Goodyear plant's future hinges on vote

GodAndRiver.com, February 11, 2009

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and USW Local 831 negotiators have reached a tentative agreement on operations at the Danville plant in the face of an inventory surplus from the economic downturn.

Union members will vote on the agreement Feb. 19, according to the union’s Web site and Jo Andrews, communications manager for Goodyear in Danville.

Andrews also said Wednesday that the third partial furlough, scheduled for Feb. 21-28, would not take place.

“It has been canceled and will be rescheduled at a later date,” Andrews said.

Details of the agreement have not been released to the public. They will be presented to union members during two meetings on Feb. 19 at the Institute for Advanced Learning & Research. The meetings will be at 7:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Union members will vote on the agreement that day following the presentations. The vote will be by secret ballot, and polls will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., according to the union’s Web site.

The union’s local bargaining committee first met with local and corporate management Feb. 2.

“The company’s presentation was short and to the point about how the economic downturn is drastically affecting the tire industry,” according to a statement on the union’s Web site. “It is evident that the partial weeks out are not effectively reducing inventories.”

Goodyear officials returned to Danville for meetings Monday and Tuesday with the union on how to best reduce inventory and keep the Danville plant running efficiently.

Goodyear execs, union talking in Danville

Danville Register & Bee, February 10, 2009

Goodyear executives and union leaders are meeting this week to discuss the future of the company’s Danville plant.

Company executives arrived Monday and are expected to be in Danville through Wednesday.

The meeting follows last week’s session where United Steelworkers Local 831 officials were told recent furloughs have not done enough to reduce huge inventories. Danville plant workers just returned from a second weeklong furlough, with another scheduled for later this month.

Akron, Ohio-based Goodyear says restructuring plans will be announced Feb. 18 when yearly and fourth-quarter results are released.

With at least 2,000 workers, the Goodyear plant is Danville’s largest employer.

 

 

Union to host meeting on Goodyear's efficiency

Madison Messenger, February 4, 2009

United Steelworkers Local 831 members will meet for the second time in less than two weeks Monday to discuss ways of reducing inventory to keep Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.’s Danville plant operating efficiently, according to the union’s Web site.

Members of the union’s bargaining committee met with local and corporate management on Monday to talk about the future of the Danville plant.

Akron, Ohio-based Goodyear said Tuesday it would be announcing cost-cutting plans Feb. 18, when it releases its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings for 2008.

Danville Goodyear employees who produce truck tires are currently on the second of three weeklong furloughs the company announced in December. The last furlough is scheduled to take place Feb. 21-28.

A posting on Local 831’s Web site reads: “It is evident that the partial weeks out are not effectively reducing inventories. Meetings are scheduled for next week beginning Monday, Feb. 9th to discuss other options on how to best reduce the inventory and continue to operate the Danville plant efficiently.”

Representatives of the union either could not be reached Wednesday or refused to comment on the meetings. Jo Andrews, communications manager at Goodyear’s Danville plant, said Wednesday she couldn’t share any details about the company’s plans.

Goodyear, the city’s largest employer, employs more than 2,000 workers.

Goodyear trimming overtime hours

The Fayetteville Observer, January 24, 2009

Faced with lower demand for tires, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber plant on Ramsey Street has limited its crews to a 40-hour work week.

Most of Goodyear’s roughly 3,000 employees in Fayetteville had, until this month, been working at least 42 hours per week. That’s because the plant operates on a 12-hour, continuous operation schedule that automatically builds in two hours of overtime.

“The plant is taking out two hours of overtime per week on each crew,” plant spokesman Richard Evans said in a written statement.

The move isn’t sitting well with some employees, said Mike Price, vice president of United Steelworkers Local 959.

“That costs you money,” Price said. “In some instances that’s $100 a week, $400 a month.”

Although Goodyear took several weeks off during 2008 to bring inventory in line with demand, Price said that until late last year, some employees had been logging overtime beyond the two hours built into the schedule.

The union is filing a grievance over the latest move to the 40-hour work week and will see where arbitration takes it, Price said.

But he said Goodyear’s decision is not without logic.

“This is a savings to the company,” Price said. “And we understand why the company is doing this. Everybody is trying to save money right now. But if you’re the one losing that money it can be hard. ”

Employees aren’t happy about missing out on two hours of pay, he said.

“But at least they’re working 40 hours a week and still getting a paycheck with no threat of any kind of layoff at this point,” Price said.

The schedule for reducing the hours will vary “based on such things as customer demand and crew alignment,” Evans said in his statement.

“The important thing is that the hours be the same for all crews so it is fair for all crews,” he added.

This is the second week the 40-hour week plan is in effect, Price said.

“There could be one week where we get orders in and we won’t have to take two hours away,” Price said. “That could go for two or three weeks and then we get too many tires and we’ll have to do it again.”

Consumer demand continues to be an issue across the tire industry. This week, Goodyear competitor, Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, announced that in Tennessee it is eliminating 543 jobs in the consumer tire production side.

