Four hundred professionals, clerical and maintenance workers employed by 20 Jewish community centers affiliated with the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies went back to work this morning, ending a strike that began last Dec. 20. The employes agreed 170-129 in a secret ballot last night to end their four-week walkout although no settlement has been reached.
The issues have been submitted to binding arbitration, according to a spokesman for Local 1707 of the Community and Social Agency Employes Union AFL-CIO. He said the dispute was not over wages which were agreed on last June but over improved health and welfare benefits, scale adjustments for professionals and longevity raises. The new arbitration effort will be conducted by Harold Israelson, a labor lawyer, appointed by Mayor John V. Lindsay.
The strike shut down the 92nd St. YMHA in Manhattan and other Ys and community centers in Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Mt. Vernon, the Educational Alliance on the lower East Side, and the Hebrew Education Society in Canaries. It forced the cancellation of concerts, lectures, nursery schools, programs for the elderly and winter camps.
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