News From USW: Dealers Report Trouble with Continental Tire

PITTSBURGH--News From USW: The United Steelworkers recently released a report documenting the results of interviews with 376 tire dealers across the country selling Continental and General brand tires. The report, "Trouble with Tire Dealers," was mailed out to over 1,300 tire dealers selling Continental tires.

Of the 376 dealerships visited, about half - 179 - reported serious trouble with the company. Numerically, the most frequent complaints issued by dealers dealt with poor marketing and low demand; 75 tire dealers named "Low Demand" as their chief complaint. But the most energetic complaints dealt with supply trouble. Many of the 59 dealers reporting poor fill rates and other supply problems indicated that they were considering dropping Continental tires altogether.

USW officials say the report confirms the union's predications that the company's ideologically driven cessation of tire production at unionized facilities in the US would lead to supply shortages and trouble with tire dealers. Continental Tire of North America permanently shut down its tire production facility in Mayfield, Kentucky in 2006 and stopped tire production at its facility in Charlotte, North Carolina later that year. "Not only did the company devastate two communities in its move to run away from unions in the US, but it's also destroying its relationship with tire dealers," said Mark Cieslikowski, President of USW Local 850 in Charlotte.

Copies of the report are available online at www.SolidarityAtConti.org (http://www.solidarityatconti.org/). Also available on the campaign website are copies of campaign leaflets and flyers, a narrative of Continental's attack on working families, letters to tire dealers and investors, and statements of support from elected officials around the country.