BY BETSY FARLEY
GADSDEN, Alabama - After nearly three weeks on strike, more than 12,500 rubber workers, members of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), voted to approve a new contract with Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. The agreement, which extends until the year 2003, will now set the pattern for the industry.

Provisions in the six-year contract include an increase in hourly wages of 29 cents Jan. 1, 1998, and 35 cents the following year, and no takebacks in the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) won by the union in past battles. Pension benefits will also increase, providing $1,520 per month for those who retire at age 55 with 30 years of service.

Workers at three Kelly Springfield plants - a subsidiary of Goodyear - will be included in the contract reopener after three years, although not in the master agreement. The union had pushed for a common expiration date of contracts at all Goodyear-owned facilities. The Kelly Springfield workers also voted to approve a new 6-year agreement on May 8.

"At least we'll all be together and the company won't be able to use us against each other," said Donald Hill, a bead builder with 32 years at the Gadsden plant.

But some workers are not so satisfied with the two-tier wage scale the new contract introduces for the first time. "We held the cost of living and got a small raise," explained Philip Ashby, a worker at the Danville, Virginia, plant. "But I don't think it's right that a new worker beside me doing the same job won't get the same pay as I do for three years."

New hires will start at 70 percent of the full wage and will not reach parity with senior workers for three years.

The company was able to keep language prohibiting continuous operation of its plants out of the contract, opening the door to work schedules being changed on a plant- by-plant basis.

Continuous operation, while more profitable for the company, means longer hours and irregular schedules for workers. At the Gadsden plant, workers have been on 12-hour shifts for some time.

"I hate the 12-hour schedule," said Gene Miller, a tire curer at the Gadsden facility. "We're not getting much in this contract, but we're not really losing much either. We definitely did better than if we hadn't gone on strike," he continued.

While the company attempted to maintain limited production with supervisory personnel during the strike, virtually no union members crossed the picket lines. And Goodyear had not been able to stockpile to prepare for the strike.

"I feel it is good because we held our own," explained Danville worker Harry Hughes. "The company wanted to impose a Bridgestone/Firestone contract but they didn't get it." A major competitor of Goodyear, Bridgestone/Firestone was able to achieve lower labor costs after a 10-month strike and 19 months of a consumer boycott led by the USWA International.

Union members began returning to work on May 10 at the nine striking Goodyear plants in Alabama, Kansas, Ohio, Nebraska, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin, as well as the Kelly Springfield plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Betsy Farley is a member of USWA Local 12014 in Birmingham, Alabama. Jim Rogers, a member of Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees Local 294-T in Eden, North Carolina, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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