(Akron/Tire Review) A lawmaker in Liberia’s lower house of parliament has called on the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) to deploy troops on a plantation owned by Firestone Natural Rubber Co. to prevent its takeover by a criminal gang. A gang styling itself the “Bad Boys of Bomi County” recently threatened in a leaflet to occupy the plantation at Harbel, Liberia’s largest employer.
(Akron/Tire Review) The Liberian Times has reported that Bridgestone Americas Holding’s Firestone Plantation Co. in Liberia has threatened to close down its activities in the country if the Liberian government does not help control illegal tapping at the facility.
According to the paper, outsiders have been “on a rampage” over the last several months, illegally tapping natural rubber trees on Firestone Plantation grounds. Allegedly, this illegal activity has also resulted in the deaths of five Plantation contractors and injuries to dozens of company employees.
(Akron/Tire Review) Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire announced that it has signed two OE medium truck tyre deals – one with Mack and another with Volvo. Both deals kick in 1 October, and will see Bridgestone brand tyres come as standard equipment on all Mack and Volvo tractors.
(Akron/Tire Review) In an interesting twist to the current round of master contract talks, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has told the United Steelworkers that it wants the union to reach a deal with Bridgestone/Firestone before it will continue negotiations. It was expected that talks between Goodyear and the USW were further along than those between the union and Bridgestone/Firestone, and that the union’s talks with Bridgestone/Firestone would be more difficult.
(Akron/Tire Review) Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire confirmed that it had purchased White Tire, based in Virginia. White Tire has six retail stores, 11 commercial centres and six retread shops, and serves customers in Virginia, West Virginia, South Carolina and Tennessee. Under BFNAT’s ownership, White Tire LLC will be a subsidiary operation.
(Akron/Tire Review) Hideo “Hank” Hara, Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire’s executive vice president of tyre development and technology, will be returning to parent company Bridgestone Corp. in October to become vice president and officer of OE tyre sales and motorsports. Replacing Hara at BFNAT will be Yutaka Yamaguchi, currently director of tyre development at Bridgestone. Yamaguchi will also assume Hara’s spot on the boards of directors of both BFNAT and Bridgestone America Holding.
The Akron Beacon Journal has reported that nearly 200 retired unionised workers have protested outside Goodyear’s corporate headquarters and later in front of Bridgestone Firestone’s Akron Technical Center to protest what they said are the tyremakers’ proposals to reduce retiree benefits. The protests, were aimed at pressuring Goodyear and Bridgestone in contract negotiations with the United Steelworkers of America. The union and two tyremakers are working under day-to-day extensions of contracts that expired in July. Negotiations started in June.
UK TV viewers of BBC’s Top Gear motoring programme will be familiar with the character called “The Stig” – an anonymous driver who regularly puts cars through their paces by driving them at the limit. Italian tyre manufacturer Marangoni has its own version of the Stig who, according to the company, has the task of assisting the Marangoni research and development team in testing and analysing each product’s ‘intelligence’, on track and road. The information gained is used to ensure performance, comfort and safety are optimised for everyday drivers. The main difference is that the identity of Marangoni’s ‘Stig’ is not shrouded in mystery – he is in fact former F3 driver and European GT Champion, Cristiano del Balzo – the current Director of the Italian equivalent of the MSA, the CSAI Velocità.
Golf enthusiasts at Bridgestone UK say they will have one eye on the lush fairways of Ohio this week when leading global stars contest the World Golf Championships. A strong field at the Bridgestone Invitational event, which tees off at the Firestone Country Club in Akron on Thursday (24 August), includes Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia, Geoff Ogilvy, Luke Donald and Paul Casey. As well as striving to emulate last year’s winner Tiger Woods, many of the American and European participants will also be looking to score valuable ranking points for a starting place in next month’s Ryder Cup.
Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC (BFNAT) has announced that Bridgestone Turanza EL40002 tyres will be original equipment on the new 2007 Toyota Prius Touring Edition. BFNAT will supply the tyres in size P195/55R16 86V. The Bridgestone Turanza EL40002 is described as a “V-speed rated, all-season, luxury, touring original equipment tyre.” The 2007 Touring Edition of the Toyota Prius is hitting US dealerships this month.
(Akron/Tire Review) Even as both sides continue to pick over the fine print of the United Steelworkers (USW) new three-year master contract with Michelin North America, Goodyear and the Steelworkers reportedly remain far apart in their contract talks.
Goodyear’s union workers continue on the job, working on a day-to-day basis off their now expired contract. The USW’s deal with MNA has been established as the “pattern contract” for ongoing talks with Goodyear and now stalled talks with Bridgestone/Firestone.
(Akron/Tire Review) Bridgestone Americas Holding’s Bridgestone/Firestone Chile S.A. (BFC) unit said it is closing its Coquimbo, Chile, plant at year’s end. The company said that because of “intense competition from low-cost producers, the plant is not globally competitive and is projected to begin losing significant amounts of money with no viable strategy to reverse the losses.” The plant produces mass market and bias ply tyres and bias tyres.
(Akron/Tire Review) Continental Tire North America and Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire have both announced prices increases. CTNA said it is increasing prices on all Continental, General, Semperit and private brand medium truck tyres by up to 5 per cent, effective 1 August.
BFNAT said it will boost prices on its Bridgestone, Firestone, Fuzion, Dayton, associate and private brand tyre lines by up to 4 per cent, effective 1 September. The increase includes OE, replacement and export sales, and covers passenger, light truck/SUV, medium truck, agricultural and OTR tyre lines.
(Akron/Tire Review) The United Steelworkers’ (USW) master contracts with Michelin North America, Goodyear and Bridgestone/Firestone expired Sunday at midnight without incident and without a walkout by union workers. But twice over the weekend the union and Michelin agreed to extensions of their contract – one 24-hour extension on Saturday and a 48-hour extension on Sunday. The contract, which covers Michelin’s unionized plants in Tuscaloosa and Opelika, Ala., and Fort Wayne, Ind., is now scheduled to end at midnight on July 25.
(Akron/Tire Review) Pasadena lawyer Joseph Lisoni has filed two new lawsuits against Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire, continuing his nearly four-year-old battle against the tyremaker. The new lawsuits, filed in US District Court in California, allege defects in BFNAT’s Firestone Firehawk, as well as previously recalled Firestone Wilderness and ATX lines. Lisoni is seeking the immediate recall of those tyres.
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