Rosalsky Calls for Parley Halt in Poultry Row

The poultry situation was left hanging in mid-air today after Judge Otto Rosalsky, the Mayor’s mediator, declared an indefinite moratorium on conferences among the factions in the poultry industry aimed at averting a threatened shochtim strike.

At a short meeting at the Hotel Commodore yesterday, Judge Rosalsky said that the delay would be for the benefit of all. He indicated that a plan is being worked out which will satisfy all groups.

It was authoritatively learned after the meeting that a new plan is being prepared which necessitates secrecy for a short while. Announcement of the plan is expected next week.

In the meantime, Judge Rosalsky said, the status quo must be maintained. No strike, lockout or change in existing agreements and conditions must be made, he said.

In a short address summarizing his views, Judge Rosalsky voiced his determination that the wholesalers must shoulder the cost of rabbinical supervision and kosher slaughtering.

“There must be such supervision as the rabbis declare necessary,” he said, “and money must be allocated to pay the supervisors and rabbis.”

“The industry cannot stand the added cost,” declared J. Sidney Bernstein, counsel to the wholesalers, “and the market owners will have to close down if the costs of slaughtering and supervision are forced on them.”

Figures adduced by Leroy Peterson, poultry code administrator, showing that supervision and slaughtering would cost about $1,125,000 per year, were contested by Arthur Simon, special adviser to the Mayor, and Louis J. Gribetz, counsel to the shochtim, who demonstrated that $600,000 would be the maximum cost.

Judge Rosalsky and Simon conferred with the Mayor early yesterday, and it was reported that they reached an agreement on a plan to avert the poultry strike. The plan, the same one alluded to by Judge Rosalsky at the conference, was not divulged.