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Steelworkers Temporarily Postpone Strike at Bridgestone/Firestone

4 September 2000

Steelworkers Temporarily Postpone Strike at Bridgestone/Firestone; Members Remain on Standby Pending Direction of Continuing Negotiations

    ST. LOUIS, Sept. 2 United Steelworkers of America
President George Becker announced this evening that union members at nine
Bridgestone/Firestone plants will not go on strike when their agreements
expire at 12:01 a.m., but will remain poised to do so pending the direction of
continuing negotiations.
    "We do not have an agreement with Bridgestone/Firestone, and we will not
have an agreement by the 12:01 deadline," Becker said.  "Key elements of a
settlement are yet to be resolved, and much drafting will remain if and when
an agreement in principle is reached."
    "But we have made enough progress over the past two days that the union is
willing to continue working while bargaining goes on," Becker said.
    "There will be no formal contract extension, but our members at all plants
will continue working under the terms and conditions of their expired contract
while we see if we can reach an agreement," he said.
    Union negotiators stressed that members will be working day to day, and
will not indefinitely postpone a strike.
    "This will not be a long-term process," said John Sellers, USWA executive
vice president and chair of the union's negotiating team.
    "We will either have an agreement with Bridgestone/Firestone in very short
order, or we will have a labor dispute," he said.
    "The ball is now in the company's court," Becker added.
    "The union has wanted an agreement all along, and that's still our hope.
Now it's up to the company whether they will meet our members' needs," he
said