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Michelin Cutting New Hire Pay in Canada

(Akron/Tire Review – Nova Scotia Business Journal) New Michelin employees won’t be getting as much pay come May 1. The company told employees recently that it’s introducing a new pay rate scale, which will mean all new hires after the end of the month will make $3 less per hour. The reduction also includes flex employees, who will no longer get the regular full-time rate if they’re hired on or after that date.

By 2009, veteran workers who switch jobs on a different pay scale within the company will also feel the pay rate reduction pinch. One employee, whose name has been withheld, says many employees are “really upset” with the change. “No one’s happy about this,” said the 22-year veteran worker of the plant. “Everyone’s just stunned and flabbergasted. Not everyone’s a veteran like myself. It may not affect me, but it could if I wanted to switch jobs in the future. I’d lose $5 an hour.”

11th April 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear to “Aggressively Capitilise” on Opportunities

Goodyear Tire & Rubber’s chairman has commented on company plans to further reduce costs by buying more of its equipment, raw materials and tyres from China. These remarks came at Goodyear’s annual shareholders meeting. Chairman and CEO Robert Keegan said the company is exploring additional ways in which it may eliminate production it considers high cost: “This initiative will accelerate over the next two years,” he said.

Goodyear Spokesman Keith Price added that the company saved about US$35 million last year by buying equipment, raw materials and low-end tyres from third parties in China. The company’s plans do not include expanded tyre production in China or additional plants to its facility in Dalian.

11th April 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Jobs to Go, New Jobs Created by Bridgestone Move

Bridgestone Aircraft Tire (USA) is gearing up to move its operations from Florida to North Carolina, and in the process has been required to lay off a number of its Miami area employees. The Bridgestone division announced the impending move in May 2006 and says that the 52 employees will be laid off between May 19 and June 30.

However one community’s misfortune is another’s opportunity, and Bridgestone Aircraft has previously announced it will create 95 new jobs at the division’s soon to open 160,000 square foot facility in Mayodan, North Carolina by the end of the year.

2nd April 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Cooper Tire Distributes Layoff Notices

Employees at Cooper Tire’s factory in Texarkana, Arkansas have been notified that the layoffs anticipated since their initial announcement last year will begin this May. Letters stating that the layoffs will take place on May 26 have been distributed to plant workers.

In September 2006 Cooper Tire announced it planned to convert the factory into a ‘flex plant’, at the expense of at least 400 jobs. However company officials now believe the layoffs may not be so extensive due to recent market changes and attrition at the plant.

30th March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Spoiled for Choice

Here in the UK buying a new set of alloys for your car is a much different experience than in many countries. A trip to the local tyre shop won’t usually result in a satisfied customer rolling home on the wheels of their dreams – very few tyre specialists also deal in alloy wheels, and those that do mostly have a limited range on offer. This means that the bulk of alloy wheel purchases in the UK are made through dedicated wheel suppliers, and these days that equates to two options – in person shopping or ordering online.

Larger stores, such as the deceptively named South West Tyres (they do sell tyres, but the company’s specialty is definitely their large range of alloy wheels), offer the advantage of having a wide selection of both leading brands and budget alloys on hand, so little is left to the customer’s imagination. And with in-store fitting bays, such as at South West Tyres’ 10,000 sq. ft. premises, wheels can be selected, purchased and fitted all in a single convenient procedure.

28th March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Workers “Locked Out” in Australia

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) reports that employees at Bridgestone Australia’s factory in Salisbury, South Australia have been locked out from working their weekend shifts. The union says the 70 maintenance staff scheduled to work will not be able to resume their jobs until the following Monday, March 26.

According to AMWU spokesman Colin Fenney, Bridgestone Australia has not given workers a reason for the lockout. “I think it’s part of the action to try and break up the solidarity between the people down there but all that it is doing is like the other day, when they actually let scabs in to go and do their work,” he said, adding that the company’s action was like “putting fuel in the fire.’

The lockout comes in the wake of strike action at the Salisbury plant. The union is still holding out for double the 6 per cent over three years pay increase the company is offering.

