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Goodyear Strikers Take Struggle to a Store Near You |
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Striking Goodyear workers took their struggle for justice to the front doors of the tire makers’ stores this past weekend.
The 15,000 members of the United Steelworkers (USW) were forced out on strike after the company refused to budge on its demands to close a manufacturing plant in Tyler, Texas, and to cut back on retiree benefits.
Over the weekend, the USW kicked off an international effort to educate the public about the ongoing labor dispute at 15 North American Goodyear plants.
Striking workers and their supporters rallied and handed out informational fliers at Goodyear stores in 14 cities in the United States and Canada, including Akron, Ohio, and Toronto, headquarters for the company’s U.S. and Canadian operations. Talks between the two sides broke off Friday, and no new talks are scheduled.
In 2003, workers accepted wide-ranging concessions on wages, pensions and health care, and made the difficult decision to allow the closure of one tire-making plant. The company promised the workers job security. However, after posting its highest profits in seven years in 2005, Goodyear gave top executives large bonuses and early this year announced the closure of the Tyler plant (with elimination of 1,100 jobs) and the pension cutbacks.
About three weeks ago, Goodyear hired replacement workers to make tires in the struck plants. In another insult to workers, management borrowed $1 billion to fight the strike, a move that bond rating companies today said was foolhardy.
USW President Leo Gerard, who predicts a long strike, says:
Given Goodyear’s strategy of wagering $5 million a day—over $230 million to date—on a confrontation with the Steelworkers that it cannot win, it seems that company management has now decided to “put the pedal to the metal” in its race to drive itself over a financial cliff. I only hope for their sake that they are at least driving on union-made tires. It is now up to the company’s owners to step forward and stop this madness.
Last week, the AFL-CIO Executive Council passed a resolution supporting the strikers. It condemns the tire maker’s abandonment of U.S. manufacturing, workers and communities and its assault on the health security of its workers and retirees. The resolution calls for a nationwide Day of Action to protest Goodyear’s assault on the economic security and basic rights of working families and USW members, as well as current and future retirees.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says the attempt by Goodyear:
to slash wages and benefits for its workers while awarding executives with multimillion dollar bonuses is obscene The 10 million members of the AFL-CIO will stand behind the Goodyear workers 100 percent.
Meanwhile, Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts says his union supports the Goodyear workers “100 percent”:
We in the UMWA know what it means for companies to make promises to workers and then try to go back on their word. It’s an all-too-familiar pattern of corporate behavior in this day and age. But that does not make it right, and we’re proud to stand with the USW to let this multinational corporation know that they cannot treat American workers with such disregard.
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[...] Goodyear Strikers Take Struggle to a Store Near You Striking Goodyear workers took their struggle for justice to the front doors of the tire makers’ stores this past weekend. The 15,000 members of the United Steelworkers (USW) were forced out on strike after the company refused to budge on its demands to close a manufacturing plant in Tyler, Texas, and to cut back on retiree benefits. [...]