US industry magazine Tire Review reports that workers at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina were forced to evacuate the building early morning on Monday, 10 March. According to company officials, employees were evacuated at the plant around 2am after someone called in a threat. No one was injured, and […]
Next Tuesday, at 9am local time (2pm BST, 3pm CEST), Goodyear Tire & Rubber will hold a conference call to discuss details of its newly ratified master labour contract with the United Steelworkers union. Participating in the conference call will be chairman and chief executive officer Richard J. Kramer and Darren R. Wells, executive vice-president and chief financial officer.
Strike action at Goodyear plants in the US has been averted following the announcement of a tentative agreement between the tyre maker and the United Steelworkers union. On the evening of Saturday 27 July, as the clock ticked away on the previous four-year contract, the two parties reached an understanding over a four-year labour agreement that covers some 8,500 employees at Goodyear’s Buffalo, Topeka, Fayetteville, Danville, Gadsden and Akron plant.
Goodyear is reducing production at its Fayetteville plant in the US for the second time in three months, reports Tire Review. The decision to decrease production is describes as a measure to “align production with inventory” in the slow North American tyre market.
In response to economic conditions, Goodyear Tire & Rubber is considering closing down production at its Fayetteville, US plant for a week in August. Plant spokesman Richard Evans told media that discussions have been held about the possibility of “taking production days out” if the market doesn’t improve. According to Evans, closing down production on certain days would be done to “reduce the inventory level because of a soft market.” Goodyear has not made any official statement regarding a temporary closure at Fayetteville, and it is not known which week the plant may close.
Goodyear has named Billy Taylor as the new plant manager of its Fayetteville, North Carolina, manufacturing facility, reports Tire Review. Taylor, who formerly held the same position at the company's plant in Lawton, Oklahoma, replaces Tim Frosell, who had been plant manager in Fayetteville since 2007. Frosell will become manufacturing director at Goodyear's plant in Pulandian, China.
Tire Review reports that nine employees at Goodyear Tire & Rubber’s Fayetteville, North Carolina tyre factory were arrested in a drug raid at the plant on March 30. The raid revealed illegal drugs in the employees’ vehicles and in the plant, police said, including marijuana, cocaine, prescription drugs and Ecstacy. Police said the arrests – and arrest warrants for five more men – came after a lengthy undercover operation at the plant with narcotics agents posing as Goodyear employees.
(Tire Review) Following the ratification of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co’s new, four-year master labour contract was ratified by members of the United Steelworkers union on 19 September, Rich Kramer, COO and president of Goodyear’s North American tyre unit suggested that, “This agreement reflects the commitment of Goodyear and the USW to continue to work together to achieve our common goal of world-class competitiveness.”
The United Steelworkers (USW) announced on September 19 that a new four-year agreement covering some 10,300 USW members at seven Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company plants has been ratified by secret ballot referendum vote, and comes into effect on September 21.
Goodyear and the United Steelworkers of America have agreed to an extension of their national contract, taking their agreement up to 29 August.
One Goodyear tyre plant is getting financial assistance, while another may see sharp reductions, according to various news reports. The Fayetteville Observer reported that Goodyear will receive $1 million over the next decade from the city of Fayetteville, the money intended to help retain jobs at the plant. Meanwhile, Goodyear plans to announce a restructuring and cost-cutting plan on 18 February, when company executives and union leaders meet later this week to discuss the future of the company’s Danville, Virginia plant.
Goodyear executives and union officials have this week held a series of meetings concerning the future of the tyre maker’s Danville, Virginia truck tyre plant. The Danville Register & Bee reported that company executives arrived Monday and are expected to be in Danville through Wednesday.
Goodyear will stop production at its Fayetteville, US factory between December 24 and January 2, reports the Fayetteville Observer. According to the newspaper, the week and a half pause was officially announced on 5th December, although it hardly came as a surprise. We’ve known it was coming,” the paper quotes Daryl Jackson, president of United Steelworkers Local 959, as saying.
Goodyear is to halt its manufacturing operations at the company’s plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina from Saturday 25 October until 1 November, news sources have reported. Richard Evans, the plant’s spokesman, said that the week-long shutdown is designed as a measure against falling demand. Goodyear has previously halted operations in July for one week and August for two weeks, citing the same reason.
As has been previously reported on Tyrepress.com, Goodyear also plans not to manufacture at its facilities in Gadsden, Alabama and Union City, Tennessee during the same week. In addition, Modern Tire Dealer reported that the company’s plant in Lawton, Oklahoma will take off four consecutive Sundays. Employees are eligible for unemployment benefits during the layoff periods, say local unions.
Goodyear representatives are reported to have given news of another temporary production shutdown at the company’s Gadsden, Alabama factory. This latest shutdown, announced October 15, will be the third to take place since August.
According to local newspaper the Gadsden Times, plant communications manager Jackie Brehm Edmondson said the factory will cease production at 1pm on October 25 and resume production at 1am on November 2. Employees were notified of the shutdown on October 13.
Bridgestone and Goodyear are to receive up to 30 million US dollars, following the approval by the North Carolina Department of Commerce of state incentive plans. The grants from the Job Maintenance and Capital Development Fund are designed to give companies the incentive to upgrade existing manufacturing facilities, therefore preventing jobs from being lost through firms’ wandering eyes.
Since both companies employ over 2,000 (at Goodyear, Fayetteville and Bridgestone, Wilson) the necessity to secure the jobs in their current location is clear. However, the cash incentives have not been without their critics, who call attention to the fact that the companies are not required to create new jobs, but merely maintain those already in existence. Goodyear must retain 2,398 workers and invest 200 million US dollars by 2012 to receive the whole 30 million, while Bridgestone must invest the same by 2010, while retaining 2,083 staff members.
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