Goodyear plans to end Texas tire production in January

The Associated Press, October 31, 2007

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. informed union officials at its Tyler plant on Tuesday that it will stop producing tires there in January.

Jim Wansley, president of United Steelworkers Local 746L, said the union received a worker adjustment relocation notice, which is required when the Akron, Ohio-based company plans a layoff that involves more than a third of its work force.

"Right now, the impact of what Goodyear has said they intend to do would be over 600 jobs," Wansley said in a story for Tuesday's online edition of the Tyler Morning Telegraph.

Wansley said talks would begin Wednesday on the timeline for carrying out Goodyear's plans for the plant and how many jobs will actually exist there.

Tire production is expected to cease somewhere between Jan. 1 and Jan. 14.

Workers at the Tyler plant make wholesale private label tires. The plant's fate was a key issue in negotiations of a new contract. The deal worked out in late 2006 after a three-months strike allowed Goodyear to stick with plans to close the plant but provided a one-year transition period during which workers would have the opportunity to take advantage of retirement buyouts.