| OCR Text |
Show STRIKE AT KENNECOTT JONTINUES Kennecott Copper Corp. operations oper-ations were halted in lour western west-ern states Monday morning, August Aug-ust 16th as a result of a strike called b" International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers. The strike began with the 7:00 a.m. shift Monday. Affected by the strike action were mines, concentrators, smelters smelt-ers and refineries in Utah, Nevada, Ne-vada, Arizona and New Mexico. The four-state strike idled approximately ap-proximately 10,000 workers and more are expected to be idled in Utah alone as other plants shut down due to lack of ore. A company spokesman said the union had agreed to permit necessary maintenance work in me Bingnam mine and Artnur and Magna mills. He pointed out that since the company is currently cur-rently operating on a six-day week, the mine and mills were shut down Sunday so that the Monday strike merely meant that operations were not resumed. The strike announcement was made Sunday night after all-day negotiations between union representatives rep-resentatives and company officials offic-ials failed to result in an agreement. agree-ment. The break in negotiations ended abnost three months, of talk between the union and the company. Today, Friday, the strike is entering its fifth day. Company officials reported Monday evening they were willing will-ing to resume negotiations at any time the Union desired. They pointed out, however, .1. . . .1 it-: 1 1 11.. m a 1 1 lie uiuuii iiau vutuaujr closed the door on further negotiations nego-tiations when it demanded an immediate answer to its proposal of Sunday evening. At that time, Mr. Skinner told company representatives that, "This is the Union's final proposal. propos-al. It is not a proposal to do any bargaining on. It eliminates health and welfare. All we want from the company is a yes or no answer." The Union proposal, which included in-cluded 8c per hour general wage increase, shift differentials of oc per hour for afternoon, 9c per hour for intermediate and 12c . per hour for the midnight shift, plus an additional $2.50 per month cantribution to group insurance in-surance per employee, was rejected re-jected by the Company, whose representatives said they had no other alternative. The company, at union insistence, insist-ence, had developed a health and welfare proposal which was in- eluded in its package offer of 7c per hour increase. This compares 1 , ! J . a lavoraoiy wim we industry pattern. pat-tern. The present medical plan, which restricts employees to company doctors, has been in effect ef-fect for many years. Under the new and modern plan proposed by the company, the Salt Lake Clinic will be discontinued and employees and their families will be free to go to any doctor or surgeon they desire for t surgical or hospital treatment. Employees could continue to go to plant doctors doc-tors for free treatment and free medicines and drugs as in the past. For the first time, employees' families would receive surgical and hospital coverage under the new program urged by tfya company. com-pany. The company offered to pay two-thirds of the cost of this new and up-to-date program which is much broader than the present plan and better than most industrial indus-trial plans now in effect in the United States. Under the contract between Mine-Mill and the company, pensions pen-sions are not subject to discussion until next year. The plan provides pro-vides for a minimum pension of $100 per month, including Social Security, after 25 years of service. ser-vice. Earlier this year, reduced copper cop-per sales forced the company to cut operations and reduce the work week from six to five days. This resulted in a reduction of total employees earnings, but there was no cut in their daily wage rate. This reduction in work time had been compensated for in 1946, when, in anticipation of return to a 40-hour work week, the War Labor Board approved an increase of 18.5c per hour which employees have had since. Most industries in the United States have been on a 40-hour work week for many years. |
