U.S. STRIKE THREAT

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 28008, 30 June 1956, Page 9

U.S. STRIKE THREAT

Fires Banked By Steel Mills (N.Z. Press Association-Copyright) Steel mill. YORK. June 28. States * the United the r~ g . osir ' 8 down today in s?r e ike fa d C e e adl O i f ne. a Sa ‘ Urday midnight ~„^r anaS 5 m / nt and union negotiators arafn thre S hours today but a o ain railed to make any progress on. fOr the P in g du e st S ry°s m id h nl gh ? re o S n ent Sat C u O r n day aCt ““ K™i an J . I steel „ mills h ave already m = t k a d ll h< ; lr r? res ’ 3nd U was est ‘- S 5 nm?nnn h a* n thls ,A ould cost ' them 0.1,000.000 dollars (about £29,000.0001 m lost production even if a lastminute contract agreement was reached.

~^ r TT^ McDonald, president of United Steelworkers, has asked the chief executive of the 12 major steel companies to meet him today in an eleventh hour effort to avert the strike.

Spokesmen for the industry said that the chairmen or presidents of the 12 major steel producers were in New \ ork an d would give serious consideration to Mr McDonald’s request. The negotiators are in a deadlock over a new contract and the steel workers have threatened to go on strike when the old contract expires on Saturday night. A major point of dispute is the duration of a new contract. The industry wants it to be for five years instead of the normal two.

As cooling-off operations continued to prevent damage to furnaces, Mr James Mitchell, the Secretary for Labour, said that the government had no immediate plan for invoking the Taft-Hartley Act to prevent a strike.