Goodyear Rolls Out Last Tire

TylerPaper.com, December 29, 2007

 

On Friday, most of the Tyler Goodyear workers said goodbye to their employer.

A week ago, the company ceased tire production at the Tyler plant on Texas Highway 31 West, a promise Goodyear finalized when it issued the Worker Adjustment Relocation Notice Act in November - a notification given when a company plans to lay off 30 percent or more of its work force.

About 550 people were scheduled for layoff on Tuesday, New Year's Day.

But many had already left the plant for the final time and were using their remaining vacation time because Monday and Tuesday will be holidays. So the workers who had not already left made their final drive out the gate Friday.

Workers from the last shift, the third shift, would leave at 7 a.m. Saturday.

At United Steelworkers Local 746L headquarters, across Texas 31 from the plant, the mood was somber. Employees were calling or making visits to check on benefits or transfer opportunities to other Goodyear plants.

But in the end, Friday was a day when some employees said goodbye to each other, knowing they might not see each other again.

"It's very much like, in anyone's work, when someone retires, the emotion and the sense of loss," said James A. "Bud" Allred, Local 746L treasurer and an employee who will retain his job. "Today, it's like everyone's retiring at once on all the shifts."

Some of the employees have close relationships with each other and depend on each other, Allred said. Much of that would be changed after Friday.

Last year, during negotiations for a new master contract, the USW was only able to receive a company commitment that it would keep the plant open through 2007. Shortly thereafter, Goodyear announced tire production at the plant would cease after this year.

Although most of the employees to be laid off will have left by the end of the third shift Saturday morning, some will be laid off later, after they finish training other workers how to operate equipment in a scaled-down plant operation. Goodyear will retain a mixing operation in Tyler, and rubber will be mixed there for use by other plants.

Another group will move some equipment, clean up and ship tires from the warehouse.

When the few workers who are staying for training and transitioning are finished with their duties, they will be laid off, leaving the plant with about 135 employees.

Union Vice President Harold Sweat, who will assume the president's post on Tuesday, likened the experience to a person coming home from the military and realizing he will not see his friends again, or at least for a long time.

"You have that sense of loss," Sweat said.

He quickly added, however, a bit of a positive note.

"But everybody feels like they're better off for the experience they've had during this time," Sweat said. "The training they've had will prepare them for jobs in the future, so I think everybody will be ready to move forward to whatever life has to give them."

 

Many Goodyear Workers Gone; Friday Shift Final Chapter

TylerPaper.com, December 28, 2007

Although Tuesday is the official date for a large layoff at Tyler's Goodyear plant, many of the workers are already gone.
Jim Wansley, president of United Steelworkers Local 746L, indicated some workers had other things on their minds than showing up for a final day.
"There were only two workdays this week - today and tomorrow," Wansley said Thursday. "And some of them had some vacation days, and they're taking them. ... They actually built their last tires on Friday of last week."
Wansley, who is one of the approximately 550 people leaving the company Tuesday, said the workers will file out the gate at the end of their individual shifts.
A much smaller number of workers will be retained temporarily and will leave at later dates.
They will initially stay at the plant to train other people, and another group will participate in a transition of the area of the plant in which tires were made.
This second group will move some equipment, clean up and ship tires from the warehouse, Wansley said.
Goodyear will retain a mixing operation in Tyler, and rubber will be mixed there for use by other plants.
"We'll just have one end of the plant running and we'll just be mixing rubber," Wansley said. "Everything will just be on a much smaller scale, and without anything associated with tire production."
When the few workers who are staying past Tuesday for training and transitioning are finished with their duties, they will be laid off. Wansley said he did not know how long they would remain in the plant, but, when they leave, the plant will employ about 135 people.
"There will be several weeks before the tires that are in that plant now will be shipped out," he said. "(The warehouse) holds a quarter of a million tires."
Last year, during negotiations for a new master contract, the USW was only able to receive a company commitment that it would keep the plant open through 2007. Shortly thereafter, Goodyear announced tire production at the plant would cease after this year.
A corporate spokesman previously said the decision to cease tire production was the result of costs it would require to modify the plant to produce tires that bring greater revenue.
The Tyler plant received new machinery in recent years to make the more profitable tires, and it had modified some of its existing machinery to do the job, but the company stuck to its plan.
A work force reduction earlier this year left the plant at between 650 and 750 hourly employees.
The workers took buyout offers and early retirement.
Wansley said the local economy will feel the loss of jobs at Goodyear.
A study by Impact DataSource in 2005 showed the Goodyear plant's economic impact totaled $161 million per year statewide.
At 1,075 jobs at the time of the study, salaries totaled $70 million, and economic output reached $388 million.
But the jobs at Goodyear helped create other jobs in the sectors of the economy that supplied the plant. Indirect and induced economic output was $560 million, and salaries $91 million.
Tom Mullins, Tyler Economic Development Council president and chief executive officer, previously said the ripple effect of the layoffs to other jobs will be significant.

Health-care trust for retirees given first judicial approval

Akron Beacon Journal, December 19, 2007

Goodyear and the United Steelworkers have cleared a major hurdle toward the creation of an independent health-care trust for tens of thousands of union retirees.

The tire maker has received preliminary federal court approval for the settlement with the Steelworkers, its largest union, with about 12,200 active workers.

U.S. District Judge John R. Adams in Akron gave preliminary approval to the settlement Friday. The company and union agreed to the settlement in late October, subject to court approval.

Goodyear plans to make a one-time payment of $1 billion into the fund that is called a ''VEBA,'' or Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association. Steelworkers will pay part of their cost-of-living increases and profit sharing into the fund.

Providing it gets final judicial approval, the fund, not Goodyear, will be responsible for paying future health-care benefits for union retirees.

If everything moves along as anticipated, the VEBA process is expected to be completed in the first half of 2008, Goodyear spokesman Keith Price said Tuesday.

The move is expected to save Goodyear about $110 million a year. Goodyear and the USW agreed to create the health-care trust in settling an 85-day strike that ended in late December 2006.

The class members total about 30,000 retirees, their spouses, surviving spouses and other dependents, according to the judge's order.

The VEBA will be run by a committee made up of three union representatives, two retiree representatives and four public members with expertise in benefits. Goodyear will have no one on the committee.

Union retirees have until March 4 to file written objections to the proposed settlement.

Adams set 1 p.m. April 11 for another hearing on whether to issue final approval.