**Date:** 6-14-67
**Source:** Unknown
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AKRON, Ohio – Spokesmen said today that despite the progressive tone of talks between the United Rubber Workers and the General Tire and Rubber Co., there were no new developments in contract negotiations. General had offered a slightly higher wage package than other members of the industry’s big five. URW President Peter Bommarito said the offers of the companies, excluding General Tire, would leave rubber workers behind other industries. A major block in the settlement of the strike was the union’s demand for unemployment payments of up to 95 per cent of basic wages. The rubber companies have described the demand as tantamount to ‘a guaranteed annual wage.’ Elimination of the pay differential between tire and non-tire workers was also a key union demand. Locally At a Local 45 membership meeting in May, President George Froehlich reportedly said that the union would not go for a three-year contract nor an agreement that would include pension or fringe benefits. No new information on the progress of the negotiations in Cincinnati has been released today. Members of the three Locals in the borough, suffering from 54 days without work, are anxious for news of the sessions. Local strikers, speaking as individuals, are eager for another meeting of the membership. Union officials have explained that the promised financial help from the auto industry union was in the form of a loan which the union decided not to take, but rather to cut the amount of benefits to its members and seek to raise additional monies from the working members employed at General Tire and Goodyear. However, one week’s collection amounted to only $6,000 in donations. Local URW members, when questioned, are wondering if the hold-up in settlement will, in the long run, prove beneficial to the members here in the borough. Local 45 with its more than 4,000 members, is one of the largest in the URW.