Even as a few hundred residents of Findlay, Ohio and locked-out Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. workers held a “community rally” this past weekend, Tire Review opines there may be some cracks appearing in the stalemate between the USW union and the tyre maker.
Contract negotiations at Cooper Tire & Rubber’s Findlay, Ohio plant are still ongoing, and US publication Tire Review reports the United Steel Workers union has launched a website to garner support for Local 207L members by signing a petition to send to Cooper Tire executives. The site, stopcoopertire.usw.org, also includes a video featuring locked-out workers and it encourages visitors to make a monetary donation, though it doesn't say what the money goes toward.
Workers at Cooper Tire & Rubber’s Findlay plant may still be locked out but at Cooper’s facility in Tupelo, Mississippi, employees reached one million man-hours without a lost-time incident during the course of this week. The achievement marks the second time Cooper's Tupelo employees reached the million-hour mark; in September 2010 they also passed a million hours without a lost-time case.
Cooper Tire & Rubber has appointed Cynthia A. Niekamp to the company’s Board of Directors. Niekamp is senior vice-president of PPG Industries’ automotive OEM coatings business, a position she has held since 2010. She joined PPG in 2009 as vice-president of the automotive OEM coatings business.
According to local newspaper The Courier, negotiations to end the lockout at Cooper Tire & Rubber’s Findlay plant in the US will resume on 13 December. As was the case for the previous, failed talks, the next round of negotiations will include a federal mediator. Whether these fresh talks will deliver results is far from certain, however – neither party has voiced a willingness to compromise its existing bargaining position.
Workers made redundant in 2009 when Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. closed its plant in Albany, Georgia are back at work with the company, Tire Review reports. According to news from Albany television station WALB-TV, the ex-Albany employees were among a group of temporary workers Cooper hired to operate its Findlay plant.
On 6 December the United Steelworkers International union and its Findlay, Ohio branch, Local 207L, filed charges against Cooper Tire & Rubber with US government agency the National Labor Relations Board. The charges allege Cooper Tire committed “unfair labour practices in bargaining and imposing a lockout” at its Findlay tyre plant, the USW reports.
US news sources report Cooper Tire & Rubber has brought in temporary workers to operate its Findlay, Ohio factory. Union member employees have been locked out of the plant since 29 November and local television station WTOL says temporary factory workers were driven in vans into the plant past picketing union workers on 5 December.
In a statement updating the progress of negotiations over its Findlay, Ohio factory, Cooper Tire & Rubber reports that the United Steelworkers union has rejected its offer to extend the recently expired worker’s contract. An extension of the contract that expired on October 31 would have allowed plant workers who are USW members to get back on the job as early as the weekend of 3-4 December and enable production to continue as usual while Cooper and the Union continue negotiations towards a new long-term contract. While Cooper’s statement did not specify the length of the extension sought, non-profit news magazine In These Times reports that Cooper wants to extend the current agreement by one year.
A survey by online retailer in the UK mytyres.co.uk, part of Delticom, found that staying mobile in winter was important to an overwhelming majority of motorists (82 per cent). Almost two thirds of respondents rated staying mobile as “very important” or “critically important”, the company says. However, the company contrasts this desire to stay on the roads in winter conditions with the results from another independent survey from vehicle auction company Manheim. According to the results from their survey, only five per cent of motorists are planning to purchase winter tyres this year.
Following the failure of Cooper Tire and the United Steelworkers to reach an agreement on a new long-term contract for unionised workers at Cooper’s Findlay, Ohio factory, the tyre maker announced on 28 November an immediate lockout of USW members at the facility.
Despite news to the contrary, Tire Review shares that union workers at Cooper Tire & Rubber’s hometown Findlay, Ohio, plant still do not have a new contract with the tyre maker.
Findlay, Ohio-based news source The Courier states that Cooper Tire & Rubber reached a tentative three-year labour agreement on 23 November with the representative chapter of the United Steelworkers union, Local 207L. No specific information has been disclosed about the agreement, which covers unionised workers at Cooper’s Findlay factory and succeeds the old agreement that expired on October 31. Local 207L members will meet on 26 November to hear details of the agreement and a vote on the deal will take place the following day.
Unionised workers at Cooper Tire & Rubber’s Findlay plant in the US state of Ohio remain on the job, even as its leadership continues contract negotiations. Ohio-based industry publication Tire Review reports that workers represented by the United Steelworkers’ Local 207have been working for three weeks without a contract as the two sides continue negotiations – and these negotiations have been described as “getting intense.”
Tyre wholesaler Kings Road Tyres (KRT) has voiced its support for next October’s Brityrex International exhibition. The company describes itself as a long-standing supporter of the UK’s only dedicated tyre and equipment show; purchasing and marketing manager Tim Bader shares: “We are strong believers in the importance of the UK industry having its own successful and truly representative show. Brityrex aspires to become the focal point for our industry, a dedicated show where people do business, and that’s something we think is really important.”
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