**Date:** 7-7-67
**Source:** Unknown
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Negotiation talks continued yesterday in Cincinnati between the United Rubber Workers Union and Uniroyal, Inc. However, sources indicate that negotiations are still stalemated.
Some progress has been noted since the beginning of the sessions, but the wage differential is said to be a barrier against settlement. Also, according to reports, the union’s paper, “Another worry to auto makers is the special interest Walter Reuther is taking in the rubber industry negotiations, where guaranteed annual income is a key unresolved issue.
Officials of the United Rubber Workers union have consulted with the UAW on strategy and recently borrowed $1 million from the UAW after their strike fund was depleted.
“There is a strong suspicion in Detroit that Reuther is trying to engineer, by proxy, a breakthrough on guaranteed annual income in the rubber industry and then get an improvement on the rubber pattern from the three auto makers.”
William Simkin, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, has issued no recommendation following the three-day talks in Pittsburgh. It appears that the government has bowed out after a brief attempt to mediate.
A statement by AKRON, Ohio (UPI) – A statement that the 73-day old strike against the rubber industry could jeopardize future operations of the B. F. Goodrich Co. here brought a sharp report from the United Rubber Workers.
Judge Gaffney had said at the end of the two-day court hearing that he would reach a decision as soon as possible and hoped for one today.
Insistence of a guaranteed annual income is barring settlement.
According to a statement in a New York financial newspaper, “Another worry to auto makers is the special interest Walter Reuther is taking in the rubber industry negotiations, where guaranteed annual income is a key unresolved issue.”
URW President Peter Bommarito criticized Goodrich President J. W. Keener for using “the good offices” of Mayor John Ballard to “threaten employees” who are exercising their right to strike. Ballard had offered to assist in mediating the strike and called for round-the-clock bargaining sessions if they were needed to halt the walkout. He got a polite no.
Keener said Goodrich would not shut down its Akron plant, but might be forced to reduce the size of its local operation because of loss of competitive power.
He said the strike had “serious implications for the future of the company’s operations.” Bommarito said Keener’s statements were “not conductive to a quick or durable settlement” and added the union will accept nothing less “than that to which they are entitled under sound economic logic and social morality.”
Bommarito said the union appreciated Ballard’s offer, but said he could not commit “the policy committees to marathon sessions.”
“Each policy committee decides its own course of action outside the URW International,” he said.
More than 54,000 rubber workers have been idled by the strike against Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., Goodrich, Uniroyal, Inc., and the General Tire & Rubber Co. Work at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has continued on a day to day basis.
The latest General offer, higher than the others, called for