USW Strikes Goodyear

PITTSBURGH--News From USW: The United Steelworkers (USW) announced that it struck Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company beginning at 1:00 p.m. EDT, October 5, 2006. The USW delivered the required 72-hour notice to terminate the contract on Monday. Both sides had been working on a day-to-day extension agreement signed in July that extended a three-year pact.

"The company left us with no option," said USW executive vice president Ron Hoover. "We cannot allow additional plant closures after the sacrifices we made three years ago to help this company survive."

In the 2003 agreement, the USW agreed to a closure of the Huntsville, Ala. facility as well as providing Goodyear with additional financial flexibility by accepting wage, pension and health care cuts.

"We worked very hard with the company in 2003 to deal with a difficult situation," said Hoover. "While more work can be done, Goodyear has rebounded and other stakeholders have been rewarded accordingly. Now the Company seems determined to only take more away from our members."

The strike will impact 15,000 USW members and operations at 16 plants in the United States and Canada.

"Closing more plants would not only cause additional job losses and devastate the communities where the operations would cease, but it would also threaten the long-term viability of Goodyear," said Hoover. "You can't build long-term, viability by continuing to give up market share."

The USW represents more than 850,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada. Some 70,000 are employed in the tire and rubber industry.