Goodyear, union agree to extension

The Gadsden Times, August 12, 2009

 

For the second time, the contract between the United Steelworkers and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has been extended — this time for 14 days, according to company and union officials.

The contract had been set to expire at 10:59 p.m. CDT Saturday. With the extension, the contract now will expire at 10:59 p.m. CDT on Aug. 29.

The talks continue in Cincinnati.

“We have made progress on some of the significant issues,” said Jim Allen, Goodyear’s chief negotiator. “We recognize that we need the additional time to work through the remaining issues, and we remain confident that a satisfactory agreement will be reached.”

A statement by the union on its Web site said “sufficient movement over the past two weeks prompted both sides to agree to the extension, as an agreement could not be reached by the August 15, 2009, deadline.”

Contract talks began June 8.

The contract covers approximately 10,300 Goodyear associates in the U.S., including plants in Gadsden; Akron, Ohio; Buffalo, N.Y.; Danville, Va.; Fayetteville, N.C.; Topeka, Kan.; and Union City, Tenn.

United Steelworkers Local 12 Vice President Bren Riley said Wednesday afternoon he was informed of the extension by USW Local 12 President David Hayes, who is participating in the contract talks.

Riley said he was encouraged by the extension and said it shows “both sides think there is an agreement out there.”

Goodyear has said key issues in the new contract are productivity and flexibility and pensions and benefit issues.

Hayes said in April that key issues for the union would be job security, improving wages and benefits and improving the wages of new hires at the plant.

During the last contract talks in 2006, the contract was scheduled to end in July but was extended on a day-to-day basis. Talks continued until October, when the union went out on strike for almost three months before an agreement was reached in late December.

According to the USW Web site concerning the contract talks, votes have been completed at all locals with 98.5 percent of the membership authorizing a strike if necessary.

Goodyear To Close Philippines Tire Plant, To Cut 500 Jobs - Update

RTT News, July 17, 2009

Friday, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (GT: News ) said it will close its tire plant in the Philippines, citing higher costs, which will resulting in a reduction of approximately 500 . of the company's 600 associates in the country. The company also said it expects to record a closure-related charge in the third quarter. The action, as part of a strategy to address uncompetitive manufacturing capacity globally, is expected to be completed by the end of the third quarter.

The company noted that its sales and marketing operations in the country are not affected.

The Akron, Ohio-based tire manufacturer said that the closure of the plant in Las Pinas will result in the reduction of nearly two million units of annual production capacity. Goodyear's strategy is to remove 15 million to 25 million units of capacity over the next two years. Production will be transferred to lower-cost plants in the company's Asia-Pacific Region. In Philippines, Goodyear has had a presence since 1919, and the Las Pinas plant was opened in 1956.

In addition, the company said it plans to record approximately $20 million in charges associated with the closure in the third quarter of 2009, principally for non-cash asset write offs.

Pierre Cohade, president of Goodyear's Asia-Pacific Region, stated, "Due to high costs compared to other plants in the region, tires produced in the Las Pinas plant are not competitive in the marketplace. Goodyear is committed to its business in the Philippines as well as continuous product innovation, and intends to maintain its market leadership through aggressive marketing, excellent customer service and superior products. This action will, in no way, disrupt our service to wholesale, retail and original equipment customers."

In late May, Goodyear had said that it would discontinue consumer tire production at a plant in Amiens, France, which would result in reducing about 820 jobs, as part of its strategy to reduce high-cost manufacturing capacity. The closure was due to the plant's uncompetitive costs. The production cease would result in reduction of about 6 million units of production.

While, in June, Goodyear announced that it would move its consumer tire plant in Union City, from a continuous operating schedule to a five-day, three-shift operation on July 6. The Union City plant can produce about 12 million consumer tires a year for the original equipment and replacement markets and currently employs about 2,300 associates.

Goodyear, Steelworkers extend contract 4 weeks

WRAL.COM July 14, 2009

AKRON, Ohio — Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and the United Steelworkers of America have extended their national contract four weeks until Aug. 15, both sides said Tuesday.

The three-year contract covering about 10,300 Steelworkers at seven Goodyear plants in the U.S. had been scheduled to expire Saturday. The extension was announced by the company in an e-mail statement. The union's contract Web site also detailed the move.

The Steelworkers said job security would overshadow other issues in contract talks covering workers in Akron; Buffalo, N.Y.; Danville, Va.; Fayetteville, N.C.; Gadsden, Ala.; Topeka, Kan., and Union City, Tenn.

All terms of the current agreement will remain in force with the extension, the union said.

Contract talks, which began last month, continue in Cincinnati.

Progress "remains slow," according to the union's bargaining committee's Web site. Still, the union "believes we can reach a new labor agreement before Aug. 15, 2009 that is fair and equitable to all of our members," the Web site said.

Goodyear said it was confident an agreement could be reached, but didn't specify when.
"We remain confident that we will reach an agreement that is acceptable to both sides," Jim Allen, Goodyear's chief negotiator, said in a statement released by the Akron-based company.

Goodyear, Steelworkers Bargain During Tough Economy

The Buffalo News, June 23, 2009

Contract negotiations will affect local tire plant in Tonawanda, which has over 900 hourly workers

Goodyear Tire & Rubber and the United Steelworkers are negotiating a new contract — talks that will have a local impact.

The Goodyear Dunlop Tires North America plant on Sheridan Drive in the Town of Tonawanda is one of seven U. S. facilities covered by the bargaining, with a combined total of 10,300 workers. The current three-year labor agreement expires July 18.

