Is a BFNAT Strike Imminent?

(Akron/Tire Review) Recent statements by the bargaining committee representing workers at Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire (BFNAT) plants in the US. indicate the union is prepared to go on strike, perhaps as early as next month. Talks between the tyre manufacturer and the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International (USW) were scheduled to resume this week, but union negotiators say this could be their last attempt to reach an agreement.

USW (formerly the United Steelworkers of America) represented workers at BFNAT plants in Des Moines, Iowa; LaVergne, Tenn.; Warren County, Tenn.; Oklahoma City; Akron, Ohio; and Bloomington, Ill.; and a tube plant in Russellville, Ark. Also involved is a Bridgestone Americas Holding (BAH) industrial rubber products plant in Noblesville, Ind.

Contracts with workers at all but the Bloomington, Illinois, OTR tyre plant expired in April 2003, and workers at those facilities have worked day-to-day under terms of the previous pact. The contract covering Bloomington workers expired in May 2003. A recent newsletter issued by the union negotiating team said that the group had met on 12 May with USW President Leo Gerard at his offices in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and expected to be back at the bargaining table with BFNAT sometime this week.

“Despite two years of effort on our part, we are no closer to an agreement now than we were when we started,” the negotiating group said in the newsletter. “The company continues to insist on massive concessions and has yet to meaningfully address job security and our other needs. The committee (negotiating team) unanimously agreed with President Gerard that this situation cannot be allowed to continue. President Gerard assured us that the full resources of the international union are available to support us.”

Regarding the planned return to contract talks with BFNAT, the USW negotiators said: “If the company continues to show no interest in reaching an agreement, we will return to our home plants. During the month of June, the committee, including the international union members, will then focus on a series of mobilisation meetings at all plant locations. We will meet with our members, discuss the issues and address their concerns.

“It is our intent following these meetings to serve notice for a mid-July strike. We regret this action may become necessary, but we believe we have done everything reasonably possible to reach an agreement. To date the company has responded by ignoring the pattern agreement and refusing to take negotiations seriously. Unless the company intends to force a confrontation, it is time they focus their efforts on reaching an agreement.”

At the recent BFNAT Bizcon commercial tyre dealer programme, Mark Emkes, chairman of both BAH and BFNAT, briefly addressed the status of the negotiations. Mr Emkes said that “many delicate issues on the table are being discussed” and that the company’s goal is a “win-win” deal, “but not one that jeopardizes the future of this company.”

Both sides have remained quiet about the progress of the talks, which, according to the USW, have centered around its concerns about BFNAT investment in its North American tyre plants and the prospect of some tire manufacturing being moved out of the US.

BFNAT has told the USW that it had labeled the Bloomington OTR tire plant and the facilities in Noblesville and Russellville as “distressed,” and has not publicly committed to maintaining those plants.

Strike preparation meetings were held throughout March at all of the USW represented plants. By contract, the union must give BFNAT five days notice before it can strike.

Negotiations between BFNAT and the union restarted in St. Louis last December, ending a period of more than a year during which no talks were held at all. Talks broke off briefly in late March and early April to accommodate the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the finals for which were in St. Louis. Union negotiators returned to St. Louis on 18 April, and made what they termed a “comprehensive proposal” to BFNAT on 21 April. On 26 April, according to the USW newsletter, BFNAT returned with a counterproposal, which the union rejected.

The USWA (then the United Rubber Workers of America) struck BFNAT plants in 1994. That acrimonious strike ended in 1996 when a three-year deal was signed. Negotiations on a master contract in 1999 went right to the wire, but no job action resulted.