The Conshohocken Recorder, August 1, 1963

              4 OR^MfSIGAN
COKP.
ZONE 4
Lee Halts Payment of Insurance to Strikers
Today was a bleak day for 260
striking employes of the Lee Rub-ber
and Tire Corp.
The Whitemarsh Twp. firm stop-ped
paying premiums yesterday on
the life insurance policies of the
260.
Each of the employes were In-sured
for about $4500 while they
were working. If they had been
retired they would have gotten half
of that according to Robert Gar-ber,
international representative
of the union.
Garber said that the company had
an obligation in the contract to
pay the premiums until 1964.
The company's announcement
came as a shock to the strikers.
And the company Itself had no
comment.
The terse word from Willard
L. Heinrich, executive vice presi-dent
of Lee, was that the company
had no explanation.
On Tuesday the company and
the union had negotiators at a
four and a half hour meeting at
the offices of the Federal Med-iation
and Conciliation Service,
Philadelphia.
Both sides reported that no pro-gress
had been made at the meet-ing.
During the meeting came the an-nouncement
that the company was
halting payments on the insurance
policies.
At the meeting the union agreed
to make certain work rule changes.
The company had asked for a
20 percent pay cut for all employes
and Increased productivity.
The union refused to accept a
wage cut.
During the meeting the union
agreed to accept a company pro-posed
profit sharing plan, but then
objected to the 20 percent pay re-duction.
Here's how the profit sharing
plan would work:
The company and union em-ployes
would share equally In the
profits when the cost of producing
rubber fell below 12.5 cents per
pound.
It now costs about 15 cents a
pound to produce rubber, the com-pany
has said.
The turn down of the wage cut was
made by the negotiators for Local
227, United Rubber, Cork, Lino-leum
and Plastic Workers, AFL-CIO.
Presiding at the meeting Tues-day
was Federal Mediator Leo-nard
J. McCabe. He said that
another try at settling the strike
would be made next Tuesday.
Local 227 went on strike at the
huge tire plant on July 16.
It was the first general strike
in the company's history.
jiirli'titiiui thr (Cbratmit till SrisiliV
Conshohocken —West Conshohocken — Plymouth, Whitemarsh & Springfield Townships — Chestnut Hill
VOL. 9315 THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 1963 T»t A COPY
Beauty And The Breeds
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