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Firestone To Close Noblesville Air Springs Facility

On September 16 Firestone Industrial Products Company (FSIP) officially announced the upcoming closure of its air spring factory in Noblesville, Indiana. The final closure, expected to occur in the second half of 2009, will take place following a gradual phase-down of operations.

“The decision to close the Noblesville plant was especially difficult because we have been part of the Noblesville community for 72 years,” said Mike Cerio, president, FSIP. “But the reality is that the plant is no longer globally competitive.”

17th September 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear VEBA Trust Gains Court Approval

Goodyear reports that the Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Association trust (VEBA) proposed by it and the United Steelworkers union has been approved by the US District Court. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Goodyear will now make a US$1 billion cash contribution to the VEBA, which will provide healthcare benefits to the company’s current and future USW retirees. This one-time contribution will be made initially from existing cash reserves and available credit lines.

“Gaining court approval for the VEBA is a win-win for Goodyear and for our current and future USW retirees,” said Goodyear Chairman Robert J. Keegan. “This agreement both protects retiree benefits for years to come and removes a significant legacy obligation from our North American business.”

26th August 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Firestone Liberia Plantation Deal Brings Significant Gains, says USW

The United Steelworkers (USW) union has voiced its approval for a labour agreement signed between Firestone and rubber workers in Liberia. Under the terms of this agreement, says the USW, workers at one of the world’s largest rubber plantations will receive wage increases, an improvement in work conditions and upgraded housing and educational facilities.

12th August 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

USW Members Approve Early Closure of Goodyear’s Tyler Facility

The Goodyear factory in Tyler, Texas, will close earlier than originally anticipated following a union vote on July 18. United Steelworkers union members have chosen to waive the clause that required the facility, which has been used as a rubber-mixing centre following the end of tyre production in 2007, to remain in operation until after the closure of the company’s plant in Valleyfield, Canada.

22nd July 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Unite & USW Sign ‘Super Union’ Document

On July 2 Unite, the UK’s biggest union and the USW, the largest private sector union in the USA and Canada, signed an agreement creating the first global union. The document was signed at the USW’s Constitutional Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 2nd 2008.

The union, to be called Workers Uniting, will represent three million people from every industrial sector in Britain, Ireland, the USA, Canada and the Caribbean. The agreement to form a global union, said Unite in a press statement, was initiated by the leaders of the two unions in response to the challenges of globalisation, particularly the casualisation of employment and reductions in pay experienced by many in North America and Europe.

3rd July 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Two-Thirds of Jobs to Go at Goodyear Tyler Plant

About two-thirds of the remaining workforce at Goodyear’s Tyler, Texas facility will be made redundant in August. According to the Tyler Morning Telegraph newspaper, the tyre major has informed the United Steelworkers Union of its plan to lay off approximately 110 people between August 6 and 19. A Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice received by the union stated the “permanent mass layoff has been necessitated by a lack of work at the plant.”

13th June 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

USW, Unite Continue Plans to Merge

Great Britain’s Unite and the United Steelworkers (USW) have moved ahead with their plans to merge and create a global super-union. Representatives of the two million-member Unite and the USW met last week to hammer out merger details, with a final announcement of the merger expected at USW’s annual convention this July.

Unite’s membership covers Britain and Ireland, and are employed by such companies as BP, British Airways and Rolls Royce. The million-member USW represents US and Canadian workers in a wide range of industries, including steel and tyres. Long-term, the merged group envisions adding unions covering Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia, creating a complex global union that could seriously impact global corporations.

28th May 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

CTNA Makes Healthcare Funds Available for USW Retirees

The United Steelworkers stated on April 15 that Continental Tire North America, (CTNA) has agreed to make US$158 million in payments to a retiree health insurance fund. The settlement is in response to a lawsuit filed by the USW and a number of retirees when CTNA implemented a $3,000 cap on its payments for retiree health coverage, a change that increased monthly health coverage fees for some retirees up to $1000 or more.

“This was an unconscionable attempt by an employer to strip away benefits from retirees who had already paid for them with a lifetime of work,” said USW president Leo W. Gerard. “We couldn’t let that happen, especially given the current shambles of our country’s health care system.” The lawsuit asserted that CTNA’s changes to its retiree health care coverage in April 2007 violated federal law. Last July, Judge Jack Zouhary of the Northern District of Ohio agreed by ruling that the company had no right to reduce or terminate benefits.

17th April 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Final Approval for Goodyear Retirement Fund Not Reached

Goodyear employees, union representatives and the tyre major will have to wait longer for a final settlement to issues relating to their 2006 strike action. US District Court Judge John R. Adams stated on April 11 that he needed more and better information on the long-term viability of the Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association (VEBA), which was set up by the United Steelworkers and Goodyear as part of negotiations regarding the 85-day strike.

