Goodyear Tire Strikes · 10/05/2006
Goodyear Tire said today that the United Steelworkers had called a strike at 16 plants in the United States and Canada. At issue was the renewal of a contract for USW workers, on which company and union negotiators had been working since the previous contract expired in July. The strike is expected to affect 15,000 USW members at Goodyear’s plants.
“The company left us with no option,” USW vice president Ron Hoover said in a statement. “We cannot allow additional plant closures after the sacrifices we made three years ago to help this company survive.” Hoover was referring to the 2003 closure of Goodyear’s Hunstville, Alabama, plant, as well as what the statement termed “wage, pension and health care cuts” accepted by the union at the time. Since then “Goodyear has rebounded and other stakeholders have been rewarded accordingly,” Hoover said. “Now the Company seems determined to only take more away from our members.”
Predictably Goodyear has taken a different view of the affair, issuing a statement in which it described the union as having “rejected a comprehensive proposal from Goodyear that would improve its competitive position while maintaining substantial commitment to manufacturing in North America.” According to Jim Allen, Goodyear’s chief negotiator, “We simply cannot accept a contract that knowingly creates a competitive disadvantage vs. our foreign-owned competition and increases our cost disadvantage vs. imports…. We remain willing to continue to bargain with the Steelworkers. In the meantime we have implemented our strike contingency plans at the affected facilities and are working to minimize impact on our customers.”
No word yet on how or whether this will affect the flow of Goodyear OEM or replacement tires to American customers.
— Rim & Tire Wholesalers
