Continental Tire Nears Union Agreement

Continental Tire North America Inc has reached a tentative agreement with union representatives on a severance package for hourly employees laid off last year at the company’s Mayfield, Kentucky, plant. Details of the agreement have not been disclosed, pending a ratification vote by laid-off workers represented by the United Steelworkers of America, the Charlotte Business Journal Reported.

In addition to providing an enhanced severance package, the tentative agreement resolves all pending legal disputes between the company and the union pertaining to the Mayfield Plant.

Continental and the union had been negotiating the subject of benefits for the laid-off Mayfield employees since 1 September 2004. When the company announced the cutback, it said the move would eliminate 870 hourly and 115 salaried positions.

“Continental Tire worked for many months to develop a comprehensive package to assist our laid-off Mayfield employees,” says Rick Ledsinger, the company’s vice president of human resources. “This agreement will provide much-needed relief to our displaced Mayfield employees as well as benefits for employees that are waiting for jobs in the plant to become available.”