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   Vol.64/No.34            September 11, 2000 
 
 
Deadly Firestone tires point to profit drive
 
BY RAY PARSONS  
DES MOINES, Iowa--The Bridgestone/Firestone tire giant is embroiled in what has become a mushrooming scandal over faulty tires that tear apart and cause deadly accidents. By the latest count, 62 deaths and 100 injuries have resulted from crashes of vehicles, largely involving Ford Explorers using Firestone tires.

In early August an increasing number of deaths and injuries from rollover crashes of Ford pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles equipped with Firestone ATX, ATXII, and Wilderness AT tires came to light in daily media reports. The tires' tread separates from the body of the tire, with tragic results at highway speed.

The problem was exposed much earlier when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation May 2.

Since the moment the revelations became widely publicized, Firestone and Ford have pointed the finger of blame at each other. Firestone initially defended the quality of their tires and delayed a replacement recall. The company finally issued a piecemeal recall August 9.

Four days later, Ford announced that, according to its statistical analysis of the defective tires, most were produced by replacement workers at the Decatur, Illinois, Bridgestone/Firestone plant during a 1994-95 strike. The report was designed to further distance the automaker from liability in the car crash lawsuits--especially around their rollover-prone SUVs--that are multiplying with each passing day. It also attempted to put the blame on a section of the workers at the tire company.

Bridgestone/Firestone claimed that Ford advised vehicle owners to inflate the tires to only 26 pounds per square inch of pressure, off from the 30 pounds recommended by the tire maker. An August 20 news report exposed an internal Ford document admitting that the Ford Explorer was at risk for rollover when tires were inflated at the higher pressure.

In fact, the two companies work together in the design and testing of tires as new vehicles are developed. In a report in the May 22 Rubber and Plastics News, an industry magazine, Dick Baumgardner, a former Firestone employee and now an "expert witness" in product liability lawsuits, said that automakers commonly ask for changes in specifications to meet various requirements. "I think they stripped this [tire] down too far," he said.

Early reports attempting to blame replacement workers in the Decatur plant during the strike have spurred much discussion among workers on the job at Bridgestone/Firestone. Some veterans of the 1994-95 strike have latched on to these reports, blaming strikebreakers as "unqualified" and the sole source of the defective tires.

Other workers say the faulty tires are a product of the continual cost-cutting and speedup Bridgestone/Firestone bosses carry out in the design of tires, the materials used, the tire-making process, and quality inspection. They point to their own experiences of deteriorating working conditions, 12-hour shifts, assembly speedup, and other attempts to squeeze more work out of them as a key factor that leads to such deadly results.

United Steelworkers of America (USWA) officials, particularly in Decatur, have tried to rally union members to back the company through defending the overall quality of the product.

The recall of the tires implicated in dozens of deaths and injuries is growing to enormous proportions, with 6.5 million being recalled. Bridgestone/Firestone has agreed to pay for tires made by its competitors to be used as replacements. On August 21 Ford announced the extraordinary step of idling three truck assembly plants for two weeks in order to free up 70,000 tires for use as recall replacements.

Meanwhile, the USWA has given a 14-day notice to strike at Bridgestone/Firestone if contract talks fail to reach an agreement. The negotiations affect 8,000 rubber workers at nine plants across the country who have been working for months under an extension of previous contracts (see accompanying article).

Ray Parsons is a member of United Steelworkers of America Local 310 at Bridge-stone/Firestone in Des Moines.  
 
 
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