URW).
The largest tire producer in the world, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., reached agreement Monday on a new three year contract. The settlement closely parallels the three others reached in the last 10 days of the strike by General Tire & Rubber Co., Firestone Tire & Rubber, and the B. F. Goodrich Co.
Only UniRoyal Inc., a New York based firm, remained without a contract among the “big five” rubber producers. Talks continued in Cincinnati, as the strike went into its 95th day there.
Recalling Workers
The 5,400 members of the URW Local 7, at the Firestone tire plant here, ratified the new contract by a 3-1 margin Monday night. The plant began calling workers back for the overnight shift, and full production was expected to start this morning.
Ratification votes on the Goodyear agreement were scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. The contract covers some 21,000 employes in 11 factories in 10 states.
Goodyear has five tire factories in Akron, Gadsden, Ala., Los Angeles; Jackson, Mich.; and Topeka, Kans.; and six plants making other products, in Windsor, Vt.; New Bedford, Mass.; North Chicago, Ill.; Lincoln, Neb.; St. Marys, Ohio, and Muncie, Ind.
The 8,400 members of Local 2 will vote here at 10:30 a.m. Thursday. The president of the local, John Nardella, claimed the agreement gave Goodyear workers better benefits that the other three. The improvements
Back On Job
About 90 per cent of Goodrich workers were back on the job at the factory here, and General employes had been back on the job for more than a week.
The four agreements all provide for 43 cent increases for all production workers over the next three years, with an additional 10 cents to skilled workers. They all increase supplementary unemployment benefits from 65 per cent of normal pay to 80 per cent.
The four agreements break rubber industry precedents in wrapping up wages, working conditions, pensions and benefits in one three-year agreement. The Goodyear, Firestone and Goodrich settlements eliminate a wage increase differential between tire and non-tire workers.
In the old contracts, tire workers averaged $3.68 hourly and non tire workers $2.68. General employ no non-tire workers.