The US$1 billion plus independent healthcare trust is intended to pay benefits to approximately 30,000 USW member retired Goodyear employees, and Adams gave preliminary approval to the trust in December. Goodyear said it will pay $1 billion into the trust, after which it will no longer be responsible for retiree healthcare benefits. The tyre major expects to save $110 million a year and remove $1.2 billion in liabilities from its books through the VEBA’s creation.

14th April 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Firestone Employees Threaten Strike Action

Union employees at the Firestone Polymers plant in Orange, Texas, in the US are considering strike action in protest against alleged plans to replace a number of union members and reduce the pay of others. The local union, part of the USW, alleges that management wants to replace about 20 operator-helpers with contract employees who he said would earn less, and reduce pay of 22 other union workers by US$8.40 per hour.

22nd February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

CTNA on the Move in 2009

Continental Tire North America is moving its corporate headquarters – but not very far. In 2009 the company will relocate about 40 miles south, from Charlotte, North Carolina, to northern Lancaster County, South Carolina, into a US$11 million 7,000 square metre office facility currently under construction. The site will house more than 300 employees.

This announcement was made on February 20, and is a decision that was facilitated by incentives from the state of South Carolina and Lancaster County Council. Continental spokesman Rick Holcomb also referred to South Carolina’s “very proactive business climate” as a reason for the company’s decision.

21st February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

OTR Tyre Duties “Level the Playing Field” – USW

The United Steelworkers has reacted positively to the US Department of Commerce’s preliminary decision to impose antidumping duties on OTR tyre imports from China. In a statement released by the union group, USW International president Leo Gerard said that the “the decision will help level the playing field for US workers by requiring Chinese tyre imports to be priced fairly.”

At present four individual manufacturers have been investigated by US authorities, resulting in the introduction of duties ranging between 11 and 52 per cent. Other companies penalised with individual rates are subject to a margin reflecting the weighted average of individual rates or 25 per cent – whichever is higher. Those companies ineligible for individual rates must pay a duty of 210 per cent.

13th February 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Titan May Chop Production at Ex-Goodyear Plant

It appears, as previously reported, that the honeymoon between the United Steelworkers and Titan International Chairman and CEO Morry Taylor is over. News reports say that Taylor is threatening to move tyre production out of Titan’s plant in Freeport, Illinois, unless the USW goes along with his plans to make the former Goodyear plant operate profitably.

“That’s the way it is,” Taylor told the Freeport Journal-Standard. “We’re going to run a profitable plant or we’re going to shave it down until it does make money. I told everyone that when we first came here.” Apparently, Titan is seeking staffing and wage reductions, but specifics of Titan’s plan for the plant were not revealed. In a memo obtained by the Freeport newspaper, Taylor said that without concessions from the USW employment could be cut to the bare minimum allowed under Titan’s current contract with the Steelworkers.

18th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Elects to End Tyre Production at Tyler Plant

On October 30 Goodyear announced its intention to end tyre production at its Tyler facility in the US state of Texas, ending months of speculation over the plant’s fate upon expiry of the one-year stay of execution granted by the signing of the United Steelworkers’ three-year master contract in December 2006.

Goodyear announced that production will end in January, the exact date falling some time in the first fortnight of the year. The end of tyre production will be accompanied by the loss of more than 600 of the plant’s 740 hourly jobs, the company added.

The tyremaker issued the USW a Worker Adjustment Relocation Notice (WARN) Act notification on the afternoon of October 30. By law a company must issue a WARN Act notification 60 days prior to beginning redundancies that will affect more than one-third of the workforce.

1st November 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Settlement Reached in Ex-Union Workers’ Complaint

(Akron/Tire Review) Avoiding a formal hearing before the National Labor Relations Board, USW Local 2 (Akron) reached a settlement in the complaint made by former union members who claimed they were fined and harassed after crossing picket lines during the 86-day USW strike against Goodyear.

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which represented the three former union workers, said the settlement was reached last week.

The former union members claimed they were fined $620 each and subjected to harassment at their homes and on the job. USW Local 2 claimed it had the right to fine the members for quitting the union during a strike, but denied the harassment claims.

The settlement calls for Local 2 to post a document in the Akron Goodyear plant telling union members to refrain from ”threatening bargaining unit employees with internal union fines and termination,” and to not attempt to intimidate employees at their homes or otherwise attempt to coerce them. The union will also drop all internal charges against the three workers and expunge their union records.

While the settlement states that the agreement ”does not constitute an admission that the Charged Party violated the National Relations Act,” it does allow the three workers to pursue civil action against the union.

22nd August 2007/by Tyrepress Editors