U.S. Phone Strikes Settled After Three Weeks’ Stoppage

Grey River Argus, 3 May 1947, Page 5

U.S. Phone Strikes Settled After Three Weeks’ Stoppage

NEW YORK, May 1. After an all-night conference, the New York Telephone Company and union officials settled the 23-day-old telephone strike. The terms have not been announced, but it was agreed that 40,000 workers would return to work. The Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania also reached an agreement with the union, and 6000 maintenance workers will resume work. The agreement provides wage increases of up to four dollars a week, instead of the 12 originally sought. These two settlements are the first, major breaks in the coast-to-coast strike, but the unions involved in them are not affiliated with the National Federation of Telephone Workers, which called the nationwide strike on April 7, and the settlements were made independently. The American Telephone and Telegraph Company and the National Federation of Telephone Workers are conferring, but there is no sign of any agreement. The strike will thus still affect the greater part of the country. Automatic telephones have functioned almost perfectly throughout the strike. The long-distance service is only 40 per cent, of normal.