Steel Workers Help Let's Help

WIBW.com, November 20, 2007

Goodyear workers are "paying forward" some help they received a year ago.

The United Steel Workers Local 307 presented Topeka's Let's Help organization a $10,000 check Tuesday. That's the same amount car dealer Ed Bozarth gave the union to help striking workers last holiday season.

The union's leadership decided the gift should keep giving. Local 307 Vice President Glen Griffith said Let's Help and the United Way are very close to the Steel Workers. He says they are good organizations that helped their members when they were in tough times and continue to help people all year.

"It just feels good to give," Griffith said.

Let's Help Executive Director Ken Gudenkauf says the holidays are always special for the organization. He says they usually adopt 550 families through the Christmas Bureau, and the union's donation would go a long way to providing those families a nice food package and other items, just as mittens and hats.

It's not the first gift the union's given Let's Help. The International Steel Workers sent a $13,000 check following the strike to thank the community for its support of the workers. The international board decided to donate to an organization in each of the communities where workers went on strike.

Let's Help faced tough financial times earlier this summer. Gudenkauf said in July, he thought he wouldn't be able to make payroll through August. Now, he says he believes he could make it through April. He says the organization is still not entirely stable, but it is making progress.

To help with the financial troubles, Let's Help put its three buildings on the market. Gudenkauf says they are negotiating an offer on the building at 234 S. Kansas and there is interest in the warehouse. He says there are no offers on the administrative building, where lunch is served, but he says it's possible Let's Help may decide to consolidate its services in that building. In addition, he credits their bank and the United Way for their willingness to work with the organization.

Gudenkauf says Let's Help serves an average of 300 meals a day. He says that often grows to 500 meals a day around the end of the month.

 

 

French Goodyear Workers Reject Reorganisation that would Increase Work Hours

ICEM InBrief, November 19, 2007

French rubber workers at the Goodyear-Dunlop twin plants in Amiens rejected a company restructuring plan that would increase work hours. With a 65% vote, the two factories, totalling 2,700 workers, said 'no' to the American company's plan to reduce weekly rotation teams from five to four, and cut weekend pay for each worker by 10%.

All the primary French unions at the plants, including ICEM affiliate CFDT, recommended that workers reject the plan, and following the vote, they urged a quick return to dialogue to re-shape the restructuring plan.

Goodyear's plan would also eliminate 450 jobs over three years through attrition. The company is seeking reorganisation of the plants in northern France in order to implement a €52 million modernisation plan to produce high-performance tyres. But the reorganisation would increase work time by rotation of shifts every eight days. Weekend work would also have increased from 28 to 35 hours, had workers accepted the plan.

 

 

 

On Schedule

Gadsden Times, November 15, 2007
Two months after work started on the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. expansion, the project is on schedule for production to begin in the new area of the Gadsden tire plant next year, plant manager Jim Davis said.

The company broke ground Sept. 14 for the 204,000-square-foot expansion to the plant and work began the next week.

"We had a few days of rain during the early days of construction, but we've managed to catch up with our rigorous schedule," Davis said. "The construction crews and our engineering team are diligently working to ensure that we meet our deadline."

Davis said in a press release Wednesday construction of the building addition is being done in phases, with the first phase to be completed by Dec. 31.

Preparatory work for state-of-the-art equipment in component manufacturing has begun in the existing plant.

Additional tire-building equipment is scheduled for installation in the building addition in mid-February.
Company officials said at the groundbreaking ceremony that production in the expansion would begin in the second quarter of 2008.

The entire modernization project is expected to be completed by 2010, officials said.
Goodyear has filed for tax abatements with the city of Gadsden for an investment totaling $125 million, including $118 million in equipment and $7 million in building construction.

At the groundbreaking, Chris Werner, Goodyear's vice president for North American Tire Unit, said the modernization of the plant will enable Goodyear to make more competitive products and "higher-value-added" products.
The plant will continue to produce light truck radial tires, passenger tires and mini-spares.

"It's the only way we can maintain a competitive work force, competitive jobs in North America," Werner said.

Dennis Battles, president of United Steelworkers Local 12, said in an interview Wednesday that workers at the plant are excited about the expansion, especially considering the announcement by Goodyear last month that the company is stopping tire production at the Tyler, Texas, facility shortly after the first of the year.

That will mean a loss of about 600 of the 750 jobs at the plant there.

The company may be considering keeping the Tyler plant open as a mixing operation.

Battles said the plant here was in that situation in February 1999 after Goodyear announced it was ceasing tire production but would keep a mixing operation.

The company later changed direction and in October 1999 announced the plant would stay open.

"We've been in that same position," Battles said, referring to Tyler.

While company officials have not said if there will be more of an investment than $125 million, Battles said the union is "always politicking" Goodyear officials to
add investment and production lines here.

"We're always asking," Battles said.

He said the new tire machines will allow the plant to produce larger-size tires, which would allow additional lines to be added.

The state helped secured the investment here by pledging an incentive package of $30 million - $20 million from a bond issue and $10 million in training funds.

Goodyear also has announced plans for a $200 million expansion at the Fayetteville, N.C., plant.

As part of the agreement for a new three-year contract reached with the United Steelworkers in December after a three-month strike, the company has agreed to invest $550 million in Goodyear plants in North America in the next three years.

