Sausage Firm Returns To Partial Operation Here

Sausage Firm Returns To Partial Operation Here

Peters Sausage Co. of 227 E. Summit St. was in partial operation this morning with 15 workers at their jobs. Six of the 15 were newly hired yesterday, Plant Manager Carl H. Wetzel said today.

Seventeen other workers had not reported back to their jobs by this morning despite the fact that a Detroit union official ordered the workers back, warning that they could be fired, it was reported.

The 17 are striking because union steward Ellis Fondren was fired for ordering a three-hour work stoppage Wednesday.

Fondren said he ordered the stoppage after a foreman allegedly fired a worker who had stopped work to sharpen a knife. But Wetzel said the worker was laid off for the balance of the day primarily because he had refused to comply with the foreman’s order to return to work. The worker was returned to his job Wednesday.

Fondren said today he told the 17 workers to return to their jobs after the Detroit union representative said the workers’ jobs were in jeopardy. Fondren said he would take up his case later.

Wetzel said he doesn’t yet know what the decision will be on returning the 17 to their jobs. Discussions were still going on at noon on this matter.

Wetzel said he agrees with Fondren that “a myriad of little things” culminated in the wildcat strike, besides the action against Fondren and the worker disciplined by the foreman.