The local plant makes tires for passenger cars, commercial trucks and motorcycles. It has already has felt the effects of the economic downturn and the company’s push to reduce costs, cutting almost 150 jobs late last year through buyouts and layoffs.

The existing national agreement did not come about easily. In 2006, the Steelworkers went on strike for three months before approving a deal. This time, the two sides are bargaining amid a recession, with auto sales stuck in a slump.

Wayne Ranick, a spokesman for the Pittsburgh-based Steelworkers, said he believes the talks will go more smoothly this time.

A major point of contention, involving retiree health care, was resolved in the last round of talks, he said, and both sides are cognizant of the current economic climate.

Ranick said the union’s priorities are jobs and keeping the plants operating, along with ensuring adequate capital investment in the facilities. “That sort of all goes together,” he said.
Goodyear says it has to control costs so that the company remains competitive in a global marketplace. The tire maker identifies four key issues in the talks: productivity, flexibility, pensions and benefits.

By flexibility, the company says it means its plants “must have workers in the right place, at the right time, producing the right products at the right cost.”

Goodyear in December 2008 froze its defined pension benefit plans for its U. S. salaried workers, but not its hourly workers. It says its pension plans are “significantly underfunded,” following declines in interest rates and pension asset values.

In remarks to the bargaining teams at the start of talks in Cincinnati, Goodyear executive Rich Kramer cited the economic climate and the fact that the company’s North American business lost $189 million in the first quarter as major challenges.

Kramer, who is chief operating officer and president of North American Tire, said Goodyear’s goal is “profitable growth by building tires in North America.” The company will never be the low-cost manufacturer of tires, he said, so it must find ways to improve efficiency.

The Tonawanda tire plant has 948 hourly workers represented by the Steelworkers, along with 152 salaried workers, said Diane Zwirecki, a spokeswoman at the plant. An additional 40 salaried employees work at offices in Amherst, for a combined work force of 1,140.

The manufacturing plant produces an average of 5,500 motorcycle tires, 4,200 passenger tires and 2,000 truck tires per day, Zwirecki said.

USW at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s Akron Technical Center Approves Buyouts

Cleveland Ohio Business News, June 11, 2009

Members of the United Steelworkers union who make racing tires at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s Akron Technical Center have agreed to buyouts for 120 workers there, USW Local 2L reported Wednesday.

The local's 440 members voted on the new staffing level. The vote also affirmed an agreement with the tire maker to preserve 256 USW jobs at the tech center for 2½ more years.

"We will keep the manufacturing staff level at that level through 2012," Goodyear spokesman Ed Markey said.

Union workers who accept the buyout would receive $2,000 for every year of service, to a maximum of $40,000. The local said about 130 of the members eligible for buyouts are of retirement age. If fewer than 120 union members accept the buyout, Goodyear can lay off enough workers to make up the difference, Markey said. He said the buyouts have no effect on engineering and other salaried employees at the tech center.

Some union personnel argued that approval of the agreement could open the door for the company to move its rubber-production operations to Buffalo, N.Y. The company declined to comment on such a possibility.

'Typical' Start to Goodyear Contract Talks

Akron Beacon Journal, June 9, 2009

Goodyear wants to remain a viable company.

The Steelworkers want to make sure their members have jobs.

That basically sums up the opening presentations Monday in Cincinnati between Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and the United Steelworkers as contract negotiations began in earnest, according to a union official. The current three-year contract expires July 18.

Rich Kramer, Goodyear's new chief operating officer and president of the North American Tire division, spoke to the group, as did Tom Conway, who is leading the negotiations for the Steelworkers.

Goodyear released a short excerpt from Kramer's presentation.

"I believe our new agreement will be a reflection of our shared interests and our mutual desire to make Goodyear the best-performing tire company in North America and the model for success in these uncertain times. . .a model others will look to as an example of how to win with manufacturing right here at home," Kramer said.

"Our future together won't look like the past. Our present doesn't even look like the past. But our vision should be the same. The goal of this negotiation is to reach an agreement that is consistent with the new realities of our industry and outlines the actions that we -- Goodyear and the USW under one banner -- must take to win," he said.

"At this point, we're looking for job security," said Kevin Johnsen, the union's Goodyear contract negotiator.

Johnsen said it was a "typical" opening day for master contract talks that had both sides exchanging comprehensive proposals and meeting face to face for several hours.
The next face-to-face meeting will take place in a number of days, once each side has had enough time to review the proposals, Johnsen said.

The Steelworkers have about 10,300 union members working at seven U.S. plants, including about 440 members in Akron.

The union went on strike in the fall of 2006 for 12 weeks. The strike ended in late December after the Akron tire maker and union agreed to create an independent health-care trust, called a VEBA, for union retirees.

USW Talks Begin

Rubber & Plastics News, June 1, 2009

Initial bargaining sessions for the 2009 tire industry master contracts are set to begin this week.

United Steelworkers negotiating committees will start talks June 1 in Cincinnati with representatives of Goodyear and in Lexington, Ky., with Michelin North America Inc.'s BFGoodrich unit. A week later on June 8, contract discussions will begin in Louisville, Ky., between the USW and Bridgestone Americas.

The current BFG and Bridgestone contracts, covering about 3,200 and 4,500 workers, respectively, expire July 18. The Goodyear pact, covering about 11,500 workers, lapses July 22.

The Pittsburgh-based USW said it will emphasize job and plant security, investments at unionized plants, retiree benefits, tiered wage scales and health safety in this year's negotiations. Michelin announced in April it will close sometime this fall its Opelika, Ala., tire plant, one of three sites in the BFG chain where the USW represents the hourly workers.