Global Insight, June 3, 2009
Goodyear workers in
Significance:Goodyear has already laid off 3,800 workers during the first quarter of this year and aims to reduce its built-up inventory by over $500US million during the year, on the lines of its Four-Point Cost Savings Plan aimed to achieve $2US.5 billion in gross cost savings by the end of this year. Goodyear is reportedly planning to discontinue consumer tyre production at its
Sindicato Unico de Trabajadores de Goodyear de Peru, June 3, 2009
Even though production at the plant has held steady, since firing the 25 workers, Goodyear
The union has raised formal complaints about the dismissals to local and national authorities, but Goodyear
The Messenger, June 2, 2009
The deadline has passed and the results are in concerning the potential for a number of Goodyear-Union City associates to walk away from the plant.
According to UC Today, a weekly publication provided to Goodyear-Union City associates, 518 workers have applied for a Phase I buyout from the company.
USW Local 878 members were notified of a proposal issued by Goodyear in late April, which highlighted three potential phases of production decreases and buyouts for plant workers. After a vote by Local 878 workers, the agreement was accepted by an overwhelming 97 percent in favor of the proposal.
Since that time, Goodyear-Union City announced plans to move to an eight hours a day, five days a week traditional production schedule after the July 4 holiday shutdown. Currently, the factory operates seven days a week on a 12-hour continuous production schedule.The plant also announced it would allow the buyout of 600 associates under Phase 1 of the agreement.
Under Phase 1, associates with at least six months of service to the plant could apply for the buyout at $3,000 for each year of service with no cap.
Goodyear-Union City reported on Friday that 518 associates signed up for the Phase 1 buyout package. An additional 30 inactive associates will be included in the final number. The plant posted buyout awards throughout the factory Monday morning. Under Phase 1, associates between the ages of 53 and 55 with a minimum of 28 years of service who accept the buyout will be eligible to receive unemployment benefits until they are eligible to retire from the company.
Goodyear-Union City associates who plan to retire as a result of the buyout can schedule meetings in the human resources organization beginning June 9.
“This phase of the transition process is complete,” plant manager Todd Turner said. “Our focus now must be on implementing a new production schedule and improving our productivity to levels consistent with organizations that operate in a global environment in order to ensure Goodyear Union City’s operations remain viable.
“Making the Union City plant successful into the future will require a total team effort, driven by a willingness by all to put aside the past and operate the plant in a totally new and more productive manner going forward,” he said. “Anything less will greatly reduce our chances of success.”
Turner noted that Goodyear’s presence in Union City is valued, and the plant’s challenge is to deliver to its commitments and continue to earn the customers’ trust every day.USW Local 878 communications director Willis Hicks told The Weakley County Press that associates would leave the plant according to job classification and based on the time it takes to train replacements in various departments.
The lagging economy has taken its toll on the replacement tire industry as Goodyear plants in Topeka, Kan., and Danville, Va., have reported similar buyout agreements.
According to the WIBW-TV of Kansas, 225 jobs would be eliminated through buyouts and lay offs at the Topeka Goodyear plant. The Danville Register and Bee reported 200 buyouts were offered at the Danville Goodyear plant.
Both facilities also announced plans to move to a traditional eight hours a day, five days a week production schedule.
Justice Department Press Release, May 29, 2009
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department today filed suit in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City against Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. alleging it violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) by failing promptly to reemploy Michael J. Ellis in his factory job when he returned from active military duty.
As a result of an earlier military service-related injury exacerbated by his job with Goodyear, Ellis had become unable to perform physically the functions of his job as a Roll Changer/Extruder Operator with Goodyear in May 2005. While Goodyear searched for a new position for Ellis, he was called to active duty with the U.S. Army Reserves where he served as a Major until his honorable discharge in September 2007. The Department's complaint alleges that when Ellis sought reemployment with Goodyear shortly after his honorable discharge, the company took no steps to identify the position he would have held if his employment had not been interrupted by military service. Instead, Goodyear delayed reemploying him for 51 weeks while repeatedly requesting medical documentation not required or permitted by USERRA as a prerequisite to reemployment.
