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Join Goodyear Workers in Day of Action |
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This weekend, hundreds of striking Goodyear workers and their supporters plan to set the record straight about what’s really happening at the giant tire maker. On Dec. 16, the United Steelworkers (USW) members are holding a National Day of Action, when they will hand out leaflets at 127 stores across the country that sell Goodyear tires.
The Dec. 16 action will highlight the key issues in the strike, issues that matter to every working person: retirement benefits and job security. Some 15,000 USW members were forced out on strike Oct. 5 after the company refused to budge on its demand to close its Tyler, Texas, plant. In addition, Goodyear wants to abandon its obligation to provide health care benefits for retirees by making a one-time payment to a fund that would provide inferior benefits.
The action also will point out how workers came to Goodyear’s aid several years ago by taking wage and benefit freezes when the company experienced financial hardship. Now that Goodyear is making a profit, Goodyear is walking away from its promises of job—never mind the company achieved profitability in part through workers’ givebacks.
The Tyler closing, affecting 1,100 workers, would be Goodyear’s third U.S. plant to shut down in four years. At the same time, the giant tire maker is increasing tire imports from factories in countries such as China that pay workers 42 cents an hour. In the past two years alone, Goodyear has invested $18 million in a plant in China and is increasing production there to 5.3 million tires a year.
You can show your support for the Goodyear workers and their struggle by joining in a National Day of Action event. To find an event near you, click here.
The National Day of Action follows a weeklong Solidarity Tour by members of the USW bargaining team at Goodyear to striking plants across the country.
USW Vice President Tom Conway says the tour showed that workers “clearly understand what’s at stake for them and they demonstrated their commitment to win this fight.
It’s really time for Goodyear to step up and stop this foolishness. How long is this company going to waste money by paying replacement workers to sweep floors and paint the plant?
Goodyear needs to acknowledge its health care obligations and return to the bargaining table with responsible proposals.
Strikers are gaining support across North America for their struggle. In addition to the thousands of U.S. workers, AFL-CIO and affiliated unions backing the strike, Canadian unions have joined in sympathy strikes and are asking consumers not to buy Goodyear tires until the strike is settled fairly.
The USW also announced it is giving striking Goodyear workers a holiday bonus of $100 from the strike fund. The bonus also will be extended to other USW members on strike over the holidays.
Three years ago, union workers at Goodyear agreed to freeze their wages and to freeze pensions for the first two years of the contracts. They also agreed to pay medical premiums for the first time, gave the company work rule changes permitting job consolidations for increased productivity and accepted the closure of one plant.
In return for the givebacks, the company promised the workers job security. Those givebacks allowed the company to return to profitability for the first time since 2000 and its stock has rebounded from $4 per share in 2003 to more than $16 today. Last year, CEO Robert Keegan pocketed salary and stock options worth more than $7 million. But now that the workers are seeking their fair share of the profits they helped create, management is closing the door on the very people they called their partners three years ago by demanding even bigger givebacks.
Two months 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 and another $1 billion in unsecured notes. Wall Street investors scooped up all the
bonds within hours, showing once again that Big Business cares more about the bottom line than the lives and welfare of the people who create the profits.
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