Two-Thirds of Jobs to Go at Goodyear Tyler Plant

About two-thirds of the remaining workforce at Goodyear’s Tyler, Texas facility will be made redundant in August. According to the Tyler Morning Telegraph newspaper, the tyre major has informed the United Steelworkers Union of its plan to lay off approximately 110 people between August 6 and 19. A Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice received by the union stated the “permanent mass layoff has been necessitated by a lack of work at the plant.”

Goodyear spokeswoman Amy Brei is quoted as saying around 60 employees will continue to work at the facility. “There has been a decrease in the requirements needed for that rubber from Tyler,” said Ms Brei. Following the end of tyre production on December 21 last year, the Tyler site retained its rubber mixing operation. Goodyear is unable to close the facility entirely due to the terms of the USW master contract it previously signed, which states Goodyear must close its Valleyfield mixing operation in Canada before it can close Tyler.

“I feel like this is a further reduction toward the total closure of the plant,” USW Local President Harold Sweat said on June 12. The master contract will remain in force until July 2009.