Workers at Bridgestone La Vergne Plant Vote on Pay Cut

Workers at Bridgestone Americas’ truck tyre plant in La Vergne, Tennesee, are voting on a new contract, one that reportedly brings an across-the-board $2.50 per hour pay cut. In return, USW Local 1055 will get a guarantee that Bridgestone will keep the plant open at least another four years. The results of the vote will be announced sometime after Thanksgiving.

“I feel real positive about it,” Local 1055 president Lou Patterson told Nashville media. “With the current economy, this is pretty reasonable and better than closing the plant. It would be hard to walk away and find another job for many of our work force.”

Under the tentative plan, the pay scale would range from $18.03 to $23.82 an hour, down from the current maximum pay of $26.32 per hour, Patterson said. The pay cuts are specific to the LaVergne plant and are not part of the overall master contract Bridgestone Americas reached with the USW earlier this year.

But the remaining 479 workers would be spared the fate of nearly 600 others in the plant who were laid off in June when Bridgestone closed the plant’s passenger-tyre manufacturing operation. (Tire Review)