USW Workers Ratify Goodyear Contract Covering 10,300 Workers

by James Parks, Sep 21, 2009

The United Steelworkers (USW) announced that workers overwhelmingly ratified a new four-year agreement covering some 10,300 union members at seven Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. plants. The new pact provides job security and maintains quality, affordable health care for the union members.

The agreement also protects six of the seven plants from closure during the term of the agreement and provides for minimum staffing levels. As part of the deal, Goodyear committed to invest $600 million in capital expenditures in the plants, keeping them up to date and globally competitive.

USW President Leo Gerard said:

During this difficult economic period, this contract gives our members job security for the next four years.

The deal comes a few days after President Obama backed America’s workers and U.S. manufacturing by providing relief to the domestic consumer tire industry in response to surging exports of tires from China.

USW Vice President Tom Conway, chairman of the Goodyear bargaining committee, says the Goodyear contract and the China tire decision are connected.

There never was any doubt that tire imports from China have injured domestic production workers. We’ve had six tire plants employing 7,000 workers shut down because of the tire import surge from China.

The six plants are located in: Akron, Ohio; Gadsden, Ala.; Buffalo, N.Y.; Topeka, Kan.; Danville, Va.; and Fayetteville, N.C. Another plant in Union City, Tenn., was severely impacted by the deluge of cheap tires from China, and a local agreement negotiated by USW provides for up to 600 workers to receive buyouts. The Union City plant is one of the plants that stands to benefit from Obama’s action if the market returns to previous demand, according to the USW. 

A Goodyear plant in Tyler, Texas, closed more than a year ago, a victim of the cheap, imported tires from China, the union said.

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