Goodyear Finances Under Scrutiny.
Despite its dire financial situation Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Co. has paid its chief executive $1.5 million US, in salary and bonuses last year.
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Toyo Chooses Bartow County
Product NewsFollowing what the company have called “robust overseas demand” Toyo has announced that its new tyre plant will be situated in Bartow County, Georgia in the USA. The site, situated outside the state capital, Atlanta, was chosen above other prospective locations mainly based in the south-eastern United States.
The new facility will use the company’s automated tyre manufacturing system, which enables it, according to Toyo, “to maintain a high standard of quality while realising the flexibility to produce small production runs of multiple lines if tyres.” A new subsidiary company, Toyo Tire North America Inc., will own and operate the manufacturing facility.
The tyre producers plan to spend a total of nearly $400 million on the plant. In the first phase the company will spend $146 million on the plant and hope to begin production in 2006. Initially 350 employees will run the plant. In the second phase the company will invest $127 million and will create 300 more jobs. The third phase will include a further $119 million of investment and will see the work force expand to around 900. When finished, the site will have a total floor area of 96,000 square metres. Toyo estimates that the factory will produce two million passenger and light truck tyres a year. The site in Bartow County will also include a 40,000 square metre warehouse that will service the south-eastern states.
Workers go on strike at BFGoodrich Tires
Product NewsWorkers at BFGoodrich’s plant in Kitchener, Ontario, began strike action on June 1st in a protest against changes made to their contracts. United Steelworker’s Ontario Director, Wayne Fraser, says that workers produce “a number of high quality tyres and are not prepared to accept deep cuts to their benefits.”
The Michelin owned company is demanding that workers pay a portion of their health benefits and is imposing a lifetime cap on health care benefits for future retirees. Plans to contract out jobs have also angered the workers who feel that their livelihood is being threatened.
Representatives from the local union and the Canadian Ministry of Labour spent the previous weekend trying to negotiate a settlement, but BFGoodrich was unwilling to make any concessions.
Continental Cuts Production And Jobs At US Plant
Product News200 jobs are to go from a total workforce of 1,150 at Continental’s factory at Mayfield, Kentucky. The losses will be implemented at the beginning of July, as production is reduced from 10,900 tyres a day to 7,300. Continental operates five factories in the USA and Mexico, employing a total of 10,500 and the company has said that it has no plans to axe a factory.
Goodyear To Close Nebraska Warehouse
Product NewsGoodyear Tire & Rubber Co. will close a warehouse and distribution centre in Lincoln, Nebraska by the end of the year, eliminating about 160 jobs. Goodyear spokesman Skip Scherer said the closure was to improve customer service and has nothing to do with the recent announcement that Goodyear will reduce its reported profit for the past six years by an additional $65 million because of improper accounting.
Outplaced Goodyear workers out of work
Product NewsSome 100 white-collar workers at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. whose jobs were outplaced to a sub contractor may not have their jobs much longer. Some will be out of work as soon as April 30, and others will follow them until most are gone by 2006. The workers at the sub contractor, Affiliated Computer Services Inc. of Dallas (ACS), were told they would keep their same pay, vacation, years of service and other benefits. Last month, Goodyear announced it was transferring 100 jobs in Akron to ACS under a 10-year agreement. Goodyear said it expected the move to save it 45 million dollars.
Cooper ups production at Findlay
Product NewsCooper Tire & Rubber Company plans to add capacity at its Findlay (Ohio) plant with an equipment investment of 1.8 million US dollars. The capacity will increase by 500,000 tyres annually and add at least 30 additional jobs in the Findlay production facility. Bill Woeste, vice president manufacturing, said, “We expect this equipment to be in place and at full production levels by late summer,” he concluded. In January, Cooper announced investments in its other three U.S. tyre plants; with Findlay added, the total investment is nearly 34 million US dollars and an added capacity of almost 3 million units annually.
