Goodyear Dunlop plant will try buyouts before layoffs

Associated Press, October 31

 

Goodyear Dunlop Tires North America’s Town of Tonawanda plant will first offer buyouts to hourly workers in its push to reduce its work force by as many as 150 hourly positions.

The company is presenting details of the buyout packages to employees and will give them about two weeks to decide whether to sign up for them, said Diane Zwirecki, a spokeswoman at the Sheridan Drive tire plant. Details of the packages were not disclosed.

If necessary, the plant would then turn to voluntary layoffs to trim its work force. The final step, also if necessary, would be to make involuntary layoffs beginning Dec. 1. Laid-off workers would be eligible to be called back, Zwirecki said.

The plant is reducing its work force as it scales back production of passenger auto tires and commercial truck tires, in response to a slowdown in vehicle sales, Zwirecki said.

Starting Dec. 1, production of those types of tires will be reduced to five days a week at the plant from the current seven-day-a-week schedule.

The plant also makes motorcycle tires, including for Harley-Davidson, but that business segment is unaffected, she said.

The plant has about 1,100 hourly workers, who are represented by the United Steelworkers of America, and about 150 salaried workers. An additional 50 salaried employees work at Goodyear Dunlop’s offices in Amherst.

The plant produces about 5,500 passenger auto tires a day and about 4,700 motorcycle tires a day. It makes about 2,000 commercial truck tires a day.

Earlier this week, a Steelworkers official said the plant has not had layoffs since 1979.

In 2006, the Steelworkers went on strike against Goodyear- affiliated plants in Tonawanda and elsewhere in the United States for about three months. The workers ended up approving a three-year contract.