Selby Shoe Workers Under Cost of Living Contract

Article taken from The Zanesville Signal, May 25, 1948

Portsmouth, OH. -- The 3,300 workers of the Selby Shoe Co. here have been working under a cost-of-living wage contract similar to the new General Motors scale since last August.

The cont, with the CIO United Shoe Workers of America, calls briefly for a six-cent-an-hour increase whenever the cost of living index of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics goes down ten points, the wage rate goes back six cents.

The workers received an increase last December. The contract runs to April 30, 1919.

"We wanted a longer term contract which would stabilize things in our industry," company President N. B. Griffin explained today, "and so did the union. With living costs fluctuating so much, it didn't seem reasonableSS to us that we could tie down our workers with a set wage.