Goodyear cuts another 84 jobs at Wolverhampton
Product NewsAnother 84 jobs have been cut at Wolverhampton in the farm tyre division. This follows a denial that the transfer of agricultural tyre production to an off-take had any impact on Goodyear’s Wolverhampton agricultural tyre production. Six years ago the plant had around 3,000 staff, but the figure is now down to 600 and part of the site has been sold for commercial development. A spokesperson for Goodyear Dunlop said that Wolverhampton was still not as cost-effective as the group’s European average.
Slovakia could become auto hub
Product NewsSlovakia’s chances of becoming big in the automotive industry are strong, according to Jan Bajanek, head of the Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency, as several Japanese, British, and US firms are considering Slovakia as the possible site for their new plants. Bajanek said to the state-run TASR news agency that a major US producer of trucks was considering investing 400 million dollars into a factory in Slovakia that would create 2,000 jobs. According to Bajanek, Slovakia is still in a good position for the Hyundai investment, and other Asian car producers, such as Mazda and Honda, are also considering coming to Slovakia whilst Rover and the Japanese tyremaker Bridgestone are considering investing in Slovakia, Bajanek said. All good news for Matador’s automotive products division.
Tyre firm gets clearance to build
Product NewsBartow County, Georgia, has granted a Japanese tyre maker the industrial zoning it needs to build a 125 million dollar tyre plant in a rural area. The decision went against strong opposition and opponents vowed to continue to fight the development. Bartow County has lost more than 2,000 manufacturing jobs in about three years and the new plant expects to bring 350 jobs, at an average wage of 12 dollars an hour. State and local recruiters will not name the tyre maker, but opponents believe it is Toyo Tire, whose U.S. operations are headquartered in Cypress, California.
Goodyear outsourcing 100 jobs
Product NewsIn its latest move to cut costs, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. has transferred 100 human resources jobs in Akron to a sub contractor. The company has signed a 10-year agreement with Affiliated Computer Services Inc. of Dallas. All employees affected have been offered jobs at similar conditions with ACS. Some human resources functions will stay in house under the agreement, ACS will provide a wide range of human resources services, including payroll, medical benefits administration, training, recruiting and staffing for all Goodyear employees in North America.
Wennemer slams inflexible German labour market
Product NewsThe head of Continental AG slammed the German government on Monday for failing to tackle an inflexible labour market and said it was being forced to expand in cheaper locations abroad. “The decisions for the next two or three years have already been made. The government and the unions can no longer do anything about it – factories will be built elsewhere”, Chief Executive Manfred Wennemer told the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Goodyear promises more job reductions
Product NewsThe Goodyear management confirmed that it will cut another 1,200 jobs, beginning this year and finishing next. Goodyear has already cut 3,700 jobs this year and the bad news looks likely to continue next year. The management did not specify which jobs will be lost, nor which countries will be affected. The job cuts, along with cuts to employee pensions and benefits, are expected to save the company $350 million next year, Chief Executive Officer Robert J. Keegan said. Goodyear also announced that it also will raise prices 2 to 3 per cent on car tyres, 5 to 6 per cent on commercial tyres from the beginning of December.
No easy ride for Ford’s restructuring
Product NewsFord of Europe’s restructuring plans hit a snag as workers at the company’s factory in Genk, Belgium, went on strike, picketing the plant and burning tyres to block the entrance. Last week Ford announced that 3,000 jobs were to be axed at Genk and the current industrial unrest is in response to the restructuring plan.
Ford Sacks 3,000 In Belgium
Product NewsFord began its much-heralded jobs reduction programme by cutting 3,000 jobs at its factory in Genk, Belgium. This is in contrast to previous plans to invest 900 million Euro in the plant. Lewis Booth, recently-appointed as Ford’s COO in Europe, was pessimistic about market conditions, saying that he expected no recovery in the European car market next year, nor the year after. Ford of Europe lost $774 million in the first six months of the year.
