Germany: Goodyear cancels public holidays to clear OEM tyre backlog

Germans can forward to a number of public holidays in the coming weeks, but part of the workforce at the Goodyear Dunlop tyre plant in Hanau won’t be taking these days off. Local media sources report that the plant is responding to production backlogs by declaring the Ascension, Pentecost Sunday, Whit Monday and Corpus Christi holidays to be “compulsory work days” at the Hanau facility.

As our German sister publication Reifenpresse.de explains, this decision was shared in a statement issued by employee representatives. According to Goodyear Dunlop, the plant has a production backlog of around 54,000 tyres, and this means supply to OEMs such as Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Volkswagen is “no longer adequate.” Just in Time and Just in Sequence deliveries are commonplace in the original equipment sector.

Goodyear Dunlop previously encouraged workers to take shifts on public holidays on a voluntary basis – in vain, it now appears. The plant’s works council has approved the reclassification of the holidays as working days. It isn’t clear how many employees are affected by this measure.