Workers picketing the Goodyear plant here October 7 were eager to explain their strike. Nearly 1,000 members of the United Steelworkers union are employed here.

“This company wants to cut our wages and do away with retiree medical benefits,” said Bobby Womack, a tire builder with 38 years in the plant. “We had no choice. We had to strike.” Womack is a veteran of strikes here in 1971 and 1976.

“They are talking about closing this plant,” said Rodney Smiley, a tire builder with 11 years’ service. “After what we gave up last time, we can’t afford to let this go without a fight.”

In 2003, Goodyear threatened bankruptcy to force through union concessions. The United Steelworkers did not go on strike and agreed to the closure of a plant in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as wage, pension, and health-care cuts.

Today the company, arguing it must offset competition from rivals abroad, is pressing to make further wage and benefit cuts and to close its plants in Tyler and in Gadsden, Alabama.

Goodyear, based in Akron, Ohio, ranks number three in world tire sales, after rival monopolies Bridgestone and Michelin. Last year the company, with more than 100 plants in 29 countries, had sales of $19.5 billion.

Roy Brown, a trucker with nine years supplying machine components, said, “We have to stand together. We can’t give in just because the company wants to make even more money.”

“It’s not just us at stake here,” added Larry Burns, another trucker. “We can’t let them get away with this.”

Striker William Brown said, “We are picketing around the clock, seven days a week. And we’ll be here until we get the contract we need.” He welcomed county workers joining the line in solidarity, waving at cars that honked in support of the pickets.

Other working people in the area have brought donations of food and sodas to the picket tent in front of the plant. “We need all the support we can get,” said Brown.

Goodyear has said it is continuing production at nonunion plants in Lawton, Oklahoma, and Napanee, Ontario, and is using management personnel at union plants.

Anthony Dutrow contributed to this article.
 

Waneta Bales, who retired in 1999 and was among several retirees on the picket line, said she pays $50 a month for health insurance. The company wants to raise the premium for retirees to $300 a month.

The last strike against Goodyear, lasting three weeks, was in 1997. In 2003 the union made concessions in face of Goodyear’s bankruptcy threat, said Gary Schaefer, vice president of United Steelworkers Local 286. Now, however, the workforce of 560 is 300 fewer than it was in 2004. Workers report that almost everyone on the production line is 40 years or older. Some 30 percent of the workforce is female.

Edwin Fruit is a packinghouse worker and member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1149 in Perry, Iowa. Joe Swanson contributed to this article.
 

On the picket line here, United Steelworkers Local 13571 chairperson Mike Loftus said the bosses want to “take about Can$2.50 an hour off our wages [US$2.21], and they are after our cost-of-living clause.” He said the company is also trying to “break the bargaining chain.” The contract for all the North American plants expired July 22.

During a visit to the picket lines, about 15 strikers held up tractor trailers for about 25 minutes each, as specially hired company security guards watched.

“They’ve brought in special drivers to empty the warehouse,” said Loftus. In 2003 the unionists here organized a three-day “wildcat” strike and defeated company efforts to victimize a number of workers.
 
 
Related articles:
On the Picket Line
Scotland garment workers strike for wage increase
Germany: phone workers protest plant closure  
 
 
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