Job Cuts Expected at Goodyear in Poland

Esmerk, December 24, 2008

 

The management at the Debica tyre manufacturer, which is controlled by the US company Goodyear, has announced that collective bargaining negotiations will take pace in the near future. No details could be obtained from Debica's management, although it is thought that this will mean job cuts. The announcement comes in the middle of an enforced standstill in production at the company's factory, due to lack of demand. A representative of one of the unions said that he has no doubt that the company is seeking to cut labour costs, through job cuts. This is despite the companies assurances that there would be no group redundancies, when it negotiated with the staff that they would receive no pay rise for the first eight months of 2009.

Goodyear off for holidays

The Fayetteville Observer, December 9, 2008

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. will take a break from production at its Fayetteville plant between Dec. 24 and Jan. 2.

“We’ve known it was coming,” said Daryl Jackson, president of United Steelworkers Local 959. The official announcement happened Friday, he added.

This will be the fifth week of production halts this year.

Richard Evans, spokesman for the plant on Ramsey Street that employs about 3,000 people, said production will stop at 7 a.m. on Dec. 24 and resume at 7 a.m. on Jan 2.

Because employees will be paid for the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays, they won’t be off the clock long enough to qualify for unemployment claims, Jackson said. During previous production halts this year, workers were able to collect unemployment.

If there is money in the “sub-pay” trust fund, which is contracted between the company and United Steelworkers, it will be made available, Jackson said.

Given the dire situation with the economy and Detroit automakers, union members are generally relieved that they didn’t end up taking more time off than this, Jackson said.

“It’s like I told the membership — with the Big Three in the shape that they’re in, we’re fortunate that we’re 99.9 percent in the replacement market,” Jackson said. Plants dealing in original equipment — tires that go on new cars — are in a far worse position, he said.

Plant officials have said that the four prior weeks of production halts this year were to bring inventory in line with demand.

That’s partly the reason again.

“But this is more of a standard practice at the end of the year,” Evans said. “We’ve done this a number of times.”

During a conference call with investors last month, Goodyear officials told analysts that additional production halts were likely.

“As we continue to manage to the current market conditions, we’ll accelerate our action under our ‘cash is king’ strategy,” Robert J. Keegan, Goodyear’s chairman and chief executive officer, told investors at that time. “We will manage aggressively for cash.”

Part of that means making necessary production cutbacks, said Keegan, who added that demand indicators point to a continued “challenging” environment at least through the middle of 2009.

News from Goodyear Chile

News from Goodyear Chile - the union denounces Goodyear's action in Chile.  During Oct - Nov, around 250 workers from the shop floor and adminstration were fired.  Admin of the company says that for 2009, production projection is not higher than the 3,200,000/yr, even though it was to get to 5,000,000/year.  They also said they would end the the work schedule of 4 shifts (6 days worked, 2 off) - ergo the great number of workers gone.

In November, the Union leadership gave the company suggestions for possible cuts that would preserve jobs and at the same time give the company the biggest margin to manage the crisis.  We regret that the company gnored our proposals and opted for the  most drammatic action for the workers and their families, mass firings.

 

We need direct information on Goodyear's projections from the USA, and the vision from the rest of Latin America.

 

We send fraternal greetings to all of our brothers in the region during such difficult times.

 

Board of Directors, Number 1 Workers Union, Goodyear, Chile

Gerald:
La Organizacion del Sindicato de Trabajadores Nº1 de Goodyear de Chile, denuncia el actuar de la trasnacional Goodyear en nuestro pais.
Durante los meses Octubre- Noviembre fueron despedidas alrededor de 250 personas siendo estos trabajadores de piso y administrativos.
La administracion informa que para el año 2009 la pryeccion de produccion no supera los 3.200.000 de neumaticos al año, siendo que hasta hace un tiempo atras, esa proyeccion llegaba a los 5.000.000 de unidades anual.
ademas informarmamos el termino de la jornada continua de 4 turnos (6 dias trabajados y 2 dias libres) y por ende la salida de gran cantidad de trabajadores.
La Directiva del Sindicato a inicios del mes de noviembre planteo a la administracion de la empresa posibles recortes en la reajustabilidad de nuestros sueldos y por otra parte un recorte de porcentaje del sueldo base, buscando darle a la empresa un mayor margen en la viabilidad del manejo en esta crisis y con el objetivo claro de mantener los puestos de trabajo. Lamentamos que la empresa haya hecho caso omiso de estas propuestas y opto por lo mas dramatico para con los trabajadores y sus familias, el despedido masivo.
 
 
(quisieramos tener informacion directa de las proyecciones de las plantas Goodyear en EEUU y la vision del resto de las plantas en sudamerica).
 
Desde Chile un abrazo fraterno pàra todos los compañeros hermanos de la region, en momentos tan dificiles.
Comunicaciones.
Directiva Sindicato Nº 1 de Trabajadores de Goodyear Chile