From ICEM magazine, Global Info

For 3 years, 600 workers at a Goodyear tyre factory near Bangkok have struggled and fought for their rights. At present, they are in collective negotiations with factory managers, talks that have been blemished by subtle threats and intimidation by the senior manager.

Workers have one major thing going for them: they are more united now than ever. For the first time in years, the plant-level committee, behind the banner of ICEM-affiliated Petroleum & Chemical Workers Union (PCFT), speaks in unison. Workers no longer have part of this committee dominated by management.

In early September, this unity was on display. When the company fired two women, for using their own funds to make bags and shirts emblazoned with Goodyear’s logo for distribution to rural school children, the workers reacted: some 90% of the 600 showed up for work dressed in black.

Workers and the committee are unanimous about Anan Pol-ung. On 25 July 2007, they presented a formal letter to management demanding his reinstatement. The former president of PCFT’s union at Goodyear was sacked in 2006, his second firing. He first drew management’s wrath when – as shop-floor leader – he made a stand with 20 contract workers, all on fixed-term, yearly contracts The ICEM intervened in 2005 to win his job back.

The ICEM’s Goodyear Global Union Network is now demanding Anan’s reinstatement on this second dismissal.

A fateful event in 2007, something also serving to tighten the ranks, was a major fire occurring on 2 March that closed the factory, and halted production of auto, truck, tractor, and aircraft tyres. Workers were bitter when the senior manager offered to pay only 50% of their salaries.

All workers were recalled by July 2007. But the fire left safety problems in its wake. In one example, Goodyear seeks to remand a union committeeman in industrial court. The incident involves a small fire that happened after workers returned to their jobs. He is charged with a formal safety warning because he informed the plant’s safety chief that a fire alarm was not operating properly. That safety officer had left the company, and Goodyear failed to correct the problem.

Even before the big fire, managers eliminated a specialised fire team in order to save on overtime costs.

At a meeting in June, the union committee, together with the union representing 30 supervisors, agreed that they will not be bullied by any manager. They agreed also that they deserve fair and commensurate pay in this set of 3-year talks. And they also re-committed to make the best, and most reputable, aircraft and land tyres in the Asia-Pacific region.