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."