From the Richmond Times-Dispatch, 6/14/1946, p. 11, c. 1

160 Strike At Tredegar Iron Works
Walkout Follows Dispute Over Wage

An estimated 160 employees of the Tredegar Company iron works went out on strike yesterday following failure of negotiations between the management and an AFL union and Paul Miller, president of the firm, said no further conferences between the two parties are scheduled for this week.

No pickets were on the scene yesterday, the men simply failing to show up for work after the 8 A. M. deadline set by the union passed without an offer from the company which the workers considered satisfactory.

Mr. Miller said the company preferred not to make any statement at this time and revealed only that no further conferences on the controversy are planned for the remaining two days in this week. Thomas B. Morton, United States Labor Conciliator, who has been working in the case, said “nothing is scheduled now” as to meetings between the two parties. Mr. Morton said he had talked with representatives of the management yesterday but that J. R. Miller, AFL organizer, who has been representing the workers, was out of the city.

The AFL organizer said Wednesday that the workers had asked for a 15 cents an hour increase in pay and that the company had offered only five cents. He said that about 75 per cent of the union’s members are engaged in the manufacture of railroad spikes, horseshoes and clinch bars.

The strike yesterday caused the complete shutdown of the 109-year-old plant.

Morton Confers Here

Thomas B. Morton, United States labor conciliator, conferred for several hours yesterday with representatives of four local bakeries and of a bakery workers’ union which has threatened to strike Sunday, but after the conference he declined to make any statement other than that negotiations were continuing.

The union, Bakery and Confectionery Workers Local 358, AFL, has announced that it will go on strike Sunday unless an agreement is reached with the four bakeries in that time. The union said that it was asking an increase of 18 ½ cents an hour and certain changes in working conditions. The companies involved are Nolde, Continental, Bromm and General.

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