**Date:** 7-9-67
**Source:** Unknown
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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 companies.
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 retirement 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.