Order Returns To Naugatuck Uniroyal Strike
By PATRICK KEATING
Register Staff Reporter
NAUGATUCK —Peace and order, conspicuous by its absence during strike demonstrations here Thursday and Friday, which resulted in wholesale arrests, returned once more as the strike by the United Rubber Workers Union against Uniroyal enters its 17th day.
The turnabout from an explosive atmosphere is attributed by both union and management officials to the successful application by Uniroyal in the Waterbury Superior Court Friday for a restaining order against URW.
The order as granted compels Local 45 of the Footwear Division to restrict the mode of its picketing and also desist from attempts to prevent management personnel, company trucks and other public conveyances from entering and leaving the factory.
The union’s insistence that management personnel be barred along with no shipping of company products during the strike touched off the distrubances that almost reached riot proportions on Thursday and Friday.
Union officials who were individually served with restraining order proceedings Friday night agree that they must abide by the court orders.
Start Monday
Accordingly, on Monday office help and supervisory employes will be permitted to cross the picket lines without any challenges. The same policy will be in effect as to entrance the departure of any trucks that might be transporting Uniroyal merchandise.
Members of the union were instructed Friday night on these privileges granted the company as a result of the order. They also were requested to abide by the court action.
The order should eliminate hard feelings that were aroused between the strikers and members of the borough Police Department. Some pickets required hospitalization and so did some policemen reportedly injured in the scuffling.
Charges have been hurled back and forth and there was a report Friday night that a suit may be levied against the borough by the union over a supposedly act of brutality.
Contract Talks
Meanwhile, forgotten in the rash of demonstrations was the progress, or lack of it, at the conference table at Cincinnatti where a new contract is being negotiated.
The talks were recessed for the weekend and will be resumed Monday morning. A contact at Cincinnati reported that apparently no great step was taken to reach an agreement.
In Naugatuck, the strike called April 21 has shut down operations at the Footwear, Chemical and Synthetic Divisions of Uniroyal.
And for union members, it means that they are now in the third week of a strike that has already cost them two full pay checks.
Finanical Aid
Some financial assistance will be forthcoming on Tuesday and Wednesday when Locals 45, 218 and 308 will hand out special strike benefit checks to their memberships.
The crippling strike has not only hit the union members hard but is also being felt by stores, restaurants, business establishments and tradesmen that rely on factory workers for much of their revenue.
The economic pinch has also hit the borough in an unusual way since its meter receipts have been greatly affected. Employes of the Footwear Division while at work use the all-day meters, costing 25 cents for an eight-hour period.
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