23rd March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Plant, Union Reach Deal

(Akron/Tire Review – Fayetteville Observer) After five weeks of negotiations, the United Steelworkers of America and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. have reached an agreement on local issues.

About 300 union and family members gathered Mar. 18 at Pine Forest Middle School, less than half a mile from the tyre plant, to hear details of the tentative agreement, which mainly addressed scheduling, hiring and vacation time. Wages and benefits were not part of the talks, as they were decided in December by the master contract.

“What did we get during local negotiations?” asked Darryl Jackson, president of the Local 959. “Depends on who you talk to.”

Considering the union brought more than 100 proposals to the table and the company brought nine, Jackson said he felt they reached a “good deal.” Union members will get a chance to vote on the agreement Wednesday at the union hall, across the street from the plant.

20th March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Topy to Close Aluminium Wheel Plant

Japanese wheel manufacturer Topy Corporation recently announced it would close its aluminium wheel production operations in the US state of Kentucky by the end of September. Approximately 250 jobs will be lost as a result of the closure, with some jobs going to other plants, both in the US and Mexico. The company’s steel wheel manufacturing division and the 350 workers it employs at the Frankfort, Kentucky facility will not be affected by this closure.

According to company director Tom Trzazkus, there is no chance for the 250 jobs to remain. He said the closure is an exit strategy for the unprofitable aluminium plant division, and that high manufacturing costs in comparison with competitors, especially those with production facilities in China, was the main cause for the decision to close the division.

20th March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

EBC Brakes Partners with Bridgestone

It is no small accomplishment for a smaller company such as EBC Brakes to find itself as a preferred partner of Bridgestone, but following successful pilot testing, a nationwide rollout of EBC Brakes to all 163 of the Bridgestone First Stop fitting centres is underway. Publishing the news EBC pointed out that there is absolutely no financial connection between the two companies. Instead the relationship is described as: “Merely an exploitation of a common quality base of consumers looking for good tyres and good brakes in one location.”

12th March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Conti Sponsorship Criticised By USW

Retirees and former employees of Continental Tires’ Charlotte facility will again join University of North Carolina (UNC) students to protest the company’s sponsorship of UNC athletics in front of the Dean Dome during the basketball game against Duke on 4 March.

6th March 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Avon Automotive to Close Manton Plant

Avon Automotive plans to close its manufacturing facility in Manton by the middle of this year. Cost pressures and a downturn in the US auto market have left the plant, which has been in operation since the mid-1970s, unprofitable. About 100 jobs will be moved to Mexico.

8th February 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

One-on-One With Conti’s Claudio Boezio

(SA Treads, Douglasdale, South Africa) When we first met Claudio Boezio in early 2005, he had just assumed responsibility for Continental Tyre SA in his role as MD. At the time and by his own admission, he was fortunate to inherit a well-run, stable ‘ship’. But if there’s one thing that remains constant in the tyre industry, it’s change.

5th February 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Firestone Opens Second Brazilian Plant

Bridgestone’s Brazilian subsidiary, Bridgestone Firestone do Brasil Indústria e Comércio Ltda., has inaugurated its second Brazilian facility, approximately two years after the announcement of plans to invest in the State of Bahia. Built to meet both domestic and export demand, the 7-hectare plant will focus on the production of car and light truck tyres and is set to directly generate 500 jobs, with a further 1,200 or so jobs expected to be generated in related fields.

5th February 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Union is Optimistic a Deal Can be Reached Without Strike

(Akron/Tire Review – Des Moines Register) Al Skinner and Mark Highland both live in the Des Moines area, but they could be spending a lot of time together in St. Louis in the next several weeks.

2nd February 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Employees Launch Online Petition

Goodyear workers from the Canadian Salaberry-de-Valleyfield tyre plant have taken their fight to save the factory onto the internet. The workers, with the support of the local community, have launched an online petition to muster support in convincing the American tyremaker to reverse its decision to close the facility.

29th January 2007/by Tyrepress Editors