More Strikers Crossing Picket Lines, Goodyear Says

(Akron/Tire Review) According to Associated Press reports, Goodyear officials said that “hundreds” of striking United Steelworkers employees have returned to their jobs at Goodyear plants. USW locals, however, dispute that assessment. A Goodyear spokesman told the AP that production levels at struck plants are increasing as strikers return to work and the company hires additional temporary workers. Some 16,500 workers at 16 of Goodyear’s North American plants have been on strike since 5 October. No master contract negotiations have been held since talks broke off in mid-November.

In other strike news: USW International officials have been meeting with striking workers at Goodyear plant cities, giving them an update on the labour situation.

USW officials also said that Goodyear’s efforts to recruit workers laid off from Continental’s plant in Charlotte, N.C., will fail. Goodyear has been actively recruiting experienced tire workers in that city. Continental shutdown tyre production at the Charlotte plant earlier this year, putting some 1,000 union workers out of a job.

“Goodyear is wasting its time and money thinking it can sweet talk members from this local into scabbing”, says Mark Cieslikowski, president of Charlotte’s USW Local 850. “Goodyear should be using that money and effort to negotiate a fair contract with its regular workforce.”