Evening star., 1947-03-30
ConciIiators 10 Meet
With Phone Union and
Company Tomorrow

Omclals OF the Chesapeake & Po-
tomac Telephone Co. and the
District Federation of Telephone
Workers last night accepted an in
kitation to meet tomorrow with
Federal conciliators trying to head
of a strike threatened for April 7.
Announcement that meetings be-
Eween the company and the union
of maintenance and commercial
employees will be resumed came only
ia few hours after the union rejected
ia company offer to arbitrate some
tof the issues in dispute.
! The conference, arranged by Fed
.eral Conciliator Elmer T. Bell, will
lbe at 2 pm at the Labor Depart
sment. At the same hour officials
of the company and the Washing
ton Telephone TRAFFIC Union, repre-
senting operators, will meet at Hotel
sStatler with Federal Conciliator Lu-
icien Rye, it was announced earlier
yesterday.
| Although these are the first. such
lconferences here in two weeks,
sspokesmen for the union and the
company last night declared they
,have mo idea" whether settlements
will be worked out. Nor was there
sevidence that any settlement is in
prospect nationally.
Nothing New Seen.
1--WE are meeting at the invitation
of the Department of Labor and We
are always ready to do that" Helery
Robinson, president of the District
iFTW said. $50 far as know there
is nothing new in the situation"
| He explained that his union re-
1ected the companys arbitration
offer because it applied only to basic
wages and not to the unions other
demands. The offer concerning the
wage question itself was unsatisfac-
tory, Mr.. Robinson said, because the
arbitrator would have been pre-
vented from considering cost of
living increases and the company's
ability to pay.
A C. & p. Co. spokesman did not
comment on Mr.. Robinson's state
ment. He said, however, that the
company informed Federal concilia-
tors Of readiness at all times to
resume negotiations.
The conference tomorrow between
the company and operators union
is principally for Qualification of
the company's offer to arbitrate a
portion of the dispute, Mrs. Mary
e. Cannon, WITH president, said.
Two Meetings Tomorrow.
Meanwhile, two other meetings
will be going on in this area tomor-
row in connection with the strike
threat. The policy committee of
the National Federation of Tele-
phones Workers will continue its
sessions tomorrow morning at the
Raleigh Hotel. In Virginia, rep
resentatives of the C. & P. Co. and
the Virginia FTW will resume COL
lective bargaining conferences at
Richmond for the first time in 10
days.
Nationally, Federal mediators re-
ported last night after further
meetings with company and union
officials in New York that they
hope to persuade the company to
make counter proposals to the
union demands. A union spokes-
man reported yesterday that mo
progress has. been made Besides
a $12 weekly wage increase, other
demands by the unions include a
closed shop, longer vacations, re-
duction In apprenticeship time, and
revised pension arrangements.
A spokesman for the NFTW
Policy Committee said here yester-
, day it will keep a close watch on
legislation which Chairman Hart
ley of the House Labor Committee
plans to introduce tomorrow. The
bill, Mr.. Hartley explained last
week, would amend the Norris-Ls
Guardia Anti-injunction Act by al
lowing use of a court injunction
to prevent a telephone strike. The
proposal was attacked yesterday by
Democratic members of the House
r0rn n1itteh