Goodyear Employees Will Vote Friday on Proposal for Early Plant Closure

Tyler Paper, July 15, 2008

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. may close its Tyler plant prior to the expiration of the master union contract, thus releasing about 60 remaining employees early, if the local union membership votes to ratify an agreement for closure.Amy Brei, Goodyear manager of manufacturing communications, said the company seeks to close the plant because of a lack of demand for rubber.“The reason is there is decreased demand from our North American tire plants, which is where the rubber in our Tyler plant went, so the additional mixing capacity is no longer needed,” Ms. Brei said.Harold Sweat, United Steelworkers Local 746L president, said employees on each shift will vote Friday on the proposal when their shift is over.

“We will probably know (the vote results) as soon as that last meeting’s over, and I will have to contact our union staff representative and make him aware of the vote outcome,” Sweat said.

The union president said he did not want to comment on the proposal’s compensation package until he meets with the membership.

“Goodyear made an offer to the union to close the plant early, and the details of that agreement will be presented to the membership on Friday,” Sweat said. “They will vote on it, and if they accept it, the company will have the right to close the plant early.”

Ms. Brei said she was not made aware of the proposed compensation terms, and the company has a policy of not providing that type of information.All Goodyear tire plants have mixing capability. The Tyler plant and a plant in Valleyfield, Quebec, supply additional mixing capability, she said. Ms. Brei said the company does not have plans to close the Valleyfield facility.

The United Steelworkers’ master contract, which expires in July 2009, requires the company to shut down its Valleyfield, Quebec, plant before it closes the Tyler plant, but Ms. Brei said USW Local 746L ratification of the closure would remove that provision.

The closing would impact approximately 60 positions, which is in addition to a previously announced reduction of 110 positions that was to take effect in August.
Goodyear, in a statement, referred to the Tyler operation as a “rubber-mixing facility,” which it has been since January.

During the last contract negotiations between the company and the USW, the union struggled to keep the Tyler plant open, and the three-year master contract guaranteed the Tyler plant would be kept open through Dec. 31, 2007.

The company, however, ceased tire production there, reduced the plant’s employee base by several hundred people and retained the plant as a rubber-mixing operation.

Ms. Brei said the company has not decided if it will retain or sell the land and buildings, on Texas Highway 31 West, if the mixing operation is closed.

“There are no plans yet, one way or the other, for this facility,” she said.