"No returning service member should have to wait almost a full year for reemployment under such circumstances," said Loretta King, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "Such a delay clearly violates USERRA's promise of prompt reemployment."
The Labor Department's Veterans' Employment and Training Service investigated and attempted to resolve Ellis's USERRA complaint before referring it to the Justice Department for litigation.
Congress enacted USERRA in 1994 to minimize disruption in the lives of returning service members by providing for their prompt reemployment following military service. As part of the protection the statute provides, USERRA requires employers to reemploy a returning service member in the position the employee would have held had his or her employment not been interrupted by military service.
The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has given a high priority to the enforcement of service members' rights under USERRA. This is the fourteenth USERRA suit the Division has filed this year on behalf of service members. Additional information about USERRA can be found on the Justice Department's Web sites at http://www.servicemembers.gov and http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/emp, as well as the Labor Department's Web site at http://www.dol.gov/vets/programs/userra/main.htm.
Global Insight, May 26, 2009
Goodyear is planning to cut 870 jobs at its Amiens plant in France owing to the deterioration in business prospects amid the ongoing economic downturn, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) report. AFP said that the Goodyear management would reveal its intentions over the impending lay-offs "during the first-half of June, after the establishment of the central council from the [French government] elections in April." He added that about 100 jobs could also be cut at Goodyear's Montlucon (Allier) facility; but company officials have denied this speculation, although confirming that the negotiations are ongoing with the local worker unions at its Amiens facility.
Significance: Goodyear cut 400 jobs at its Amiens plant last year. However, the company management and trade union leaders have been in constant disagreement over the future of the plant ever since. Goodyear announced in January 2008 that its European business unit was planning to reduce tyre production at its two factories in Amiens, because their costs were not competitive. Goodyear has subsequently shifted production of some of its tyres to its other lower-cost factories in Europe and elsewhere, while some products were eliminated. Goodyear has already laid off 3,800 workers globally during the first quarter and aims to reduce its built-up inventory by over $500US million during the year, on the lines of its Four-Point Cost Savings Plan aimed to achieve $2US.5 billion gross cost savings by the end of 2009 (seeUnited States: 30 April 2009:). The job losses represent over 50% of the plant's workforce.
Birmingham Post, May 12, 2009
Tyremaker Goodyear Dunlop UK is to begin consultations on a plan to close its final salary pension scheme.
The Birmingham-based Anglo-American company would not say yesterday whether the scheme was in deficit or by how much, but it is believed to be the latest in a growing list of businesses that are finding the cost of supporting a pension scheme based on pay and length of service excessive.
It said yesterday that it was starting talks with pension trustees, trade unions and employee representatives about the introduction of a new defined contribution (DC) pension scheme.
Unlike a final salary, or defined benefit (DB) scheme, in which the company bears the risk of ensuring that the fund has enough cash to meet its liabilities, a DC scheme transfers the investment risk to employees.
Goodyear Dunlop said the proposed new scheme would replace both the company's so-called Hybrid Scheme (which combines a normal final salary scheme with additional voluntary contributions from members) and an existing "New Hire" DC scheme.
The company calculates that about 850 employees in Birmingham and Wolverhampton are members of the hybrid scheme and 70 pay into New Hire.
"The consultation will be on the proposed replacement of the current schemes with a new enhanced defined contribution programme," the company said in a statement. Those who are paying into the DB scheme will have their accrued benefits deferred, and the company is proposing the introduction of a DC scheme for future service to add to the members' existing benefits.
Weakley County Press, May 11, 2009
Special to The Messenger
Union workers at the Good-year-Union City plant voted overwhelmingly in favor of an agreement between the company and United Steelworkers Local 878 which proposed a “buyout” of at least 600 associates during its first phase of initiation. The agreement also states the local tire manufacturing facility would no longer be protected under Letter 53 of a master contract and may be closed.
In a letter dated April 24 to Local 878 president Harry Alford, a proposal was offered to local union associates that highlights three potential “phases” of a workforce reduction at the Union City Goodyear plant. Local 878 members cast their votes Friday and Saturday, with 94 percent voting in favor of the buyout agreement.
