Kimble shut down due to strikes

Ball Plant

Open but

Kimble Out

Glass manufacturing operations were resumed at Ball Brothers Co. Monday morning, but production remained at a standstill with a strike still in effect at the Kimble Glass Co.

The return to work at Ball Brothers followed on the heels of the announced settlement reached in negotiations at Pittsburgh Sunday. The strike by American Flint Glass Workers Union members against the Glass Container Institute, of which Ball Brothers is a member, began 10 days ago.

It was imposed here by the 70-member Local 50 of the AFGWU, consisting of mold-makers at Ball Brothers and Kimble Glass Co.

Kimble is not a member of the company groups, against which the industry-wide strike action was taken, although 21 moldmakers at Kimble are on strike. The Local 50 picket lines at Kimble are being honored by Locals 517 and 30, effecting a complete plant shutdown.

SEPARATE LOCAL negotiations are still being carried on in an attempt to reach agreement in the Kimble strike, a company spokesman said Monday. The two groups were to resume talks Mon­day afternoon.

The Kimble plant was "struck" last Wednesday. As an "independent" not covered in the na­tion-wide negotiations by com­panies in the Glass Container In­stitute, and the National Associa­tion of Pressed Glassware, it was not effected by the Pittsburgh settlement.

The Sunday evening settlement included a one-year contract agreement, for a six per cent increase 14 1/2 cents an hour, in pay. A total of 39 plants were affected, with an estimated 30,000 workers idled by the strike, including slightly more than 1,000 at the Ball Brothers Co.

Preparations were begun immediately Sunday night for re­suming operations as rapidly as possible. Shipping and mainte­nance groups were called back Sunday, and a schedule was being set up for the recall of others.