Tyler Prepares Relief Efforts For Goodyear Employees

TylerPaper.com, November 14, 2007

 

Relief efforts for laid-off Goodyear workers will include benefits processing, job fairs and perhaps monies for work force training, leaders of those efforts told the Tyler Area Chamber of Commerce board on Tuesday.

The current master contract between Goodyear Corp. and the United Steelworkers, ratified in late December 2006, indicated the Tyler plant would stay open at least through 2007.

On Oct. 30, Goodyear announced that tire production at the plant would cease in January and a layoff would eliminate most of the hourly positions in the plant. That news was bad, but at least workers and their families have had time to prepare for it, state Sen. Kevin Eltife told the board.

"The fact that we've got an extra year, it's not as dire a (situation) over there for the employees," said Eltife, R-Tyler.

Eltife was chairman of a task force that assembled a year ago to bring together local social service organizations into a one-stop shop for workers who either needed help getting through last year's union strike or who would need help if they were to be laid off.

Fred Peters, coordinator of Eltife's task force, said a transition committee composed of union representatives, plant representatives and ex-officio members has been assembled to oversee the workers who will lose their jobs.

Layoff notifications will go out Jan. 1-14, Peters said.

Jim Wansley, president of United Steelworkers Local 746L, previously said the company indicated that more than 600 of its approximately 750 hourly employees would be laid off.

The workers transition committee will establish another one-stop shop for laid-off employees. Services could include job fairs and the processing of unemployment benefits.

Peters said workers might be eligible to receive Trade Adjustment Assistance or Trade Readjustment Allowances.

TAA is a federally funded employment program that helps people who have had their jobs impacted by foreign imports. According to program information, workers could be eligible to receive re-employment services, allowances for job searches or relocation, a health coverage tax credit or training.

TRA is income support for people who have used all their unemployment compensation and whose jobs were affected by foreign imports.

Tom Mullins, Tyler Economic Development Council and chamber president and chief executive officer, said the TEDC will apply to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration, for a $100,000 grant to be used for developing a strategic plan for dealing with the loss of production and manufacturing jobs.

The TEDC partnered with the Texas Engineering Extension Service, to which it will provide data. The extension service will use the data in writing the grant application.

Mullins also said the East Texas Workforce Board is applying for a $200,000 U.S. Department of Labor regional innovation grant for development of a strategy for an economic development initiative and work force development, which includes training and skills development.

Goodyear plans to retain some employees so it can continue to operate a mixing center at the plant.

Mullins said the facility would become a source for a rubber compound to be used by other plants that need that additional rubber for their tire production. He said the center would use about 40 percent of the total plant space.

"This is mostly bad news, but they're going to be here for two more years," Mullins said, referring to the remaining two years left on the master contract.

Although the chance may be slim, Mullins said Goodyear could restart tire production at the Tyler plant if market conditions demand it.

Goodyear told to pay woman $4 million

SeattlePI.com, November 9, 2007

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. must pay a Seattle woman nearly $4.4 million after a King County jury found that the company demoted her after she complained of discrimination because of her sexual orientation.

The Superior Court jury reached the decision this week in a lawsuit filed by Melissa Sheffield, 47, who had been working for a Seattle Goodyear store for nearly 10 years before the problems arose in 2003.

Jurors found that a manager and the company retaliated against her by demoting her in May 2003, and that the company didn't reasonably accommodate her so that she could work in spite of an on-the-job injury.

She was demoted after reporting a co-worker who had talked about disliking gay people and who made an inappropriate comment when she confronted him about bringing a gun to work, according to her Seattle attorney, Daniel Johnson.

Johnson said he was pleased with the jurors' decision. "I think they were really upset by what they saw as an employee who was seeking protection in the workplace," he said.

Goodyear argued that Sheffield was demoted for her own misconduct. An attorney for the company could not be immediately reached for comment Friday.

Jurors deliberated less than two days.

Goodyear employees say they want answers

KETKNBC.com, November 1, 2007
TYLER-- Goodyear employees are now wondering what will happen next as tire production is scheduled to stop by the end of this year.
Come December Goodyear is laying off nearly 600 employees and right now those employees say they want more answers.
For many of the Goodyear employees, a year of uncertainty is all they have seen.
More than a year after going on strike these men and women say they still don't know exactly whats going to happen in the next two months.
Goodyear employee Phillip Gordon said, "In the next couple weeks there going to be a lot of questions that been asked thats going to have to be answered."
The Union President Jim Wansley says this is what employees do know:
In December the plant will no longer make tires.
This means an estimated 600 people will be out of a job.
But, Goodyear will continue to make rubber which means about 150 employees stay at the plant.
Union President Jim Wansley said, "Now we have some idea of what we're going to have, we're just going to have to figure out how we're going to move forward."
Moving forward, many say will be the hardest part.
Making tires for Goodyear is all many of the employees know.... it's all they've been doing for years.
Goodyear Employee Charlie Waters said, "I left a job I had for 13 years to come here, thinking it would be the last job I ever had."
For Waters and many others, finding a new career is next.
Waters said, "The East Texas Free for all. Just like the old Oklahoma land rush. Everybody will be out there looking and knocking on doors."