“This agreement was to give the Union City plant a chance to survive. They were considering closing the plant and with this agreement, if things pick up in the next two years, it will have a good chance to survive,” USW Local 878 communications director Willis Hicks said.
Hicks added the company will put out information to its associates concerning how many buyouts would be available and the number of employees who would fall into a workforce reduction.
Union City Goodyear communications manager Jimmy Cagle, who will leave Union City for the Lawton, Okla., plant next week after more than 20 years at the local plant, said, “We are pleased the membership of USW Local 878L has voted to support the tentative agreement. The change is in response to continued lower demand for consumer passenger and light truck tires and current economic conditions.”
“We will now begin work to implement the agreement and continue to drive improvement activities for our operations,” said Union City plant manager Todd Turner.
Goodyear-Union City currently employs about 2,600 team members, according to Cagle.
The terms of the proposal state under Phase 1 of the agreement that the plant has the right to make an initial ticket reduction and/or conversion to a five-day conventional schedule. Goodyear-Union City announced last week the plant plans to move its production schedule to three eight-hour shifts, five days a week — Monday through Friday — on July 6 after the July 4 holiday shutdown.
The plant issued a 60-day notice of possible intentions to move to an eight-hour conventional production schedule in February. Currently, Goodyear operates seven days a week, 24 hours a day on 12-hour shifts.
Included in Phase 1 of the agreement is the buyout of 600 Goodyear associates, including 60 technical maintenance by classification, at $3,000 per year of service with no cap. Those eligible under a Phase 1 buyout include associates with a minimum six months of service.
Under the agreement, “Employees on Occupational/Non-Occupational Leave of Absence or on layoff will be offered buyouts only in Phase 1 and only if an insufficient number of buyouts have been accepted after they have been offered to all other employees.”
Goodyear associates will have the option of accepting buyouts at $3,000 per year of service or being placed on layoff with existing rights and benefits under Phase 1, according to the agreement.
As an incentive to senior associates between the ages of 53 and 55 with at least 28 years of service as of June 1 of this year who choose the buyout during Phase 1 may elect voluntary layoff and may remain on layoff status without recall rights until they reach the necessary retirement criteria of age 55 and 30 years of service. They will then be required to retire under the terms of the Pension, Insurance and Service Award Agreements in effect at that time as highlighted in the buyout proposal.
The agreement also stipulates Phase 2 criteria in the event subsequent ticket reductions are made at the Goodyear plant prior to announced plant closure.
Under Phase 2 of the agreement, 400 buyouts would be offered at $2,000 for each year of service at the plant, with no cap.
Phase 3 of the agreement states that in the event of an announced plant closure, employees who did not leave during Phases 1 or 2 would have the option of accepting a $25,000 lump sum one-time payment or preferential hire rights, SUB and SIC pays, as well as medical and other benefits according to plant closure provisions of the Pension and Insurance Agreement.
Any associate who opts to take a layoff during Phase 2 or 3 of the agreement will be eligible to receive $250 a week for a maximum of 84 weeks. According to the agreement, buyouts will be paid as a lump sum after the associate’s exit and will be subject to federal, state or local payroll taxes including a deduction of Union dues.
A reduced demand for replacement tires coupled with declining auto sales have impacted production at several Goodyear plants during the course of the last 12 months.
In August 2008, four North American Goodyear tire plants announced reduced consumer tire production by 8 million tires last year. Goodyear-Union City was among the four plants who experienced three production shutdowns during the last quarter of 2008 as a result of a declining passenger tire market.
USW Local 831 approved a similar buyout agreement with Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. at its plant in Danville, Va., earlier this year.
The Danville plant reduced its production schedule from a 12-hour continuous operation to an eight-hour five-day-a-week schedule in late March, according to The Danville Register & Bee. Goodyear-Danville reportedly offered 200 buy outs at $2,000 per year of service with a cap at $40,000.
Clint Smith, corporate support communications manager in Goodyear’s global communications organization in Akron, has been named to replace Cagle.
